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Poverty
BFJN’s focus area for 2024 is poverty. Our staff has been gathering resources and investing in learning so that we can help guide the BFJN community around this issue. Our goal, as always, is to grow in understanding both from a practical and Biblical perspective and find ways to engage to make a difference.
In 2024 we will seek to connect with and support organizations who are working with communities struggling with poverty, to learn about the systems and institutions that create and keep people in poverty here in the US and around the world and stand in solidarity with those experiencing poverty and those working to make a difference.
Book Recommendations:
Wealth as Peril & Obligation by Sondra Wheeler
Hole in the Gospel by Rich Stearn
Unfinished by Rich Stearns
The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn
Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ron Sider
Poverty by America by Matthew Desmond
Broke in America by Joanne Samuel Goldblum
Money by Jacob Goldstein
White Trash by Nancy Isenberg
The Day the World Stopped Shopping by JB Mackinnon
Subversive Witness by Desmond Guillard
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
How Far to the Promised Land by Esau McCaulley
Struggling with Evangelicalism by Dan Stringer
Articles & Additional Resources:
National Poverty in America – January 2024
The Surprising Poverty Levels Across the US
7 Key trends in Poverty in the US
Fight Global Poverty – An Experiment
16% of Kids in Poverty Break Out
Re-evaluating the Global Poverty Line
Holy Post with Matthew Desmond
New Proof that Poverty is Policy Choice
New stats – Poverty as a Policy Choice (OxFam)
Fourty-four of 50 US States Worsen Inequality
Organizations:
Generous Living Foundations
Financial Literacy 101
This video series offers practical advice on managing budgets, getting out of debt, investing and more. It does so in the context of the Biblical call to live generously and follow Jesus with our money. It is intended to help you understand how to be wise and generous stewards of the resources God has given you and to tell the story of Jesus’ great love for the world with how you manage your money. We’re excited to offer this resource to our community, click the button below to complete a simple registration form and gain access to it today!
Climate Change
For the second half of 2023, BFJN has focused on how we as Christians are called to climate justice. In the month of October, we joined with our brothers and sisters in Christ from the Boston area and across the globe, delving into Kyle Meyaard-Schaap’s book “Following Jesus in a Warming World: A Christian Call to Climate Action”. This has helped to better equip us with key information, knowledge, and understanding to how our lifestyles of daily living impact climate change and global warming for better, or for worse.
According to the United Nations, climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. These human activities are causing greenhouse gases that are warming the world faster than any time in the last two thousand years.
Climate change can affect our health, ability to grow food, housing, safety and work. Some of us are already more vulnerable to climate impacts, such as people living in small island nations and other developing countries.
As an organization seeking to catalyze Christians to just and generous living, we share these resources and encourage you to put your faith into meaningful action:
National Association of Evangelicals Report on the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty
BioLogos Podcast ft. Kyle Meyaard-Schapp | Environmental Evangelism
Climate Change from an Evangelical Christian Perspective
Citizens’ Climate Lobby Boston Chapter
Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming
CBS News: New Generation of Believers Try to Tackle Climate Change Skepticism
Lazarus at the Gate
Buying justly and ethical consumption
Lazarus at the Gate Workshops
Financial Literacy course
Living simply and spending less
The Model for Action
Digital Storytelling Project
Ethical Investing
Ending Extreme poverty in 2030
Justice and the character of God