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Faithworks, by Jim Wallis

In the preface to this book, Bill Moyers says that Jim Wallis is hard to "put into a box and label." Though Wallis, the editor of Sojourners, presents the gospel of individual piety, he is nothing like the Religious Right that roared back when religious liberals called for racial justice and the end of the Vietnam war. Indeed, Wallis thinks that the sun has set on those evangelicals who created the Christian Coalition. He wants the churches to focus on speaking prophetically about economic justice and world peace.

A ministry or a program?

When many ministers’ primary role shifted from being pulpit preacher to being institutional CEO, clergy found themselves wondering, “When did my study become an office?” Today, as congregations consider tapping government funds to provide social services once provided by secular agencies, another question may be arising: “When did our ministry become a program?”

Churches as government partners: Navigating 'Charitable Choice'

In 1998 Sue Hill, an administrator with the Department of Human Services in Peoria, Illinois, was trying to help find jobs for several adults whose families were on welfare. Under the new welfare laws, the families would lose their cash benefits (called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, or TANF) if the heads of the households didn’t find work soon. The department was not able to give these families the time-intensive support and attention they needed. So Hill decided to turn to the town’s faith community.