For
twelve years now, advocates of justice for children have met
at Haley Farm in Clinton, Tennessee, at the Samuel De Witt Proctor
Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry to support each other,
to network, and to share ideas related to this important but
often overlooked calling. Inspiring sermons are preached, and
workshops on a variety of issues related to advocacy for children
are enthusiastically received. These workshops provide skills
and models to use in churches and other settings, including
advocating for adequate healthcare for all children, learning
how to set up tax clinics for working poor families, planning
children’s sabbaths, addressing youth violence, and developing
spiritual practices in conjunction with social justice.
The Rev. Eileen W. Lindner, Ph.D., can be considered a modern-day
prophet who, through sermons and the power of her sheer presence,
has raised the awareness of those who have heard her preach
about the critical need of children’s advocates. Her words
convey her passion that adults have certain responsibilities
with regard to children. The first is to protect children from
poverty, neglect, abuse, and other forms of violence that truncate
their ability to thrive and flourish. The second is to open
themselves up to the spiritual power of children themselves.
Lindner communicates her passion with humility, honesty, and
wit without sacrificing the urgency of the issue.
In Thus Far on the Way, we are able to experience
Lindner’s sermons in a readable format. She draws from
scripture and her own experience in the field of child advocacy
in both the national and international arenas, and reminds us
of Jesus’ call to stand back and permit the children to
come into his presence. Lindner constructs her theology of child
advocacy around nine doctrines that emerge as beliefs particular
to Christian communities of faith (but not limited to them),
which are derived from both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New
Testament.
Use this book to help the adults in your congregation learn
theology. Lindner shows how the doctrines of the preferential
option for the poor and the primacy of children flow out of
the doctrines of the image of God, divine love revealed as justice
and mercy, the Incarnation, and the church as the body of Christ.
As your adult members learn theology, they will see how it is
that God calls each one of us to the ministry of child advocacy.
Thus Far On the Way consists of six chapters, each
of which will create discussion because Lindner speaks so clearly
of experience familiar to all of us whether or not we are parents.
She leads us into scripture through the doorway of justice for
children as she shares her own vision of the peaceable kingdom
along the way. This book is for all congregations! |
