Solidarity – meaning ‘mutual responsibility,’ this word speaks to how we engage in the struggle with different people and cultures. Solidarity is life together with one another in a way that stands completely contrasted against any culture of domination. Solidarity is true partnership.

Holistic Ministry – Derived from a belief that we cannot separate our physical needs from our spiritual needs. The need for food and the need to be nurtured spiritually are interwoven. We believe we are doing a disservice to our community if we compartmentalize or worse ignore any of these needs.

Intentional Community – Used to put language around our belief that Jesus is calling us into a type of community with one another that goes beyond being distant friends. This type of community learns radical ways to live life together and encourage each other in the ways of justice, peace, and grace.

Social Justice – An overused word. However we still believe in its potency if used correctly. This word speaks to the distribution of advantages and disadvantages that a society inherently creates. Our role to confront injustice is to figure out who is benefiting and who is suffering from the world’s systems. We do this by studying historical trends, personal testimony, and current research.

Grassroots – our movement is grassroots because it has used the community of common folks to spread a message of hope, peace, and justice. We believe our methods are contrasted against much of the dominant culture’s theories of how we achieve the same goals. By using relationships instead of high powered marketing packages, we believe we are creating a transformational community that is deep in its commitment to one another.

Hierarchy – Any situation where one person is seen to have coercive power over another can lead to oppressive action. While natural hierarchy may be inevitable, we still believe in a world that does not fundamentally operate by a hunger for power. Hierarchy is the birthplace of institutional sin. When we create systems of ladders and teach people how to climb them, the negative effect it has on the marginalized is especially heightened. We are forced to live in the tension of pleasing those above us, or below us. Unfortunately hierarchy teaches us to serve our best interest, so we don’t choose the latter.

Oppression – An act of authority or power that is cruel or unjust to certain person or people group. Oppression becomes a hard word to define tangibly until we start to listen to the voices of the undersides of society. To know oppression, we must involve ourselves in the struggle.

Stigma – a mark of disgrace placed on a person’s reputation against that person’s will. We have been extremely misinformed when it comes to the realities of AIDS. In the origins of AIDS in America, we dismissed it as a disease that brought to the surface sexual promiscuity instead of social inequality. In part this lead to a worldwide stigma attached to anyone who is known to be HIV positive. In Uganda, this stigma has caused loved ones to desert loved ones, and already scarce income opportunities to become virtually nonexistent. Persons with AIDS are literally cast out socially and many times physically from their homes.

Paradigm – a set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that determine a way of viewing reality for the community who shares them. Our primary goal is to add to a conversation that is seeking to offer a paradigm that promotes the reign of God as a place of justice, equality, and love.

Creation Care – a term that is used to describe environmental stewardship from the foundation belief that a creator God is the intelligent designer of the natural world that then continues to create itself.

Compassion – means to suffer with another. This is a practice that we believe moves us beyond a disconnected act of charity and into the lives of the sufferer as a co-sufferer. The paradox in the gospels tell us that this is strangely “life to the full.”

Life-giving – to be full of life is to feel fully human. In this case we believe that any act that is humanizing to the other or your self is a life-giving act. We often discover this by asking the question, “How do we choose life in this particular situation?”

The Underside – The world has created a system where some people matter, and other people are treated as if they don’t. The undersides of society are those races, cultures, and classes that are marginalized, disinherited, and propelled into cycles of poverty and loss of dignity.

Non-person – All persons have the right to basic survival needs. If the systems and relationships we have running are sustaining social inequalities it is because certain people aren’t even considered persons. The voices coming from these places are rarely heard. This is the opposite of what it means to be fully human.