Back-Story
Congressman John Lewis is an instrumental leader who left a mark of activism in faith and justice, and JCSTS believes continued learning and growth is essential to the progress we envision. 

 

JCSTS is hosting a “friendly competition” to retool part of its 2020 Justice Foundation Series entitled “Underpinnings of Systemic Poverty.”  The five-week course, like others in the JFS curriculum, can be used as a primer by churches and faith-based organizations to educate their members on the foundational concerns of structural racism and systemic oppression.  

 

You’re Invited! 
The seminary is inviting proposals for a series of five, biblical reflections, each 10-12 minutes long, on passages chosen by the presenters to accompany the following “Main Content” themes: 

• An overview of the roots of systemic oppression

• The connections between colonialization and globalization and the implications for the underlying causes of systemic poverty (focus on Africa)

• Conquest and its legacy in the Western Hemisphere (focus on Peru)

• Linkages between climate disaster and systemic poverty

• Debt as a driver of systemic oppression

 

Competitors:  Competitors must provide the following: 

• A sentence outline of the topics to be covered, identifying the specific texts to be explored in each of the five sessions, the key theological insights to be shared from those texts

• Any direct stories or experience that may be offered to elucidate the point of view of the presenter, and the direct linkage to the topic at hand. 

• Creative, non-dominant culture exegesis that supports JCSTS’ commitment to “decolonizing” theological education is encouraged. 

• JCSTS will provide access to the five main content videos for each lesson to help applicants prepare relevant material.

 

Ideally, the competitors in this Good Troublemakers competition will choose passages that are linked thematically from a particular author, as opposed to choosing five unrelated biblical passages for exegesis.

 

Important Competition Dates:  

• September 15th - Proposal Submissions. Proposals must be submitted by September 15th. 

• September 30th - Competition Selection. Final selection of the Presenter will be made by September 30th. 

• October 2022 - Material Development. Material will be developed in consultation with Dr. Deborah Mullen and Rick Ufford-Chase from the JCSTS Executive Leadership Team during the month of October and recorded by Zoom the last week of October.

• November 1st - Competition Payment. JCSTS will pay the Presenter $1,000 upon completion of all five videos.

 

Contact Rick Ufford-Chase at Ruchase@jcsts.org for access to main content sessions.