DAVID ADAMS speaks to Matt Darvas, campaign director for Micah Australia, about the upcoming ‘Voices for Justice’ gathering in Canberra and his own journey to faith through the “door of justice”…
It’s 18 years since the launch of the Millennium Development Goals – eight international benchmarks covering everything from hunger to child mortality and gender equality – and 14 years since, in partnership with the World Evangelical Alliance, a global Christian response known as Micah Challenge was launched with the broad aim of harnessing the voice of the church to influence policy-makers in seeing the goals achieved.
The MDGs expired at the end of 2015 and, to keep momentum going, the Sustainable Development Goals were launched in 2016 with a series of 17 new global benchmarks to be reached by 2030.
Meanwhile, the work of what was Micah Challenge, now known locally as Micah Australia, continues and according to Matt Darvas, campaign director, while the “framework” may have changed, its essential mission remains the same: “To mobilise [Australian Christians] to raise a voice for the world’s poor”.
Voices for Justice participants at Parliament House in 2016.
Darvas says that while the MDGs proved successful in achieving such goals as halving extreme poverty and bringing what he calls “dramatic change” in lowering child mortality and improving maternal health outcomes, what sets the SDGs apart from the MDGs is that they have implications for both developed and developing nations.
“[T]his is about realising the gift that God has given us in a democratic society where everyone’s voice matters and the politicians are accountable to you.”
– Matt Darvas
“They’re not just about poverty, they’re about sustainability,” he says. “Which reaches into our own nation as well.”
While he says it is “fair to say” that with the shift from the MDGs to the SDGs and, in Australia itself, consecutive cuts to the country’s foreign aid budget, “the wind came out of the sails of Micah somewhat”, following a “period of reflection and redefining”, the organisation has now been reinvigorated.
In February this year, well-known Australian humanitarian identity Tim Costello was appointed as its executive director and Darvas, who had previously worked with child sponsorship organisation Compassion Australia, its campaign director.
“He is really passionate about seeing the Australian church engaged in the public square – raising a voice for justice,” says Darvas of Costello. “Really the vision for him…is equipping the broader Australian church and future generations to be able to stand up and take a leadership role [in advocating] for the poor.”
That vision is key to this year’s Voices for Justice, Micah Australia’s flagship annual event which sees hundreds of people travel to Canberra for several days of training, worship and, importantly, meetings with politicians to talk about key issues of justice.
This year’s event will be held over a weekend from 1st to 4th December and Darvas says those who attend will not only be equipped with the information they need to speak authoritatively on issues but also gain confidence on speaking in the public square and engaging with the political process.
“I think a lot of Christians are wary of politics because it can look like a bit of a rough game…So they can see that and go, ‘No, thanks…It’s negative and conflict-riven and what possible role could Christians play there ? It’s probably better to give it a wide berth’.
“But really, what we say is…this is about realising the gift that God has given us in a democratic society where everyone’s voice matters and the politicians are accountable to you. And politicians love it when Voices for Justice comes to town – they are very warm to the groups that come because they say ‘We receive meetings and lobby groups all throughout the year and everyone is coming to get something for themselves. You guys are the only ones who come on behalf of somebody else’. And that really stands out and makes a difference.”
Darvas rejects the idea that it’s a calling that’s only for some in the church.
“The call for Biblical justice is a call for all Christians,” he says. “And I think every Christian would agree that within the Bible there is the strong emphasis on speaking up for the poor. The question then becomes ‘How do I do that?’. Every Christian knows that the call for justice is there but not all of us necessarily know how to find ways, means and opportunities to do that.
“I think this is really about saying to the mainstream church, this is about how you can integrate faith and action; this is how you can come and have a practical voice for the poor. We don’t want your money in this instance, we just want your voice and your voice is really powerful.”
Darvas adds that working under the umbrella of Micah lends legitimacy to those voices because people can be assured the advocacy is taking place based on a “sound theological framework”.
MATT DARVAS’ JOURNEY TO FAITH THROUGH THE “DOOR OF JUSTICE”
There are days when Matt Darvas wakes up and, reflecting on his work in the humanitarian sector, can only thank God that he knows Him.
“Because if I didn’t, you would be so much more dismayed and disheartened as you look around the world,” says the 30-year-old from Newcastle in New South Wales where he and his wife Brittany also serve as lay missions pastors at The Grainery Church.
“But, because I know where the story ends, I know it’s just my responsibility to do all that I can in the time that I have on this physical Earth to bring in God’s Kingdom. But I know I don’t have to complete that task.
