With Justice for All: A Strategy for Community Development [Hardcover]

John M. Perkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2007

“I am persuaded that the Church, as the steward of this gospel, holds the key to justice in our society. Either justice will come through us or it will not come at all.” John Perkins’s optimistic view of justice becoming a reality starts and ends with the Church. With Justice for All is Perkins’s invitation to live out the gospel in a way that brings good news to the poor and liberty to the oppressed (from Luke 4:18). This invitation is extended to every racial and ethnic group to be reconciled to one another, to work together to make our land all God wants it to be. And it is a blueprint—a practical strategy for the work of biblical justice in our time. In an age of changing demographics where the need to break the cycle of poverty is staring many of us in the face, Perkins offers hope through practical ministry principles—that work. This outstanding resource includes “Reflection” questions for personal or group study as well as “Interaction” sessions for groups to participate in activities together.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

From the author of Let Justice Roll Down, chosen by Christianity Today as one of the top 50 books that have shaped evangelicals, come the 3 Rs of Christian Community Development brought up-to-date for the 21st century—Relocation: To be an effective community developer demands relocating into the community of need. We must live among those we are serving. We must become one of them. Their needs must become our needs. Reconciliation: In an incredible night of horrors Perkins was beaten to within an inch of his life by policemen in Brandon, Mississippi. It was as he was being beaten that he heard and accepted God’s call to a ministry of reconciliation between blacks and whites. Be encouraged by the fruits of Perkins’ ministries in the heart of racially torn Mississippi and throughout the world. Redistribution: The earth does not belong to us, but to God. We are only its stewards. God provided the earth for all mankind. Economic injustice, then, is simply depriving people of free access to God’s creation. Justice is achieved by working with God to share His resources with the disenfranchised of the earth.

About the Author

JOHN PERKINS has ministered among the poor for 47 years. He founded Mendenhall Ministries, Voice of Calvary Ministries and the Harambee Christian Family Center and Preparatory School and was cofounder of the Christian Community Development Association. He was the publisher of Urban Family Magazine and is the author of nine books. Despite dropping out of school before he was 10, he now holds 8 honorary doctorates. John Perkins has also formally served on the Board of Directors of World Vision, Prison Fellowship, National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), Spring Arbor College, and fifteen other boards. He is an international speaker and a teacher on the issues of racial reconciliation, indigenous leadership development and community development. Seattle Pacific University recently opened the John Perkins Center for Reconciliation.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Regal; 3 Rev Upd edition (October 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830744959
• ISBN-13: 978-0830744954
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #423,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John M. Perkins is a sharecropper's son who grew up in New Hebron, Mississippi amidst dire poverty. Fleeing to California at age 17 after his older brother's murder at the hands of a town marshal, he vowed never to return. However after converting to Christianity in 1960 he returned to Mendenhall, Mississippi to share the gospel of Christ. While in Mississippi, his outspoken nature and support and leadership in civil rights demonstrations resulted in repeated harassment, beatings and imprisonment. He again was arrested in 2005 year while protesting in Washington D.C. against U. S. Government defunding of programs aiding the poor.

In Mendenhall, Perkins and his wife, Vera Mae, founded Voice of Calvary Ministries. This Christian community development ministry started a church, health center, leadership development program, thrift store, low-income housing development, and training center. From this ministry, other development projects started in the neighboring towns of Canton, New Hebron and Edwards. Philip K. Reed, the previous pastor of Voice of Calvary Fellowship, has assumed the leadership of this dynamic ministry.

In 1982, the Perkins family returned to California and lived in the city of Pasadena where Perkins and his wife founded Harambee Christian Family Center in Northwest Pasadena, a neighborhood that had one of the highest daytime crime rates in California. Harambee is yet standing, running numerous programs including after school tutoring, Good News Bible Clubs, an award-winning technology center, summer day camp, youth internship programs, and a college scholarship program.

In 1983, while yet in California, Perkins and his wife, along with a few friends and other major supporters, established the John M. Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation & Development, Inc for the sole purpose of supporting their mission of advancing the principles of Christian community development and racial reconciliation throughout the world.

His many books include the memiors "Love is the Final Fight", "Follow Me to Freedom," "Welcoming Justice," the autobiography "Let Justice Roll Down", "With Justice for All", "A Quiet Revolution" and "Linking Arms, Linking Lives".

Visit www.jmpf.org for more information

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Christianity vs. Bad Assumptions, December 22, 2007

By 

nate bradford (St. John, US Virgin Islands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: With Justice for All: A Strategy for Community Development (Hardcover)

It's too bad that the people who only gave this book one star didn't bother to read the book they were reviewing. Yes, this John Perkins was not their John Perkins (and let me say that both John Perkins are extremely important and helpful to the cause of bettering our communities) but they could have learned something of who the real Jesus is if they read this John Perkins-the one whose been a national figure since the Civil Rights Movement (long before the other John Perkins came on the scene). The reviewers who slammed this book did so with an anti-Christian bias that either lurks just beneath the surface of their words or floats proudly on top of them. All told, the bias has them come off as quite bigoted-noteworty because this John Perkins nearly lost his life to bigoted white Mississippi police in the early 70s. Now, perhaps the reviewers really have something against Jesus but my guess is that they just have something against the shallow religiosity of mainstream American Christianity and this book sounds an important message about what real faith in the real Jesus is as we try to love our neighbor as ourselves in the face of the materialism, individualism, and ethnocentrism that drives far too much of our society.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dr. John M. Perkins the Living Legend, December 27, 2007

By 

Ross E. Halbach (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: With Justice for All: A Strategy for Community Development (Hardcover)

It is sad that there are still many who have never heard of Dr. John M. Perkins--a living man with the stature of Martin Luther King Jr. While he may not have the formal education of King, his experiential knowledge rivals that of King's. It is from this existential wisdom that Perkins writes his new book With Justice for All. Personally, I have found this book, as well as others written by Dr. Perkins, very helpful in my own endeavors serving in a poor Hispanic community. One of the attributes of this book I greatly appreciate is the way Dr. Perkin's sets forth transferable principles drawn from his own concrete practice. Anyone who is involved in community development is at a loss without this book!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gift to the Church, January 11, 2008

By 

Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove (Durham, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: With Justice for All: A Strategy for Community Development (Hardcover)

University of Virginia theologian Charles Marsh has argued in his book The Beloved Community that this John Perkins and his CCDA are the most important extension of the civil rights movement in America today. Read With Justice for All and see why Marsh is right.