The personal challenge of advocacy

Advocacy is the embracing of a cause or issue, a conversion to a mission that makes a very real claim on the advocate. It is the activity of altering structures, of changing the status quo. Like prophetic ministry, the task of advocacy is to nurture, nourish, and evoke consciousness of different ways of considering and doing things, to champion new models of organization. Effective advocacy entails three distinct steps: envisioning an alternative, challenging the status quo, and energizing persons and communities. It is characterized by the emergence of an alternative community concerned with different issues and different ways of doing things. It also involves the integration of advocacy into our daily lives and a penetration of the numbness of life. How will we know when we are truly serving as advocates of the Church's healing ministry? We will have an inkling that we are on the right track when we move from charity to justice.