Listening - Joint Public Issues Team

The Joint Public Issues Team is a collaborative project between colleagues in the Baptist Union, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church working together on justice and political issues.
 
The team are always keen to listen to the experiences of churches and the communities they serve, especially when these experiences resonate with one of the hopes of a better world JPIT’s work revolves around.
 
These hopes are:

1. A just economy that enables the flourishing of all life
2. A planet where the environment is renewed
3. A society where the poorest and most marginalised are at the centre
4. A society that welcomes the stranger
5. A world which actively works for peace
6. A politics characterised by listening, kindness and truthfulness 

This last hope is particularly relevant to listening. If we hope to see politics assume a posture of listening, kindness and truthfulness, we need to lead by example and ensure that our churches also assume such a posture.
 
There are a number of ways JPIT engage in listening and in helping others listen. Two of which, available to us all today, are the JPIT Blog and the JPIT Podcast:
 
JPIT BLOG - A great resource to open our ears to the voices of the poor and marginalised and open our eyes to the issues that affect them.
 
JPIT PODCAST - Faith in Politics - With Season 4 just underway this is a great way to listen to the views and experiences of MPs and politically engaged faith leaders.
 
JPIT are also exploring new ways of engaging individuals and local churches with the campaigns they lead. The hope is that this will open up new avenues of listening so that the work of JPIT will be better informed by the experiences and stories of those in our churches, and those they serve.
 
For more information on any of this contact Steve Tinning, our Public Issues Enabler and Baptist JPIT representative.