There was a delay at the airport (a familiar thing at Philly International). A friend and I were in the clunky old van circling the terminals, pulling off here and there until we were moved on by the airport police (incidentally, not the best welcome committee for folks coming to visit the “City of Brotherly Love”). I can’t remember who we were picking up or if they ever even made it, but what I can remember is the conversation that sparked as we drove in circles. We started dreaming and scheming – “plotting goodness” as we like to say. We began talking about all the good that could be done if the “Church” were a little more organized and deliberate with our finances… dangerous words for types like ourselves, with a health suspicion of structure. But we talked about how there is order in creation that goes all the way back to the beginning of time – Sabbath, gleaning laws, tithing, Jubilee… all of these were a part of the divine order of things, and were set in place by God to hold the world together. With a question, a conversation, and an imagination this was the genesis of Common Change.
May we never stop asking the questions, engaging in the conversations, and imagining a better neighborhood and world as this is the fuel that drives our collective work.