2019: The Church as Politics
WHEN/WHERE
The 2019 Gathering took place at Techny Towers in Northbrook, Il from July 11-13.
THEME
The Ekklesia Project began twenty years ago as an attempt to foster a network of friendships among communities that see the church as a politics, not merely as a social body that might choose to be involved in politics. The church as politics means rather than trying to make the church relevant to social issues of the day, as defined by the actions of the state, we practice faithfulness to the gospel by gathering through grace as Christ’s Body, knowing that our doing that is the greatest service we can offer to the world. We practice a politics of peace that is centered on Christ, not merely on support for elected officials whose positions are somewhat less repugnant.
Recently, political developments have drawn our attention back to our fundamental commitments. The rise of nationalism and the ascendance of populist figures, the widespread employment of racial and ethnic fears and grievances, attacks on governmental, judicial, journalistic and scientific institutions, and the increasing vulnerability of migrants, refugees and all displaced people – all these have encouraged us to examine just what God is calling us to do What do our practices of church as politics look like, in our various communities? What are our relationships to the US government, as providing some sort of rule of law? What is our relationship to the US government when its laws are unjust? How do we support fellow Christians in other places who are struggling to establish sufficient rule of law for them to live? How and when do we confront the abuses of Christian language in the US, in service to the violence of the state?
We envision this gathering as a time to reconnect to the core of our mission and gather from each other insights into how to continue. We hope, once again “to challenge ourselves and the Church to resist accommodation to America and analogous temptations globally. We humbly seek to be used by God so that together, as the Body of Christ, we might become more of what God has called us to be.” (Ekklesia Project website, “Who We Are”)
RESOURCES
Available audio recordings may be found below. Some audio was edited for time and context. A full list of all audio files from this and previous Gatherings can be found on our Podbean channel. We also have the audio files available on our youtube channel.
View photos from the Gathering.