If Jesus Were Mayor

         The Philippines has many local churches, but unfortunately very few churches are reaching out to their surrounding communities.  Church programs have tended to focus on the inner needs of the church, rather than focusing on the needs of the community around them. Since the vision of Food for the Hungry International is to see that local churches are reaching out to solve problems in the community, we felt it appropriate that further training be done in the area of wholistic community transformation through the local church.  Although, FHI knew they couldn’t do it alone, that is how a collaborative effort began to take place between Food for the Hungry International Philippines, the International School of Theology-Asia (ISOT), and Harvest International, who also shared this similar vision.   A result of this collaborative effort was that Dr. Bob Moffit was invited to host two trainings based off of his most recent book “If Jesus Were Mayor”. 

On Friday, October 8, 2004, Dr. Bob Moffit visited the International School of Theology, a graduate seminary in Quezon City.  Here, Dr. Moffit shared at the seminary’s chapel service about “A Discipline of Love”.  Also, in addition, from 2:00-5:00PM he held an open forum for 70 seminary students and pastors about how to bring about community transformation through the local church.  The basis of his message was taken from Luke 2:52, where he discussed the importance of reaching out to our communities in a wholistic manner, not only addressing the spiritual needs, but also the physical, emotional, and social needs as well.  The students and faculty were greatly challenged by his message, especially the stories he shared.

            The following day, on Saturday, October 9, 2004 from 9:00AM-4:00PM, Bob Moffit was again invited to host a seminar entitled, “If Jesus Were Major” at Greenhills Christian Fellowship in Quezon City.  About 252 local pastors, church workers, and community workers attended, and each person was given a personal copy of Dr. Moffit’s book, “If Jesus Were Mayor.”  The morning session covered similar content as the open forum at ISOT the previous day, but during the afternoon he introduced the idea of using seed projects as a means to reach out the community.  After Dr. Moffit’s explanation of how to do a seed project, the trainees were given an opportunity to plan their own seed project in small groups.  All of the trainees saw this as a very valuable experience and something very simple and practical that they could immediately implement into their own communities.  

 Overall, there was a very positive response from those who attended the sessions conducted by Dr. Moffit.  People were challenged to reach out to their communities with an act of love and felt that they had been given practical ways to do so.