InterviewBlog | In conversation with Jo Herbert-James
In conversation with Jo Herbert-James
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 10.03.20
Jo wouldn’t like to introduce herself as Director of The Justice Conference UK, but that is what God’s calling on her – through her work at Tearfund and her personal discipleship – has led to. Preach caught up with her just before she leads a team of global and local partners and speakers through the second UK justice event.
ll It seems that lots of people have different opinions about what justice means. Can you define ‘justice’?
jhj When you think about justice, you need to understand what injustice is. At Tearfund, our whole understanding of poverty and how it comes about is through broken relationships – with God, others, ourselves, and wider creation. Justice is the restoration of those relationships. If we understand the fullness of the Hebrew word of shalom in the Bible as things being back in their right order and their right relationship, we can think about justice as the restoration of all things. Justice therefore in its fullest sense is a Gospel imperative – a part of the mission of God.
ll How did The Justice Conference begin?
The Justice Conference was started in 2010 in the US by Ken Wytsma who was a church leader and working for an NGO. He would hold a similar theology to Tearfund about holistic mission and the restoration of all things. Ken asked what it would do to his community if they met for a few days bringing ideas and creative capacity together to focus on the theology and practice of justice. That is what The Justice Conference events are: they draw on all the relationships that we have globally and locally – we spend two high-energy, high inspiration days circling around the deeper roots of biblical justice.
