In God’s economy, members of the human family work together for the common good – producing, growing, building, trading, serving and caring for one another. Everyone contributes and everyone shares in the benefits. Everyone has a place at the table. Power is shared.

Abundance is God’s gift to us. The bounty of creation is ours to take care of and to enjoy forever. God’s vision is a world in balance where there is enough for all. When things get out of balance, God’s faithful people shift power and resources in favor of those on the short end.

This vision of God’s economy runs through scripture from the story of the creation, to the promise of a land flowing with milk and honey, to the justice cries of the prophets. We hear this theme in the parables Jesus told and in the Kingdom of God he proclaimed. Where God rules the last will be first and the first will be last. Jesus fed 5,000 hungry people with two loaves and five fishes shared by someone in the crowd, and when they were all done there was an abundance of left overs.

Again and again, Jesus helped and healed those most disadvantaged in society and restored them to community where they could participate in God’s economy. Jesus used his power to empower others and to right the balance of power in his society.

1K Churches is all about discovering God’s economy. That happens in the Bible study as people focus on what the old, old stories of our faith tell us about economic life and about our role as economic players. We also discover God’s economy as we make a loan to a small business in our neighborhood and dare to participate intentionally in our own economy as people of faith. This small action begins to shift systems of power and restore the balance God intended.

As participants in 1K Churches -

• You empower a business owner who does not have the size, the clout, the power to qualify for a regular bank loan.
• You shift the power relations between lender and debtor by building the relationship in ways that are personal, mutual, generous, flexible, fair and respectful.
• You make your community stronger through the contributions of the business in which you invest.
• You become more aware of your own financial power and the good you can do with it.
• You empower your community with a sense of hope and possibility and interdependence by your act, which is actually useful and profoundly symbolic.
• You become one small sign of the power of the Kingdom of God breaking into our world.

The call to live your faith in the world is a call to transform power. Imagine it’s possible!

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