Common Good Collective

Reader

This Reader is an expression of Common Good Collective, a vision for an alternative way, rooted in the act of eliminating economic isolation, the significance of place, and the structure of belonging. Whether you come at this from a place of economics, social good, or faith, we hope these reflections help orient your day in fresh, provocative, courageous ways. And most importantly, we hope these lead you into the sharing of gifts in particular communities—into co-creating a common good.

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Imagination: The Prophetic Act of Living an Alternative Narrative, Reader, Structure Of Belonging Permalink

Daring To Create Something New

Francis’s reflections cut to the heart of the challenge of our society’s current moment: we have to decide whether to leave this current crisis less selfish than when we came in.

In this past year of change, my mind and heart have overflowed with people. People I think of and pray for, and sometimes cry with, people with names and faces, people who died without saying goodbye to those they loved, families in difficulty, even going hungry, because there’s no work.

Sometimes, when you think globally, you can be paralyzed: There are so many places of apparently ceaseless conflict; there’s so much suffering and need. I find it helps to focus on concrete situations: You see faces looking for life and love in the reality of each person, of each people. You see hope written in the story of every nation, glorious because it’s a story of daily struggle, of lives broken in self-sacrifice. So rather than overwhelm you, it invites you to ponder and to respond with hope.

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Covenant: Moving from Contract to Commitment, Reader, Structure Of Belonging Permalink

Not Numbed Inside

In images of wombs and “activated innards,” Walter Brueggemann locates the essential movement of neighbor-love. It is to “be moved by empathy to effect transformation.”

My friend, Dean Francis, loaned me a most remarkable book. Written by John Compton, it is entitled, The End of Empathy: Why White Protestants Stopped Loving Their Neighbors. The book is a carefully researched study about the way in which mainline churches have dramatically lost members and public influence.

Compton’s research suggests that this has happened to mainline churches because younger church members have fallen away from the social mandates of the gospel and have become preoccupied with individualized matters of self-actualization, self-securing, and self-satisfaction, all pursuits incongruous with love of neighbor. Compton thus refutes the notion that mainline churches have been depleted because they have become “too liberal”; he shows that they were always liberal concerning public issues of justice. Indeed that passion for public issues of justice was largely shared by clergy and lay people… until it wasn’t!

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Reader, Sabbath: Time for the Unexpected, Significance Of Place, Structure Of Belonging Permalink

A Place To Belong

At the halfway point of this captivating short film is a central image: grandpa’s foot on the pedal of his dry cleaning machine, next to grandson’s foot on the pedal of his piano. From there, stretching forward into the future and backward into the realm of the ancestors stands a remarkable story of belonging, told by people who plainly love each other.

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Imagination: The Prophetic Act of Living an Alternative Narrative, Reader, The Abundant Community Permalink

Thankfulness Amidst Longing

When you believe, as we do at Common Good Collective, that every place is filled with the assets it needs to thrive, then gratitude often comes easily. It is a celebration of gifts, done with as much specificity as possible. We are not just thankful for food, but for this food from this soil; we don’t just love the idea of neighbors, but we love these neighbors in particular.

On this Thanksgiving Day, we celebrate with you the good gifts around us. We also pause to recognize that all those good gifts come to us inside structures that impede flourishing. Gratitude is not contentment or stagnation. It gives birth to a longing to see the restoration of every place.

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Invitation, Sabbath: Time for the Unexpected, Significance Of Place Permalink

Autumn Colors and Autumn Chill

“And yet no leaf or grain is filled by work of ours; the field is tilled and left to grace.” So writes Wendell Berry. These pictures from The Atlantic captivated us this week – landscapes filled with color, a squirrel in mid-flight, leaves and leaves and leaves. What joy it is to breathe the earth’s air.

1. NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 9: A woman in a red dress walks across a field under trees turning color in Central Park on November 9, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)

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