Micah Challenge...what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God Micah 6:8 www.micahchallenge.org
Micah Challenge A global Christian campaign that will raise a prophetic and powerful voice with the poor. Facilitated jointly by the World Evangelical Alliance and the Micah Network
Aims To deepen Christian engagement with the poor To influence leaders of rich and poor nations to fulfil their public promise to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and so halve absolute global poverty by 2015.
Micah Call This is a moment in history of unique potential, when the stated intentions of world leaders echo something of the mind of the Biblical prophets and the teachings of Jesus concerning the poor, and when we have the means to dramatically reduce poverty. We commit ourselves, as followers of Jesus, to work together for the holistic transformation of our communities, to pursue justice, be passionate about kindness, and to walk humbly with God. We call on international and national decision-makers of both rich and poor nations to fulfil their public promise to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and so halve absolute global poverty by 2015. We call on Christians everywhere to be agents of hope for and with the poor, and to work with others to hold our national and global leaders accountable in securing a more just and merciful world.
Integral Mission Integral mission or holistic transformation is the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel. It is not simply that evangelism and social involvement are to be done alongside each other. Rather, in integral mission our proclamation has social consequences as we call people to love and repentance in all areas of life. And our social involvement has evangelistic consequences as we bear witness to the transforming grace of Jesus Christ. If we ignore the world we betray the word of God which sends us out to serve the world. If we ignore the word of God we have nothing to bring to the world. Justice and justification by faith, worship and political action, the spiritual and the material, personal change and structural change belong together. As in the life of Jesus, being, doing and saying are at the heart of our integral task. Excerpt form the Micah Network Declaration on Integral Mission, Oxford 2001
Advocacy seeking with, and on behalf of, the poor, to address the underlying causes of poverty by influencing the decisions of governments, companies, groups and individuals whose policies or actions affect the poor Speaking for/acting for/defending someone/or something..before someone else Proposing/promoting/or suggesting something to someone May involve lobbying, media work, prayer..
Jubilee 2000 Advocacy making a difference to the world s poor In 1996 people in Africa owed more in international debt than their annual income Drawing on the biblical idea of jubilee (Lev 25, Deut. 15), the Jubilee 2000 campaign called for a debt-free start to the millennium for a billion people In just four years, the Jubilee 2000 movement persuaded the world s most powerful leaders to write off $100 million of debt and free up new resources for poverty reduction in debtor nations (Plus broader gains) More than 24 million people signed the Jubilee 2000 Debt campaign petition, and it has been estimated that for each signature more than 4,000 of debt was cancelled Mozambique was able to introduce a free immunisation programme for children and primary school fees were abolished in Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi. Reference Graham Gordon
Integral Mission and Advocacy 1 ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN LEADER NATIONAL / GLOBAL ISSUE 4 NATIONAL / GLOBAL CAMPAIGN EXPERIENCE 2 REGIONAL / NATIONAL SOCIAL ISSUE / IN COALITION Y 5 PROCLAMATION ONLY PRAGMATIC EVANGELICAL REGIONAL ISSUE IN PRAGMATIC ECUMENICAL LIBERATION THEOLOGY WORD TRADITIONAL EVANGELICAL 3 X SOCIAL TRANSFORM N ECUMENICAL COALITION LOCAL SOCIAL ISSUE ADVOCACY / COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT 6 TRADITIONAL ECUMENICAL DEED LOCAL CHURCH ISSUE ADVOCACY / WELFARE NO ADVOCACY NO POLITICAL ADVOCACY / WORD ONLY OUTREACH
Micah Network A network of more than 270 Christian organisations providing relief, development and justice activities throughout the world. The majority are community development agencies in the South. Aims to: Strengthen the capacity of participating agencies to make a biblically-shaped response to the needs of the poor and oppressed; Speak strongly and effectively regarding the nature of the mission of the Church to proclaim and demonstrate the love of Christ to a world in need; Prophetically influence the leaders and decisionmakers of societies to maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed and rescue the weak and needy.
World Evangelical Alliance Embraces about 3 million local churches in 111 countries. In structural terms, the WEA is: a global network of 120 national and regional evangelical church alliances 104 organisational ministries 6 specialised ministries serving the worldwide church.
Poverty and debt As a global Christian community seeking to live in obedience to Scripture, we recognise the challenge of poverty across God s world. We welcome the international initiative to halve world poverty by 2015, and pledge ourselves to do all we can, through our organisations and churches, to back this with prayerful, practical action in our nations and communities. We believe if the poverty targets are to be met: There needs to be a commitment to achieve growing justice in world trade in the light of globalisation; this must recognise the role of trade, particularly in arms, that fuels conflict and causes widespread poverty and suffering It is vital that a new deal on international debt is agreed by the G7 leaders as a matter of urgency and carried through by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank we urge governments and financial institutions of both North and South to act decisively, transparently and with integrity to combat corruption taking the necessary steps to break the chains of debt and give a new start to the world s poorest nations. WEA General Assembly 2001
Council The Micah Challenge Council has eleven members: Joint chairs: Joel Edwards (EAUK); Alfonso Wieland (Peru); WEA nominees Godfrey Yogarajah (Sri Lanka); Paul Mususu (Zambia); Ndaba Mazabane (South Africa) Micah Network nominees Stephen Bradbury (Australia) Ruth Callanta (Philippines); Doug Balfour (UK). Invited Members Ruth Padilla De Borst (El Salvador); Gustavo Crocker (Europe and Asia); Fidelis Wainaina (Kenya)
Millennium Development goals Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women Goal 4: Reduce child mortality Goal 5: Improve maternal health Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
Targets and Indicators: examples Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day Indicator 1: Proportion of population below $1 per day (PPP values) Indicator 2: Poverty gap ratio [incidence x depth of poverty] Indicator 3: Share of poorest quintile in national consumption Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development Target 12: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system Target 15: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term Indicator 38: Proportion of total developed country imports (by value and excluding arms) from developing countries and from LDCs, admitted free of duties
Timeline 2005 National Campaign launches Micah Sunday September 11 UN Heads of State Summit Millennium +5 on MDGs 2006 (NY 14-16 September) Habitat III: Vancouver Assess, reflect, pray, re-plan > 2015
Logo "Biblical symbols of justice" The Micah Challenge logo uses two biblical symbols of justice, the sun at dawn and a river, rolling down. These symbols are found in Isaiah 58:6-12 and Amos 5:21-24. Both of these passages, like Micah 6:8, call on God s people to practice justice. The beautiful passage from Isaiah says: Is not this the fast that I choose To lose the bonds of injustice To undo the thongs of the yoke To let the oppressed go free And to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked to cover them And not to hide yourself from your own kin Then your light shall break forth like the dawn;.. The passage from Amos concludes: let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream
Micah Challenge Next steps: 1. Sign the Micah Call 2. Join your National Campaign 3. Micah Sunday September 11 4. Whiteband days 5. Prayer and Study Series 6. Donate All info at <micahchallenge.org>
Prayer God bless this bread Give bread to those who are hungry Give hunger for justice to those who have bread God bless this bread