Chicago, IL: The Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) & The John and Vera Mae Perkins Foundation (JVMPF) were thrilled to cap their 30th annual, national conference in Chicago, IL, by celebrating the legacy of Dr. John & Vera Mae Perkins on November 2, 2018. Dr. Perkins was present at the gala with his daughters Priscilla and Elizabeth. Vera Mae, his wife, wasn’t able to attend because of health constraints but was introduced via Facebook Live where she expressed her gratitude for God’s blessings as they served for 30 years with CCDA.
During his message, Dr. Perkins talked about his years growing up in a Mississippi sharecropping family. As an early pioneer of the civil rights movement, he dedicated his life to the cause of racial equality. The CCDA leadership thanked Dr. Perkins for his faithfulness and unrelenting dedication to show others how to live out biblical reconciliation.
Dr. John Perkins is the founder and president emeritus of the John and Vera Mae Perkins Foundation and co-founder of Christian Community Development Association. He has served in advisory roles under five U.S. presidents, is one of the leading evangelical voices to come out of the American civil rights movement, and is an author and international speaker on issues of reconciliation, leadership, and community development. For his tireless work he has received 14 honorary doctorates from universities including: Virginia University of Lynchburg, Wheaton College, Gordon College, Huntington College, Geneva College, Spring Arbor University, North Park College, and Belhaven College. In 2004 he partnered with Seattle Pacific University to launch the campus-based John Perkins Center for Reconciliation, Leadership Training, and Community Development.
In his crowning work as a Moody Publishers’ author, Dr. Perkins speaks honestly to the church about reconciliation, discipleship, and justice in his book One Blood: Parting Words to the Church on Race and Love (April 2018).
The CCDA is a network of Christians committed to seeing people and communities holistically restored. Not just spiritually, but emotionally, physically, economically and socially. Not by offering mercy alone, but by undergirding mercy with justice. Chicago is where the movement of CCDA began 30 years ago through inspired men and women who were rooted in relationship and reconciliation.
