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Introducing Viv Grigg
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Viv Grigg, a New Zealander, has been a prophetic voice, used to call Christians to the slum areas of the two-thirds world and to unity across cities. The Holy Spirit has lead him as an urban missiologist, churchplanter, community organizer, writer and theologian-philosopher. Any of the following has to be attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit, through years of struggle, rejection, opposition, and sacrifice, and the depth of communal relationships that are developed as people together sacrifice on behalf of the poor.
Viv's Brazilian wife, Iêda, and three children have walked with him through these years. Monique (15), Leonardo (12) and Bianca (10). Iêda, one of the first Brazilian missionaries to India, is a humorous but deeply moving expositor of the word, and touches many lives with the depths of her spirituality. She was trained for 5 years in the New Tribes mission bible school, and has an MA in missions from Fuller School of World Missions. She is a gifted mother, chaplain and grief counsellor.
Pioneering Movements (69-81)
Viv spent some years following the Holy Spirit as a pioneer of student movements in New Zealand and Manila, and as a pioneer of innovative theology and process for religious and socio-cultural change (churchplanting), while living among the squatters of Manila. (This story is told in Companion to the Poor (Authentic: 2006)). Because of the new patterns of holistic theology developed in training students among the poor, the depths of their suffering, and their encounters with the Holy Spirit, some have become social change agents in the upper structures of Filipino church and society.
Founding Apostolic Orders (82-96)
Then as a the Holy Spirit moved in revival in various countries, Viv catalyzed SERVANTS missions from New Zealand, the U.S. and Brazil, embodying a blend of principles from the apostolic orders with renewal principles, enabling workers to live among the poor bringing religious and socio-economic change. Teams of over 300 workers are now involved in 29 global cities. Cry of the Urban Poor (Authentic: 2006) tells of some of the issues involved. The most recent has been encouraging the U.S. Servant-Partners from five communities of graduates who have chosen to relocate into the slums of Los Angeles, and around the world. During these years he and Ieda pioneered with a team into Calcutta in intercession and seeking unity of city leadership.
Then as a the Holy Spirit moved in revival in various countries, Viv catalyzed SERVANTS missions from New Zealand, the U.S. and Brazil, embodying a blend of principles from the apostolic orders with renewal principles, enabling workers to live among the poor bringing religious and socio-economic change. Cry of the Urban Poor (MARC: 1994) tells of some of the issues involved. The most recent has been encouraging the U.S. Servant-Partners from five training communities of graduates who have chosen to relocate into the slums of Los Angeles, and around the world. During these years, he and Ieda pioneered with a team into Calcutta in intercession and seeking unity of city leadership. From the suffering of those years over 30 workers have moved to that city and the first house churches in the slums have been developed..
Operational Base (85-present)
To demonstrate that the work of God is his work, not according to human strength, Viv & Ieda have sought to keep his operational structure lean and mean, as they live by faith or work with their own hands to support themselves. These works have been organisationally birthed from a small virtual reality non-profit corporation (now you see it, now you don't), Urban Leadership Foundation, from which the Lord spawns these new movements. Viv, usually working prophetically with an apostolic leader, builds teams of 8-25 staff each, helps create the value system and directionality and relationships, each time a work is birthed, and then they are spun off to develop their indigenous processes. From all these works, with over 400 workers who have sacrificed their all in the slums of more than 40 cities, over 207 organizations have been catalysed, (churches, denominations, bible schools, development organisations, missions, land rights advocacy etc), who have impacted over 400,000 people for Christ.
Global Networks and Prophetic Roles (91-present)
As part of an understanding of the unity of the global church around evangelism, Viv accepted a role to catalyze the global cities network of the AD2000 movement, a movement that has worked with the Holy Spirit to link together the leadership of the emergent third world missions. In this role he developed strategic planning consultations in cities, where the Lord was pleased to encourage revival for city leadership teams and development of vision and strategy for change in their cities. Within the consultations, is a focus on the poor and the transformation of the persons in power who generate the structures that cause their poverty. 8 regional or global networks were developed. The framework for this is found in Transforming Cities: An Urban Leadership Guide (Urban Leadership: 1997). Since 1993, Viv has been developing what has become the Encarnação Network of Urban Poor Movement Leaders. They are believing God for 50,000 new cross-cultural workers for the slums around the world, and are putting training and mobilization processes in place to accomplish this.
National NZ City Networks and Prophetic Roles
Apart from the urban poor mobilization during the renewal of the early 80's, and the call to the Pakeha churches for processes of reconciliation with Maori as a basis for the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in New Zealand. Viv, working with VisionNZ ( linking church leadership nationally) has encouraged the Vision for Auckland process, linking the leadership of the city in evangelism, transformation, and ethnic reconciliation.
Research as the Basis of Prophetic Envisioning
Early years were spent researching issues of urban poverty across 12 cities in 3 continents, from which publications significantly shifted global missions strategic thinking from rural to urban poor issues. Over the last five years, one of the global networks is a research network, linking 400 researchers by email, from which research profiles and a global database on the web have been developed with info on religious dynamics in cities around the world. This year steps have been taken in integrating research on the church in Auckland.
Viv has been an adjunct faculty at a number of seminaries and Bible Schools as he travels, teaching on Evangelism, Discipleship, Cultural & Urban Anthropology, Theology and Practice of Holistic Urban Poor Churchplanting and City-wide Evangelisation and Transformation. Other courses include Urban Leadership Strategies, Biblical Critiques of Economic & Development Theories, Strategies for Urban Ministry, Mission in an Urban Context , Theologies of the City, Global Issues, Transformative Revival, Doing Contextual Theology, Biblical Hermeneutics, Church and Society, and Community Organising. Shorter seminars available include: Development of Protestant Apostolic Orders, Linking Rich and Poor Churches, Urban Poor Awareness Seminars, Transforming Your City, The Kingdom and Societal Transformation.
Since 2001, Viv has been developing the Encarnação Network Training Commission with Dr Corrie de Boer, Viju Abraham and Bryan Johnson among others, and training infrastructure at MA and grassroots levels for urban poor churchplanters and urban leaders. This has involved consultations across the continents defining collectively-owned outcomes of such training and creating course structures, development of story-based training modules, creating partnerships between various organisations to produce and deliver these. Four programs have been launched as of 2005 at MA and grassroots levels. This training is outcome-based, story-based, and action-reflection in approach, set up to facilitate third world missions to other third world contexts.
He has a degree in electrical engineering, a teachers college diploma in teaching, studied courses in community organising and community development at the University of the Philippines and Asian Theological Seminary, has an M.A. in missiology from Fuller School of World Mission, and doctoral courses from William Carey University in urban anthropology, urban sociology, urban leadership etc. His doctoral work at Auckland University focused on Transformational Revival in a Postmodern City: Progressions from Revival to Societal Transformation among Auckland's Evangelicals and Pentecostals.
Little of this has to do with Viv. In his teens he learned that if he prayed, God would act. "For I know, that only what God does endures forever, nothing can be added to it, or taken from it." (Ecc 3:14). God has acted for his glory.