Shane Claiborne to Speak at Grand Rapids Rally

January 21, 2008— For a man in his 30s, Shane Claiborne has a lot of stories to share about his experiences with the poor.  He’s slept in the park with Philadelphia’s homeless, looked into the faces of dying children in Iraq, and cared for lepers in India. He’s even worked alongside Mother Theresa.

A prolific, young social justice activist, Claiborne will be the keynote speaker at the Sea to Sea’s celebration rally in Grand Rapids this August.

Claiborne is the author of The Irresistible Revolution, and speaks with eloquence, humility and authenticity to thousands every year about following Jesus Christ’s example of taking care of the poor.

His passion for social justice intersects well with the goals of this summer’s Sea to Sea Bike Tour, presented by the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in partnership with the Reformed Church in America (RCA). The tour seeks to increase awareness and funding in support of poverty-reduction, while motivating people from all walks of life to actively participate in helping the poor.

Currently, 174 cyclists are participating in the Sea to Sea Bike Tour, with 117 set to ride the entire 3,750-mile distance from Seattle across the U.S. and a piece of Canada to New Jersey.

In addition to sending cyclists across the continent this summer, one of the key ways the tour hopes to achieve its goals is by hosting 12 celebration rallies along the tour route.

Claiborne is scheduled to speak at the rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Sunday, August 17.  Because of the heavy concentration of CRC and RCA members in West Michigan, the Grand Rapids rally is expected to be the largest of the 12.

Claiborne is founder of The Simple Way, a faith community in inner city Philadelphia with a simple mission: To love God; To love people; To follow Jesus.

“Each of us is created for community, and in the image of community,” Claiborne shares. “And yet everything in the world tries to rob us of this Divine gift. The life of the simple way is the story of that struggle to love and to be loved.”

Says Claiborne: “The Simple Way [does] much work to expose the fundamental structures that create poverty and to imagine alternatives to them.”