Andy Rowell

Church Leadership Conversations

  • Suffering across the globe remains

    As I feel more optimistic about many getting the vaccine and the covid relief bill helping the poor in the US, I am reminded that there is injustice, suffering, and danger elsewhere: Myanmar, Belarus, Yemen, Ukraine, Russia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and North Korea. God help us.

    1. I'm reminded to pray because it is overwhelming.
    2. I appreciate experts keeping us up to date about their sense of horror about these matters.
    3. May the US leadership be wise.
    4. Long-term, let's encourage people to live in other countries with generosity and curiosity.

    And Brazil with poor leadership and a terrible tragic crisis.

    https://twitter.com/AmyEricaSmith/status/1379541650716950528

    Taiwan and Ukraine
    https://twitter.com/anders_aslund/status/1378851904109821960,
    https://twitter.com/ulrichspeck/status/1377515337676099585,

    https://twitter.com/anneapplebaum/status/1378348831322992642

    Belarus
    https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1377640832396787713,
    https://twitter.com/anneapplebaum/status/1379230510837166080,

    https://twitter.com/AlexKokcharov/status/1375382013704802304

    Yemen
    https://twitter.com/hxhassan/status/1375470298946998278,

    https://twitter.com/DanielLarison/status/1378004067616759813

    Ethiopia
    https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1374588927143645197,
    https://twitter.com/sarasidnerCNN/status/1378175939021049857,

    https://twitter.com/NickKristof/status/1377974641889701889

    Myanmar
    https://twitter.com/Simondlewis/status/1379068349653598215,
    https://twitter.com/AlexMorrisNY/status/1379064851444740105,
    https://twitter.com/NickKristof/status/1378061915851616257,
    https://twitter.com/mcbelz/status/1378037760053940226,
    https://twitter.com/JonahFisherBBC/status/1377884267603226624,

    https://twitter.com/harriet_may21/status/1378983900463079425

    Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on April 6, 2021.

  • Christians should pay attention to the COVID relief bill in Congress because it could help the poor

    With Trump's impeachment over, "there is not much news going on." But I recommend paying attention to the bill in Congress because:
    (a) it is possible with the filibuster almost nothing else will pass in the next four years, and
    (b) this could dramatically help poor people.
    👇

    It is impossible to overstate the difference between the people struggling in the United States and those who are doing well. The stock market indices are at all time highs. The constant talk on CNBC is of large and startup companies being so rich there is worry about a bubble.

    People who have had money in the stock market in 2020 have reaped massive returns. And rich people have not been able to spend as much money on vacations, entertainment, and eating out so they have been spending it on nicer homes and on saving and investing their cash.

    Meanwhile, 15% of workers have been directly hurt by the COVID recession.
    https://twitter.com/hshierholz/status/1357692597469253634
    Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell (nominated by President Trump) says unemployment in January was close to 10%, which is horrendous.

    This 10% drop in employment is worse than other recessions.

    And jobs are coming back more slowly now.

    18% of households with children sometimes or often didn't have enough to eat in the past week in December! And this number was just going up!

    https://twitter.com/arelisrhdz/status/1354462341857947653

    See my recent January 26th thread about who to consider learning from with regard to policy solutions.

    As Christians, we can certainly jump in as private citizens and churches to meet needs. However, we can also advocate that government assist with helping people through effective means like SNAP benefits (food stamps).

    See: @rebeccavallas @laurenlbauer

    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-biden-is-expanding-snap/id994153765?i=1000508803822

    Biblical support:

    See also my Jan 17th thread about the minimum wage.
    https://twitter.com/AndyRowell/status/1350877878553083905
    and today @wilsonhartgrove tries to explain the plight of the poor who work multiple jobs.

    Note too that the estimates by the Congressional Budget Office that raising the minimum wage to $15 would cost jobs is exaggerated.
    https://twitter.com/arindube/status/1358888317622755329,
    https://twitter.com/arindube/status/1359375749426212864,

    For those appalled by the idea of government assistance, note the leading conservative Republican thinkers (Brad Wilcox, Yuval Levin, Ramesh Ponnuru, Ross Douthat) are open to the massive payments Mitt Romney proposed to assist families with children.

    Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on February 15, 2021.

  • The use of humor by leaders, professors, and pastors

    In my class sessions this week, there was a lot of laughter. Surely that helps students wanting to attend. But online and offline, I have tried not to use sarcasm. With humor, we can easily confuse and hurt. Self-deprecating humor (about mistakes I've made) is usually safe.

    But as a professor or as a pastor or as a leader of a meeting, you are NOT a comedian. The point is not to get laughs. If you start trying for that, you waste people's time and skew the focus.
    But sincerely saying how you learned a lesson in the past is useful (and sometimes🤣).

    See:

    For example, I told stories about how I was a pastor and seminary student but was told I needed to develop relationships with non-Christians so I tried with the barber but it did not really work (and now I'm bald!) and talking to women at the gym who thought I was creepy.

    I also told about how when I was a pastor and we had lots of homeless people visit our church for handouts and we worked hard on comprehensive solutions. But also I found the people especially loved cookies and lemonade.

    Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on January 15, 2021.