Seven Ways to Love God & Neighbor, and Witness to End Poverty

The Witness to End Poverty: Good News to the Poor encourages a purposeful Christian spirituality and care for the poor in a manner similar to the original Methodist movement in London, and other such Christian movements, by these steps:

____1.  Practicing the General Rules of John Wesley (1.By doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind; 2.  By doing good; by being in every kind merciful after their power; as they have opportunity, by doing food of every possible sort, and as far as possible, to all people; 3.  By attending upon all the ordinances of God; such are:  The public worship of God; the Lord’s Supper; family and private prayer; search the Scriptures; fasting or abstinence.)  See The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church-2004, pages 72-74 for more details.

____2.  Regularly visiting with and befriending low-income persons and households in our neighborhoods and communities in order to fully understand their lives and challenges, as John Wesley advised the people called Methodists to do.

____3.  Weekly fasting or abstention (with medical consent) to remind us of the hungers of those who live without material abundance or who lack hope about their futures.

____4.  Contributing weekly to churches, missions, or public policy organizations committed to relieving-and-ending poverty. We recommend participants give $10-$20/person/week (the cost of familiar middle-income entertainments) to the support of selected Minnesota churches serving lower-income communities anywhere in Minnesota, or other ecumenical and bi-partisan legislative organizations seeking to ease-and-end poverty.

____5.  Adopting life-styles of voluntary simplicity or “acquisitional fasting” in order to demonstrate models for sustainable consumption of earth’s resources, and to increase our available resources to create economic security and opportunity for our low-income neighbors.

____6.  Offering to “spend themselves for the hungry” (Isaiah 58:10--NIV), by serving in churches, missions and organizations committed to befriending low-income neighbors, to poverty-ending public initiatives, and to supporting continuance of, or launching new UM ministries in transitional or economically-challenged communities or neighborhoods throughout Minnesota.