Urban Leadership Foundation
A hub for leadership training in cities and among the world's 1.4 billion slum-dwellers
It is the biggest pastoral issue of our time. 1.4 billion slum-dwellers globally have been dispossessed of their land! Twice dispossessed!! Once in their village! Then in the city! I well remember the blood splattered on the walls, as the marines and bulldozers destroyed our slum community in Manila. And the dirt , the lack of water, the inablility to get back to jobs, the despair at the new "relocation area", nine miles from city jobs. The life of a slum pastor is to stand with the people in the midst of such oppression and dispossession and to seek to bring justice on their behalf.
What does God have to say about these realities? About the pain we carry as we live in the slums, and the scars our people carry? The scriptures have a great deal to say! My spirit is marked by five movements between landlessness to landedness that frame the covenants of divine history. In each we see the actions and wisdom of God, as he connects humanness to the land. These, though ancient, give us guidance for the complexities of today's slums. Study each movement and you will find the themes to teach your people about God in the midst of land rights struggles.
1. Biblical Refection on Land and Land Rights (htm) (formatted word doc)
2. The Kingdom of God, Land and Land Rights (power point)
3. Dancing with the Land: Significance of the Land for Doing Tribal
Theology
4. Discussion on Land Rights - Bangkok Encarnacao Gathering