Of Metrics and Prayers for the Poor

I am proud to say that I know Jeremy Gregg. In fact I had breakfast with him this morning. Here are his thoughts on measuring the success of his work:

I am the Director of Development for Central Dallas Ministries. In some ways, my job is to raise funds for my organization’s efforts to end hunger in our community. In that role, I’ve had the privilege of seeing my organization’s revenues nearly double over the past three years.

Yet this is no achievement.

This is a testament to our failure as a community. Why should the area’s largest food pantry continue to grow each year for more than two decades? Why should neighbor after neighbor need to stand in line to receive food from our resource center? Why, above all, are there more churches in my community than homeless people – and yet so many of my friends continue to have no home? Night after night, they fight for sleep as a brief respite from the reminder that their situation could be solved if only each church in our town would take one of them into their care as did the Samaritan who did not even know of the glory that is our Jesus.

I will confess, I have occasionally left my office in tears because of our “success.”

Jeremy and I are talking about Wealth in Families by Charles Collier and how it might be used to convene a discussion group among our wealthy neighbors about what it means to have a happy, blessed, fortunate, virtuous, or successful life, here in Dallas.

Comments

[Antoine Möeller]

Tomorrow (Sunday March 16) at 3:35pm on Sundance Channel, the film We Feed The World will be screening. Includes frank interviews with Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, CEO of the Nestlé Group, Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, and Pioneer agronomist Karl Otrok. Well worth watching.

Trailers Short | Long (primarily in German without English subtitles)

[Jeremy Gregg]

I enjoyed our time together, Phil. I look forward to continuing our conversation about Collier's book.

[phil]

Or we could create a Wealth Bondage Blue Ribbon Commission to study urban poverty.

[Jeremy Gregg]

Now you're talkin'! I have been toying with the term Urban Leadership Council, but that sounds too think-tankish.

I prefer yours. That should help whip the donors into shape.

[Jeremy Gregg]

Now you're talkin'! I have been toying with the term Urban Leadership Council, but that sounds too think-tankish.

I prefer yours. That should help whip the donors into shape.

[phil]

Yes, you can read Rumi, cite the Gospels, then the Happy Tutor shows up. All very Biblical. Wealth Bondage sponsors. Candidia makes the welcoming address on Freedom and Opportunity. It could work.