Peacemaking through fair trade and movies

We are church planters in Montreal and peacemaking is central to our work.

Our mission is to expand the kingdom of God, a kingdom founded on reconciliation, a kingdom that values getting the world back into right relationship with God, creation, self and others. But sin is always destroying this harmony.

The good news of Jesus is that restoration and reconciliation are possible. Thus, peacemaking is the bedrock of church planting and, in fact, of our lives as followers of Jesus.

And, it belongs to every step of our lives, not just to moments of crisis.

In our work in Montreal we participate in two specific “everyday” practices of peace. The first is Ten Thousand Villages, a ministry started by Mennonite Central Committee. Early in our time in Montreal we became aware that starting a Ten Thousand Villages store in our neighbourhood would be a meaningful way for us to witness to our community. It is a visible practice of peacemaking through the work of fair trade.

Family

Much of our economy is based on a win/lose or have/have not structure of limited resources. Ten Thousand Villages works to restore consumers (in this case North Americans) to a right relationship of mutual respect and harmony with producers in developing countries.

We are challenged by Jesus’ response to people, to their humanity and needs. Jesus included people He “shouldn’t” have included. He invited the outcast to participate. In a world where we tend to think in terms of “us” and “them” the example of Jesus motivates us to think outside these common patterns. It is a challenge to think of and present ourselves as a community of people where no one is defined as “other” but all as family or guest.

When we think of the people who make our clothes, grow our food, or make the gifts we give, do we think of them as family? Do we think of them at all? Fair trade offers the opportunity to treat everyone as family.

Guest

The second practice of peacemaking is providing movie nights in our community. Walking in someone else’s shoes through stories like Hotel Rwanda or The Fog of War, for example, helps open our eyes to the perspectives of others.

This is a step toward seeing the “other” as our guest. The goal of hospitality is to turn the guest into our friend, to make them feel at home, like family. Before this can happen we need to learn about and try to understand our guest. This is our goal in movie night.

When we open our arms to the world, when we work to expand this kind of thinking to those around us, we demonstrate the invitational nature of Jesus and the reconciling heart of God.