{"id":2266,"date":"2012-11-16T07:26:10","date_gmt":"2012-11-16T12:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/activistfaith\/?p=2266"},"modified":"2012-11-16T10:27:19","modified_gmt":"2012-11-16T15:27:19","slug":"real-people-real-change-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/11\/real-people-real-change-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Real People, Real Change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My friend <a href=\"http:\/\/danieldarling.com\/\">Daniel Darling<\/a>, a pastor and writer in the Chicago area, shared this insightful article on the post-election situation from his part of the country. Good to see what faith leaders are doing on the front lines and how they continue to make a difference in the lives of many in local communities across American and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>+++<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, the political season is over. Or is it? With a<br \/>\ndivided house in Washington, perhaps we&#8217;ve just begun.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re like me, you might find it hard not to get hooked on the<br \/>\nprocess. Twitter constantly feeds me updates from various news<br \/>\nsources. Talk radio and websites debate the latest headline, making new ones in the process.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But as a pastor, I know politics is only part of the story<br \/>\nof what is happening in America. As Washington buzzes with gossip, real issues are being met head-on by<br \/>\npeople of faith.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In our community, here in the Chicago suburbs, there is<br \/>\nunprecedented cooperation between evangelical churches. Every month I meet with<br \/>\nlocal pastors. Together, we discuss ways the<br \/>\nChurch can meet needs like poverty, unemployment, crime, and gang violence.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m amazed at the effective work taking place behind<br \/>\nthe scenes. Dedicated volunteers, motivated by faith in Christ, are making a real difference. Local efforts help the addicted move from bondage to freedom. Organizations are feeding the poor, both in Chicago and around the world. Local networks mentor young<br \/>\nmen, provide support for abused women, equip low-income individuals with job<br \/>\nskills, financial training, and parenting skills. It&#8217;s not a government program, it&#8217;s people investing in change, one person at a time.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t misunderstand. Christians don&#8217;t need to withdraw from politics. We<br \/>\nare called to serve in any way we can. But politics is<br \/>\nonly one form of activism.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Now that the election is over, it may be time to push<br \/>\nourselves away from the 24-hour news cycle and roll up our sleeves in our<br \/>\nlocal communities. Regardless of who won, it&#8217;s time to get to work.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>+++<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Darling is pastor of Gages Lake Bible Church in the Chicago area and author of several books and articles, including iFaith: Connecting with God in the 21st Century (New Hope). Learn more at <a href=\"http:\/\/danieldarling.com\/\">DanielDarling.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My friend Daniel Darling, a pastor and writer in the Chicago area, shared this insightful article on the post-election situation from his part of the country. Good to see what faith leaders are doing on the front lines and how they continue to make a difference in the lives of many in local communities across&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-worldview"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Real People, Real Change - Activist Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/11\/real-people-real-change-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Real People, Real Change - Activist Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My friend Daniel Darling, a pastor and writer in the Chicago area, shared this insightful article on the post-election situation from his part of the country. Good to see what faith leaders are doing on the front lines and how they continue to make a difference in the lives of many in local communities across&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/11\/real-people-real-change-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Activist Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-16T12:26:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-11-16T15:27:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dillon Burroughs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Real People, Real Change - Activist Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/11\/real-people-real-change-2.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Real People, Real Change - Activist Faith","og_description":"My friend Daniel Darling, a pastor and writer in the Chicago area, shared this insightful article on the post-election situation from his part of the country. Good to see what faith leaders are doing on the front lines and how they continue to make a difference in the lives of many in local communities across&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/11\/real-people-real-change-2.html","og_site_name":"Activist Faith","article_published_time":"2012-11-16T12:26:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-11-16T15:27:19+00:00","author":"Dillon Burroughs","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/11\/real-people-real-change-2.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/11\/real-people-real-change-2.html","name":"Real People, Real Change - Activist Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-11-16T12:26:10+00:00","dateModified":"2012-11-16T15:27:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/d931a1eb5dc2e7bf29e30bb1ea7d0311"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/11\/real-people-real-change-2.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/11\/real-people-real-change-2.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/11\/real-people-real-change-2.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Real People, Real Change"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/","name":"Activist Faith","description":"Christian Inspiration, Christian Blogs, Christian News, Top Christian Blogs","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/d931a1eb5dc2e7bf29e30bb1ea7d0311","name":"Dillon Burroughs","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e7e\/e7e0e064c658f0c59bfb3c9a1a05121bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e7e\/e7e0e064c658f0c59bfb3c9a1a05121bx96.jpg","caption":"Dillon Burroughs"},"description":"DILLON BURROUGHS is an author, activist, and cofounder of Activist Faith. Dillon served in Haiti following the epic 2010 earthquake and has investigated modern slavery in the US and internationally. His books include \"Undefending Christianity,\" \"Not in My Town\" (with Charles J. Powell), and \"Thirst No More\" (October 2011). Discover more at DillonBurroughs.org.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/author\/dburroughs"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2267,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266\/revisions\/2267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}