Micah Challenge

Mobilising Christians against poverty

Vision

The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) and the Micah Network jointly facilitate a global campaign to mobilise Christians against poverty.

The campaign aims to deepen Christian engagement with the poor and to influence leaders of rich and poor nations to fulfil their public promise to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and so halve absolute global poverty by 2015.

All 191 member states of the United Nations have promised to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The Goals include measurable, time-bound targets addressing poverty and hunger, education, maternal and child health, the prevalence of diseases including HIV/AIDs, gender equality, the environment, debt, trade justice and aid.

The goals are achievable, but not by 'business as usual'. Informing and involving civil society is critical to ensuring that governments keep these promises.

The measures of success for the campaign will be policy change and participation by Christians in the campaign. Progress towards the achievement of the MDGs is being carefully benchmarked and tracked by the United Nations Development Program, while the contribution made by Christians will be indicated by a register of churches, organisations and individuals who have signed the Micah Call and participated in advocacy activities. The campaign will also raise awareness of, and track improvements in, direct contributions by Christian organisations towards achievement of the MDGs.

Time

The Micah Challenge was launched globally on October 15, 2004 in conjunction with the UN ceremony for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. 2004 saw the formation of the first group of approximately eleven National Campaigns. 2005 included release of educational materials and participation in advocacy focused on events including the G8 and the UN Heads of State Summit. A further 15 national campaigns will be launched throughout 2005-2006. An annual global Micah Challenge Sunday commenced in 2005.

Advocacy objectives

The advocacy objectives for the campaign will reflect both a prophetic tradition (the tradition of speaking out for and with the poor that is deeply ingrained in the Bible) and the long experience of Christian organisations and churches working in partnership with poor communities. They will also be framed to link with broader civil society campaigns, particularly those focussed on the MDGs. The Micah Challenge is a foothold for a movement of Christians that will go beyond the MDGs agenda, but it sees the MDGs as a well-shaped tool and seeks to make a powerful contribution to their achievement.

The focus for civil society in the North is likely to be advocacy for the structural changes included under Goal 8 of the MDGs. Work on some of these has begun, most particularly the successful work of the Jubilee 2000 and subsequent debt and trade justice campaigns. In the South, advocacy will also focus on empowering the poor to play a greater role in shaping national planning to alleviate hunger, water and sanitation deficits, disease, illiteracy, gender inequality and environmental destruction.

The Micah Challenge brings together knowledge experts, leaders and Christian communities to frame global advocacy objectives and specific national and regional objectives. High quality, in-language materials will be developed, particularly in response to the needs of local churches, who are seen as the primary focus and driver for the campaign.

Organisation

Micah Challenge Board

Micah Challenge is facilitated by the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) and the Micah Network. The Council for Micah Challenge has ten members drawn from the leadership of Evangelical Alliances and Christian relief and development agencies from around the world. The Chair is Steve Bradbury.  Current Board members are: Tehmina Arora (India), Steve Bradbury (Australia), Paul Cook (UK), Jane Furniss (Micah Network), Geoff Tunnicliffe (Canada), Peter Vander Meulen (USA), Paul Mususu (Zambia) and Loida Cariel (Peru).  Ken Morgan serves as the ex-officio treasurer of the Board.

International Director

On 5 January 2009, Joel Edwards took up post as Micah Challenge International Director. Joel has worked closely with Micah Challenge since its inception in 2000, and was Chair of the Board until March 2008.

Prior to this role Joel was General Director of the Evangelical Alliance in the UK, a position he held for over 10 years. Joel is also a Commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission in the UK.

Background

The Micah Challenge is a joint project of the Micah Network and the World Evangelical Alliance and is inspired by landmark statements reached by both of these organisations in 2001.

The Micah Network brings together more than 330 Christian organisations providing relief, development and justice ministries throughout the world. The majority are community development agencies in the South. The Micah Network aims to:

• Strengthen the capacity of participating agencies to make a biblically-shaped response to the needs of the poor and oppressed;
• Speak strongly and effectively regarding the nature of the mission of the Church to proclaim and demonstrate the love of Christ to a world in need;
• Prophetically influence the leaders and decision-makers of societies to maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed and rescue the weak and needy.

The Micah Network's first International Consultation in Oxford in September 2001 developed the Declaration on Integral Mission. The Declaration sets out the biblical basis for the Micah Challenge. A key excerpt reads: "Integral mission or holistic transformation is the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel. It is not simply that evangelism and social involvement are to be done alongside each other. Rather, in integral mission our proclamation has social consequences as we call people to love and repentance in all areas of life. And our social involvement has evangelistic consequences as we bear witness to the transforming grace of Jesus Christ. If we ignore the world we betray the word of God which sends us out to serve the world. If we ignore the word of God we have nothing to bring to the world. Justice and justification by faith, worship and political action, the spiritual and the material, personal change and structural change belong together. As in the life of Jesus, being, doing and saying are at the heart of our integral task."

The World Evangelical Alliance was founded in 1951, and now embraces about 3 million local churches in 111 countries. In structural terms, the WEA is a global network of 120 national and regional evangelical church alliances, 104 organisational ministries and 6 specialised ministries serving the worldwide church.

The General Assembly of 2001 reached the following resolution, which also provides a cornerstone for the Micah Challenge:

"As a global Christian community seeking to live in obedience to Scripture, we recognise the challenge of poverty across God's world. We welcome the international initiative to halve world poverty by 2015, and pledge ourselves to do all we can, through our organisations and churches, to back this with prayerful, practical action in our nations and communities. We believe...if the poverty targets are to be met:

There needs to be a commitment to achieve growing justice in world trade in the light of globalisation; this must recognise the role of trade, particularly in arms, that fuels conflict and causes widespread poverty and suffering

It is vital that a new deal on international debt is agreed by the G7 leaders as a matter of urgency and carried through by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank ... we urge governments and financial institutions of both North and South to act decisively, transparently and with integrity to combat corruption ... taking the necessary steps to break the chains of debt and give a new start to the world's poorest nations."

Summary

The Micah Challenge will bring a prophetic, powerful voice for and with the poor to global efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and will empower ongoing church engagement with civil society and government on issues affecting the poor.

For further information on the Micah Challenge, go to the Micah Challenge website.