{"id":280,"date":"2019-12-16T09:00:09","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T09:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/?p=280"},"modified":"2019-12-17T18:42:50","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T18:42:50","slug":"jamie-dickson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/2019\/12\/16\/jamie-dickson\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastor Jamie Dickson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"by Alecsandria Davis ’20<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you remove taking care of your neighbor out of Christianity, I would contend that it\u2019s not Christianity.\u201d This belief is what motivates Pastor Jamie Dickson, pastor of Kingdom Life Church<\/a> (KLC), to respond to poverty. Jamie is one of the younger pastors in the area, and serves his non-denominational church with his own unique style. He preaches with no pulpit in black jeans and a denim jacket, cracking jokes throughout his sermon and keeping his congregation engaged with his excitement about Jesus. <\/span><\/p>\n

When Jamie first became a pastor in the area and led a smaller congregation, he modeled this care of neighbor on the streets of Waterville. But as his congregation and responsibilities have grown, Jamie now operates as a facilitator for his community. \u201cWe have bodies, we have resources, we have energy, and we have heart, [it\u2019s my job] to take a group of people and meet the needs that we see.\u201d This desire to facilitate is what connected Jamie to one of KLC\u2019s members, Michelle Franzose. They were sitting at a table in Big G\u2019s as she told him through tears her story of homelessness, and her deep desire to be a part of others’ journeys out of poverty. In the beginning, they weren\u2019t sure what the partnership would look like, but Jamie knew \u201cas a pastor\u2026 I have to do whatever it takes to help you fulfill that dream of your heart. It didn\u2019t start off with <\/span>oh, we could do so much<\/span><\/i> it was just <\/span>Michelle, I\u2019ll do whatever it takes.\u201d<\/span><\/i> His job is now twofold: to see, encourage, and facilitate the dreams in people\u2019s hearts, and to motivate his wider congregation to get involved.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>When Jamie engages with people, he wants to meet their physical and spiritual needs. \u201cMy hope is that they would feel a love that reaffirms that they\u2019re valuable. I want every person to actually experience a sense of worth.\u201d Jamie talks about the need beyond the need, and what he calls a \u201cpoverty mentality\u201d that affects self-worth and attitude. At the center of Jamie\u2019s desire for poverty ministry at KLC is love, and \u201clove has no agenda.\u201d As the church is trying to get involved, Jamie is aware of some of the obstacles that come from years of people experiencing Christian organizations that require them to have some sort of belief or conversion in order to receive assistance. <\/span><\/p>\n

Jamie wants to combat this narrative and build partnerships in the community, but he often feels \u201clike the last kid picked on the basketball team.\u201d In the future of Waterville, this is one of the biggest things he wants to see change. He is working to build trust between the faith-based and secular groups, and across the wider community as a whole. \u201cI would love for the community to say <\/span>oh, there\u2019s a need, the church would be so good at nailing this need.<\/span><\/i>\u201d He considers it the church\u2019s responsibility to change this narrative, and he is building this rapport through relationships and having a positive presence in the community. Kingdom Life Church has hosted clean-up days and town-wide events for families to create this deeper level of trust. Jamie is committed to these relationships, and he believes that this will be where the real difference gets made. <\/span><\/p>\n

In his personal life, Jamie talks about the effect his five-year-old daughter has had on his response to poverty in Waterville. When she started noticing people who were homeless on the street, and he had to explain to her the realities that people live under, \u201cHer little mind was just like, T<\/em><\/span>hat’s not allowed.\u201d<\/span><\/i> Now anytime they pass somebody asking for help, she isn\u2019t willing to move on until they respond in some way. Jamie talks about striving to have the same level of sensitivity to the brokenness around him. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as I love facilitating programs, I would really love it if we didn\u2019t have to have them\u2026 In my utopian, idealistic worldview, I imagine a grassroots, authentic heart movement that\u2019s on a people [level], not an organization level, where people\u2019s minds and hearts are turned to the needs all around them\u2014and not only provide resources, but provide community, relationship, and connection. So if somebody came to me and said <\/span>I really want to do it,<\/span><\/i> I would say, <\/span>then do it.<\/span><\/i>\u201d For Jamie, the foundation of it all is his faith, and the idea of being unable to turn a blind eye to those in need. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alecsandria Davis ’20 \u201cIf you remove taking care of your neighbor out of Christianity, I would contend that it\u2019s not Christianity.\u201d This belief is what motivates Pastor Jamie Dickson, pastor of Kingdom Life Church (KLC), to respond to poverty. Jamie is one of the younger pastors in the area, and serves his non-denominational church […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7980,"featured_media":293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7980"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":554,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}