Breaking Cycles like Predatory Lending
A church in Minneapolis responds to neighbors struggling with access to banking
The newest Love Your Neighbor podcast episode features an interview with Meghan Olsen Biebighauser of Exodus Lending, a group in Minneapolis that helps people get out of predatory lending cycles. It’s an interview not only about the ministry itself, but also about a church’s discernment in figuring out the precise ways it should love its neighbors. Whether your congregation is actively discerning that kind of thing or you’re interested in cool ministries like microlending—or both!—check out the episode on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
In talking through the ministry’s formation, some extremely valuable principles emerge about how to start or reboot an outreach ministry. I was especially impressed by the ways discernment in one area can open up unexpected ministries later. Meghan describes how neighborhood listening when forming Exodus Lending enabled their church to be a haven during the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis some years later.
Recommendations from the episode
Meghan and I talk about broad-based community organizing without necessarily explaining what it is… By one definition, “Organizing is leadership that enables people to turn the resources they have into the power they need to make the change they want.” This comes from the free book Organizing: People, Power, Change. Here’s another resource from Lutheran pastor Clint Schnekloth.
For the nerds among us, Jeffrey Stout’s book Blessed are the Organized is another terrific resource.
Ross
https://rosskane.com/
