John M. Perkins

John M. Perkins
Born	1930 Simpson County, Mississippi

John M. Perkins is an American Christian minister, civil rights activist and community developer. He is founder and president of the John M. Perkins Foundation in Jackson, Mississippi.

Early life

Born in 1930 in New Hebron, Mississippi, John Perkins's mother died of Pellagra when he was just seven months old.^[1][2] Abandoned by his father, he was raised by his grandmother and extended family who worked as sharecroppers.^[1][2] In 1947 he moved from Mississippi on the urging of his family, who worried that he might be in danger following the fatal shooting of his brother, Clyde, by a police officer.^[1][2] He settled in southern California where, in 1957, he underwent a conversion to Christianity following his son Spencer's invitation to him to attend church.^[1]

Career

In 1960 he moved with his wife (Vera Mae Perkins) and children from California to Mendenhall, Mississippi, which neighbors his childhood hometown of New Hebron.^[3] Six months later he moved to Mendenhall, where in 1964 he established Voice of Calvary Bible Institute.^[4][5]

Motivated by a desire to help their neighbors as well as their own children, Vera Mae started running a day-care center from their home that from 1966 to 1968 became part of the federally funded Head Start Program.^[6] Initially concerned solely with evangelism and Bible literacy, Perkins had a growing conviction that the gospel of Jesus Christ addressed spiritual and physical needs.^[7]

In 1965 Perkins supported voter registration efforts in Simpson County and in 1967 he became involved in school desegregation when he enrolled his son Spencer in the previously all white Mendenhall High School.^[5][8]

In the fall of 1969, Perkins became the leader in an economic boycott of white-owned stores in Mendenhall. On February 7, 1970, following the arrest of students who had taken part in a protest march in Mendenhall, John Perkins was arrested and tortured by white police officers in Brandon Jail.^[9][2][10]

Remarkably, Perkins emerged from this terrible experience with a commitment to his vision of a holistic ministry - one that saw the bondage racism inflicted on whites as well as the damage and deprivation of the black community. He summarized his philosophy of Christian ministry in the "three Rs"-- Relocation, Redistribution and Reconciliation.^[11] He expounded on this philosophy in the 1976 book A Quiet Revolution: The Christian response to human need, a strategy for today.^[12]

By the mid-seventies, Voice of Calvary, now located in both Jackson and Mendenhall, was operating thrift stores, health clinics, a housing cooperative, as well as classes in Bible and theology and Perkins was in demand as a speaker in evangelical churches, colleges and conventions across the country.^[13][14]

1982, the Perkinses left Voice of Calvary Ministries to return to California, where they founded Harambee Christian Family Center in Northwest Pasadena.^[4]

In 1989, he founded the Christian Community Development Association, a network of evangelical congregations and organizations working in deprived urban settings.^[15][5]

After the death of his son Spencer in 1998, Perkins returned to Mississippi, and bought the property once owned by his son and his Antioch Community and established the Spencer Perkins Center, the youth arm of the John M. Perkins Foundation.^[16] It has developed youth programs such as After School Tutorial, Summer Arts Camp, Junior and College Internship Program, Good News Bible Club, Young Life and Jubilee Youth Garden. The foundation also has a housing arm, Zechariah 8, providing affordable housing for low-to moderate-income families with a focus on single mothers.^[17]

Recognition

In 2004, Seattle Pacific University opened the John Perkins Center for Reconciliation, Leadership Training, and Community Development.^[18]

In 2009, the band Switchfoot released the song "The Sound (John M. Perkins Blues)." The song includes the line "John Perkins said it right / Love is the final fight."^[19] 

Books

• A Quiet Revolution: The Christian response to human need, a strategy for today. Word Books, 1976. ISBN 978-0-87680-793-4
• Let Justice Roll Down. Regal Books, 2006. ISBN 978-0-8307-4307-0
• Restoring At-Risk Communities: Doing It Together and Doing It Right. Baker Books, 1996 ISBN 978-0-8010-5463-1
• He's My Brother: Former Racial Foes Offer Strategy for Reconciliation. (with Thomas A. Tarrants and David Wimbish) Baker Books, 1994. ISBN 978-0-8007-9214-5
• Beyond Charity: The Call to Christian Community Development. Baker Books, 1993. ISBN 978-0-8010-7122-5
• Follow Me to Freedom: Leading as an Ordinary Radical (with Shane Claiborne) Regal Books, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8307-5120-4
• Welcoming Justice: God's Movement Toward Beloved Community, Charles Marsh and John M. Perkins (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, October 2009). ISBN 978-0-8308-3453-2

References

Further reading

• Mobilizing for the Common Good: The Lived Theology of John M. Perkins, eds. Peter Slade, Charles Marsh, and Peter Heltzel (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2013). ISBN 978-1-61703-859-4
• Charles Marsh, "Unfinished Business: John Perkins and the Radical Roots of Faith-Based Community Building", in The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from the Civil Rights Movement to Today, (New York: Baker Books, 2005), 153-188. ISBN 978-0465044160

External links

• The John Perkins Center at Seattle Pacific University
• John Perkins, The Civil Rights Movement as Theological Drama, The Project on Lived Theology, University of Virginia