[An Antioch Human Rights Series]

“Unspeakable” was a three-week series at Antioch Church which took place on November 4th, 11th and 18th , 2007. The purpose of this series was to educate and empower the people of Antioch Church.

There are many reasons why we felt a series of this nature was necessary for our church. Here are a few of them: we believe that we are called to take care of the poor, needy and abused around the world; we believe that addressing social needs and injustices is one of the major Biblical responsibilities of Christ Followers and of the Church (See Isaiah 1:17, Isaiah 58 and Psalm 82:3-4 for a few examples); we believe that God is an abolitionist, seeking to free people from all kinds of slavery- both spiritual and physical- and therefore we must also be abolitionists; we believe that God does not NEED us in order to end suffering, but He has called us to pour every effort into doing so, and will use our obedience for the furtherment of His Kingdom and His glory. We also believe that we cannot expect our people to sacrificially get involved in helping those in need if they are not aware that the need exists.

Ken spoke powerfully and candidly about these issues and our responsibility to the poor and suffering in the world. Many of these issues are difficult topics to talk about, but Ken addressed them very honestly and openly, which gave people the opportunity to truly learn about what is happening and how they can become a part of stopping it.

During this series, we provided people with information regarding eight human rights issues: slavery, child soldiers, poverty /starvation, violence against women, genocide, HIV/AIDS, orphans and human trafficking.

We tried to educate people about these issues without overwhelming or paralyzing them. Instead, we tried to empower them by giving them tangible, immediate ways to channel their thoughts/emotions about the issues they were learning about. We set up our lobby with ways that people could either a) immediately learn more about the issue (which some people need) or b) immediately become involved in making a tangible difference in these issues (which other people need). We tried to provide people with opportunities for both short-term and long-term involvement.

Here are elements that we had available in our lobby:
For Education:

• We had a large world map set up in the middle of the lobby with different colored flags indicating where some of the largest human rights violations were taking place around the globe.

• We also had eight display boards set up around the lobby, each one covering a different topic. Each board had a fact sheet, pictures, information for further research, and ways to get involved in fighting that issue. The display topics were orphans, HIV/AIDS, modern day slavery, human trafficking, genocide, poverty/starvation, violence against women and child soldiers.

• Unspeakable by Raymond Bechard was made available at our book table in the lobby. This is the book that we named our series after and it talks about child trafficking around the world. Ken refers to it in all three of his sermons as the book that “ruined his life in the best way possible.” We ordered 45 copies and were sold out in 20 minutes. It is currently unavailable, as the publisher has been swamped with requests for it from across the nation.

For Involvement:

• Human rights Learning Group: We had held a four-week long learning group on Monday nights in November to educate people about various human rights issues. This is the third learning group that Antioch has offered over the last year. The other topics we have covered are HIV/AIDS in Africa, An Overview of Human Rights Issues, and most recently Human Rights Violations Against Women.

• Ransom Wear, an organization that helps to free women from sexual slavery in Nepal, had a table set up selling their products (see www.ransomwear.org for more information)

• Human Rights Prayer Team- we update our online community “hub” regularly with news ways that people can pray for various human rights violations around the world.

• Child and University Student Sponsorships through Africa Renewal Ministries (the organization Antioch Church has a relationship with) were available.

• Land of A Thousand Hills Coffee (which is helping survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and bringing cultural unity to the area that they are in) was available for $10 a bag (we sold out in less than 10 minutes!)

• Donated school supplies were accepted to be sent to Uganda in February to help outfit a new school that is being built

• Internship information for various human rights organizations (for young people in that stage of life)

• A master list of resources by topic, and another master list of ways to get involved by topic.

• Big jars for spare change to be donated to Ransom Wear (this was pushed in our children’s and middle school programs as a way for kids to learn about giving to the needy around the world)

The people of Antioch Church had an amazing and overwhelmingly positive response to these issues and many people discovered a passion within themselves that they did not know existed. There have been a number of people that have already gotten involved in creatively raising awareness of these issues. One amazing outcome is that due to Antioch’s involvement with Ransom Wear, there are programs in place on the Nepal/India border to prevent the trafficking of women and children into the commercial sex industry. The full long-term effect of this series has yet to be fully realized.

This series had in incredible impact on the Church of Antioch and furthered our commitment to compassion and advocacy.  This is just the start of our involvement surrounding human rights issues.  Discussing human rights in the world unleashed a passion in many people that they did not know existed and gave many the opportunity to help make a difference. We look forward to seeing what God has in store for Antioch Church in the fight for human rights across the globe.

View the Human Trafficking Video