Alabama Possible Summit: fighting poverty with faith

October 29th, 2010

We were thrilled by the turnout for our Alabama Possible Summit last Monday. Over 115 people joined us at Samford University to talk about fighting poverty with faith and building relationships with those we serve in ministry. Dr. Wayne Flynt said that it was “a great day…every session was original, passionate and interesting.”

Below: keynote speakers R.G. Lyons and Wayne Flynt

Dr. Wayne Flynt, Professor Emeritus of History at Auburn and a founding board member of APP, talked about the context of poverty in Alabama and the Biblical call to relational ministry.

View his comments – part 1 (below):

part 2

R.G. Lyons of Community Church Without Walls/WE Community Gardens gave a fabulous presentation on community organizing including the 3 “R’s”: relocation, redistribution, and reconciliation:

part 2

Jim Branum of the Birmingham Baptist Association spoke about how to nourish individual relationships.

We also had lively roundtable discussions on homelessness ministry, home repair, rural ministries and educational ministry.

Below: Rev. Emily Penfield leads discussion on homelessness ministries; Lisa Pierce from Alabama Rural Ministry led the roundtable on home repair. Not shown: Leslie Manning, Sawyerville Work Project, led a roundtable discussion on rural ministries; Beverly Sansom, M-Power Ministries, led a discussion on literacy ministry.