On November 1-2, 2018, PLT graduate research student Tim Shriver attended his first CCDA National Conference in Chicago, Illinois. The conference encourages participants to “gain a fresh perspective on how to encourage wholistic restoration in our communities.” The 2018 conference theme was ROOTED. The conference is a place for Christians to meet to discuss their faith and commitment to community. The CCDA movement started in Chicago 30 years ago, and is rooted in establishing relationship and reconciliation.

Shriver writes a reflection paper on his experience at the CCDA conference. Shriver has worked extensively in the Catholic social justice movement, but he was unfamiliar with the evangelical community. His paper details the kinship he found, as well as the unfamiliarity of the whole ecosystem. Read his paper here.

Excerpt: “The importance of deep rootedness—in place, scripture, memory, community and God—echoed through our two days together. The theme played most powerfully for me in the back-to-back talks of Dr. Ray Bakke and Pastor Enid Almanzar. Dr. Bakke called on the crowd to remember the various taproots of faith from Luther, John Edwards, and John Wesley but also from the Catholic, Orthodox and various Coptic Christian churches of early Christianity. These interwoven tap roots, often forgotten, shape the church today.”

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