“I feel quite free to do the work that I do, knowing that it’s not in vain and even if I don’t see the results right now that I want to see, I know that I’m working towards a bigger Kingdom project that He’s in control of.”
His own faith journey, says Darvas, really started when he began attending a local Baptist church at the age of 16 after he was invited by a mate from school (with the promise of McDonald’s afterwards).
“I’d listen to the sermons on and off but I wasn’t that excited or taken by it because I grew up very privileged and so I didn’t really think I needed a rule-set to complement my life; I thought things were going just fine,” he says.
“It was actually when I went overseas after the [2004] Boxing Day tsunami, when I was about 10-years-old, and just had a radical experience of inequality and the life the children there my age were facing compared to what I’d experienced, really just due to the lucky lottery of life and geography. And I thought, ‘This isn’t right’ and the worldview that I had at that point of time didn’t provide any answers for the injustice I saw.”
He was directed to a passage in Isaiah 58 which talks about redressing injustice.
“I started to think ‘Wow, this is a God I can really follow, tell me more’. So I really came to faith through the door of justice and then realised the importance of holiness and righteousness in my own life and that really brought me into a much closer personal relationship with Jesus. It took a few years but now I’m able to see how all the pieces fit together.”
“We understand the call to justice Biblically,” he says. “And it’s not just about social justice politically but Biblical justice – what would God have us say in these situations? And that’s really evident at the [Voices for Justice] gathering itself.”
Those who have attended past Voices for Justice events have spanned across demographic groups.
“That’s actually the real beauty of it,” says Darvas. “When you’ve got a grandmother sitting next to a high-school student – that actually speaks volumes to the politicians themselves because very rarely do they see that representative spread…And it’s also a mixture of experience. We have a lot of people that…have been overseas missionaries or development workers and they’re alongside accountants, alongside teachers, alongside builders. And so a lot of people walk away having been encouraged…by like-minded other people.”
While Voices for Justice is held over a single (long) weekend, Darvas says part of the focus of the teaching is to equip people so that when they return home afterwards, they’re able to implement what they’ve learned on a local level, engaging with their local federal MP with the aim of building a long-term relationship.
“That’s why our tone is so relational – we very much seek to love the politician, not attack them at all because we see a long-term relationship…as most fruitful.”
Darvas says that when talking to politicians it’s important to find some points to connect on, with preparation beforehand a key part of that.
“You might not find agreement with everything but there are some positive things you can take away and work on…” he says. “The majority of politicians will have some connection to an overseas issue…It’s just about finding what that hook is and speaking to them about that.”
By way of example, he says that earlier this year Micah representatives met with Pauline Hanson, generally seen as a controversial politician in the Australian political landscape.
“Pauline had actually been and seen a health project funded by Australian aid in India when she was there on another government trip and actually was quite impressed by it and…stood up in Parliament and made mention of this great project in India. So we, knowing that from research, spoke to her [about it].”
The conversation led to her concerns about corruption in the aid sector and Darvas says they were able to reassure her that it was an issue they too were concerned about and were doing everything they could to address the issue.
The main speaker at this year’s Voices for Justice will be Rev Adam Taylor, currently executive director of US-based social justice organisation Sojourners.
“Adam was born at the tail-end of the civil rights movement in America and, in reflecting as a young man on…what he still felt was a state of a great deal of injustice in America, he realised that in the church there had been a big shift away from civil rights and public justice and advocacy, to charity and community service.
“There’s nothing wrong with charity and community service but he said ‘You know, we’ve neglected something which is important here in the Bible, which is speaking up for the poor. We’ve basically offloaded that responsibility’.”
“When politics is so wild, the voiceless are pushed even further down the rung in terms of priorities so this is a really important time to be going to Canberra and raising your voice.”
– Matt Darvas
He says Taylor will be sharing his own story – which, as well, as working for Sojourners has included time working with World Vision in the US and heading up the Faith Initiative at the World Bank – at the gathering.
Darvas is hoping to see at least 300 people at this year’s Voices for Justice event in Canberra.
“I think if people understand how valuable it is for them to be there in terms of their ability to truly make an impact on these politicians, they will answer that call. I think it’s very unique in that it’s not a conference where you just come to receive, it’s a conference where your presence – your physically being there – actually makes a big difference in itself…
“When politics is so wild, the voiceless are pushed even further down the rung in terms of priorities so this is a really important time to be going to Canberra and raising your voice.”
