Joining Lives: A Primer on the Ministry of Reconciliation

by Andy Odle

We live in precarious times and are seeking to make a lasting impact through immediate solutions. But in our haste we often make decisions to fix problems and persons, forgetting that we are not called to fix but rather to reconcile. In this wide-ranging collection of essays we explore what it might look like if we were to live in the world first with the purpose of reconciling and then allow that vision to guide our actions. Each essay engages with reconciliation in different contexts, providing meaningful and potentially transformative insights that will lead the reader to more faithful lives and activities. The essays are not filled with theoretical reflections but with hard-earned wisdom from proven thinkers, practitioners, and innovators.

"In Joining Lives , a canon of imaginative theological practitioners bring to life time-tested ideas through embodied sacrifice--that's what gives this handy book such credibility, that the words were first written though the daring love of those who then were able to pen them. It's rare to find such a committed group of SHEroes and heroes fighting for the 'new we.' Joining Lives is their testament of reconciliation, and an invitation for the rest of us to join in."
--Christopher L. Heuertz, Founding Partner of Gravity, a Center for Contemplative Activism; Author of Unexpected Discovering the Way of Community

Andy Odle is the Executive Director of Church on the Street Ministries and The Center for Practical Theology in Atlanta, Georgia. Church on the Street serves a community facilitator function bringing together diverse stakeholders in neighborhoods of systematic distress to act in concert toward vision, strategies, and practices aligned with joining lives and transforming communities. The experiences and lessons of such activities are formally reflected on and shared through The Center for Practical Theology.

128 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 15, 2017

Reviews

[John Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the last 3 years, I've become pretty good friends with a lot of people quite different from me, especially people with disabilities at Extra Special People and people experiencing homelessness in our Athens PBJs community. These people have become family to me, and my relationships with them have radically transformed what the Gospel means to me, who I understand Jesus to be, and how I seek to live my life every day. This book describes that transition and current theology more so than any other literature I've come across.

Joining Lives is a collection of 10 essays written by different authors about their lived experiences of the Ministry of Reconciliation. This form of ministry is choosing to be reconciled to neighbors first, then allowing actions to be guided by those relationships. Essentially accepting and loving neighbors instead of trying to fix problems and/or people. Is this not the form of love God engages with us in the Gospel? The authors have lived experience with the Ministry of Reconciliation in real estate, in community development, with people with disabilities (though this is the only chapter I didn't love), across racial and cultural lines, etc.

If you love service, service projects, short-term mission trips, volunteering at new places, etc., chances are you are doing your 'good deeds' with an unhealthy power dynamic. Jesus didn't visit the outcasts of his society to heal them for an hour on Sunday and dip; he did life with them. Similar to many of these authors, I have seen the consequences of this savior-complex negatively affect my own relationships. Surely I don't have it figured out, but this quick 100 pager affirmed much of what my own experiences have taught me and what so many Christians/service-oriented secular folks miss with good-hearted, yet toxic, charity.

My copy is probably 50% underlined with way too many "!!!" written in the margins, but hey hmu if you want to give it a read.