Justice Ministry
Biblical inspiration for Justice Ministry
Micah 6:8 says, “And what does the Lord require of you? But to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
In Matthew 23:23-24, Jesus chastises the Pharisees for not following Micah 6:8.
Nehemiah the prophet provides a model for building the power needed to affect powerful systems when he gathers a Great Assembly to hold public officials accountable for the promises that had previously been made to the oppressed Jews in their community. He built power with people.
Vineyard Justice Ministry Efforts
To build power we join with ~25 other congregations under the banner of IMPACT, and together, by turning out thousands of people at an annual assembly called the Nehemiah Action, we exercise that power to bring justice to the Charlottesville area.
As one example of the results of our efforts, IMPACT has been successful getting the City of Charlottesville to put $3MM a year (for several years in a row now) into an affordable housing trust fund. By 2025, the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Trust Fund will have funded the construction or renovation of affordable homes for over 3,500 families in Charlottesville.
Vision 52/1
Our congregation wants to turn out our Average Worship Attendance of 85 people at least once a year for justice. We want the 85 who attend 52 worship services each year to attend the annual Nehemiah Action!
Justice Ministry Cycle
The process of working for justice wins each year starts with building a Vineyard Justice Ministry Network.
• A formal network of relationships – organized through households – that engages the entire congregation in doing justice. We have a 3-part annual cycle:
1. It starts with listening in the fall via house meetings where we listen to each others’ stories of how injustice personally affects us.
2. In the winter and spring, we research and take action. Within IMPACT, we vote on the issues we will focus on, and we learn how they affect our communities.
3. In the summer, we celebrate our wins and start fundraising for the next cycle.
If you have any questions, reach out to the Vineyard Justice Ministry Team Members, Carissa Phillips, Crystal Seek or Jessica Leathers.
DART: The Direct Action and Research Training Center
Learn More about the Justice Ministry Cycle on the DART webpage.
UPDATES
Celebrating 20 Years of Making an IMPACT!
May 18th, 6:30pm @ St Thomas
IMPACT’s annual celebration is coming up next week and this year is especially exciting as we are celebrating 20 years of our justice ministry!
We’ll be taking some time to celebrate our successes over the past two decades, recognize some of the clergy and leaders that have made this work possible over the years, and looking forward to the next two decades of our work.
Dinner will be catered by Pearl Island and the Celebration will kick off our annual individual investment drive. No RSVP is needed to attend the celebration, all IMPACT network members are welcome.
St Thomas’s address is 401 Alderman Road.
Issue Campaign Updates
At the end of March, nearly 1200 people came together and we won some big commitments from our officials, here’s how they’ve followed through since the Action:
Transit:
The majority of city councilors committed to support the proposed transit improvement plan, and we are pleased to say that the plan passed unanimously in this year’s budget! Because we fought for a better transit system, council will be increasing CAT’s funding to hire more drivers this year and we can expect to see more frequent and reliable service starting in July!
We won’t get all the way to 15 minutes, late-night and Sunday service, until 2030, but we’re glad that Council is committed to making this happen and will continue to work to ensure they follow through with the transit improvements they have committed to.
Affordable Housing:
A majority of Albemarle County Supervisors committed to continuing to push for $10MM in this year’s budget for affordable housing. Unfortunately, only three supervisors voted for the proposals that would have gotten to $10MM, with the others citing the increased cost of living as a reason they could not support any tax increases for housing. We are disappointed the County will not reach the needed goal of $10MM this year.
At the same time, they are investing $7.2MM into affordable housing this year, once again the most ever spent by the County. That money will be used to provide homes for families who need them. But with a shortage of nearly 10,000 homes for low-income families, we know that $10MM is the bare minimum to start digging us out of this hole. That is why we are continuing to fight for an annual dedicated income stream for the housing fund that would ensure the $10MM every year. At our house meetings this Fall we’ll have more updates on our next steps
Community Safety
At the Action both Chief Kochis and Commonwealth’s Attorney Platania committed to fund a problem analysis, the first step to implementing an evidence based gun violence reduction strategy.
We are meeting with these two officials in August to hear the progress made and discuss the next steps for implementation. The date for this meeting is not yet finalized, but we expect to be able to share a date at next week’s celebration.
IMPACT’s Annual Investment Drive
Your commitment to this ministry makes a difference! Because of your dedication to this ministry and your presence at the Action, there were over $17MM of improvements invested into our community this year. That’s $62 for every one dollar spent on IMPACT’s budget.
The housing funds we have fought for will build over 200 homes for families in need. The transit improvements will mean more people can reliably get to work, medical appointments, and live their lives with dignity. Because we fought to get the Women’s Treatment Center open, over 80 women will get life saving care this year! The City’s commitment to move forward with GVI will safe lives and help break the cycle of mass incarceration that plagues our community. All of that is just this year!
In the twenty years that our justice ministry has existed, we’ve fought and won for improvements that have changed thousands of lives. Every year, 2000 people get free dental care because of IMPACT. Hundreds have access to education and better paying jobs because we got PVCC and UVA to provide CNA training. Over 2000 homes have been built for families in need because we got Charlottesville to create their affordable housing fund.
The momentum that we are building is exciting, but there is still a long way to go on our current campaigns, and many more injustices in our community to address. That’s why our investment drive is so important. The investment drive is the chance for us as network members to invest financially in IMPACT’s work and ensure that we are the ones controlling the justice ministry.
Your investment in IMPACT’s work is what lets us stay in this fight for justice every year. Each year, our individual drive is by far our largest funding source. This ensures that YOU are the ones in control of IMPACT so that we can hold those in power accountable.
We encourage all network members to prayerfully consider investing $200 or an amount meaningful to you. You can turn in your investment at our Celebration next Monday, mail a check to the IMPACT office at 1901 Thomson Road, or invest online at impact.com/invest. IMPACT is a registered 501(c)3, tax receipts are mailed out every January and can be sent earlier upon request.