PART 3

Scene #6 A new strategy

“I wonder what would happen if we didn’t start out focusing on race but instead focused on what people say they believe,” said Urk.

Everyone paused. Then Frank broke the ice. “OK, I’ll ask the obvious. What in the hell are you talking about?”

“I know this has to be refined,” says Urk, “but here is what I’ve been thinking. What if the eight churches here began by sending out a survey to our membership. We could begin with asking them just to name the six to ten beliefs that they think are most important about the Christian faith.”

“OK, then what?” asked Jennifer.

First, we’d each take those beliefs and build a summary that we would send back to our congregation.  Each of us would send our summaries to each other as well.  From the beginning, all eight churches would know that their summary was being sent to the other eight. I’m imagining that, under those circumstances, each congregation would sort of compete to see who would look better.”

“Urk, you are more devious than I ever imagined you to be,” said Fred.

Urk smiled and continued. “After those exchanges, we would send another questionnaire asking our members to say how they, given the beliefs they have identified, would, being faithful to those beliefs, live out those beliefs, addressing the racial tension in our city.

Again, we would remind them that we will build a summary of their responses and share them with our other churches. The White churches would know that the Black churches would see our summaries, and the Black churches would know that the White churches would see their summaries. Again, there is the pressure of competition in seeing how we look as we live out the Gospel that we ourselves have identified as critical to our faith.”

“So, we suck them in and then ask how they would like to live out the faith they have identified. I like it,” said Zeke. “I think you might be surprised about how our churches respond as well as yours.”

“Heh, we could even have some multi-church banquets and let them both see and discuss what they are seeing in the different church graphs. That way, they can learn from each other,” said Eric.

“Wouldn’t it be cool,” said Brian, “if, since we are making use of the internet, we invite some extra churches in other countries, or at least in far often sections of this country to share the same process and we discuss them as well.”

*Scene #7 WORSHIP AT THE CENTER

“Not only that,” said Eric, “but with some program like Zoom, we could have some multi-church worship experiences at the same time.”

“You know,” said Felicia, “we could really get into this shared worship thing.”

“What are you thinking about?” asked Urk.

“What is at the heart of the practice of our whole faith,” asked Felicia. “Isn’t it that we are invited to confess our sins, even those of our racist past, and, not because we deserve it but because God wants us to live into our wholeness, we are forgiven and liberated to live our best. It would be interesting if we invited them to confess in the presence of others and seek God’s forgiveness.

That is, as I understand it, the essential meaning of grace. If we confess our past, we can be set free to live a better future. If it worked for David and Bathsheba, maybe it can work for us,” said Brent.

“Maybe,” said Roy, “we could also develop a contest to see who could build the best picture of what it would look like if, as churches, we committed to living out the kingdom of God that we all pray for in the Lord’s prayer. We might even learn to forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

“I think we have just described some of the main elements in our weekly worship service,” said Fred. If we are really going to get into this, let’s work on developing some ways to help our people see the worship services in a more powerful way.”

*Scene #8 YOU ARE CALLED

Later that night, Urk would kneel in prayer and thank God both for his chapel experience and for what had now happened with his clergy friends. He didn’t know about crossing any Red Sea, but if that happened, he had the courage to face the wilderness.

IF YOU ALSO FEEL CALLED

If you feel God’s call to assist your church in addressing racism, I can offer you some help.

     Begin by viewing this introduction 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7452pqh59c4rxvx/Church%20Instruction%20Video%202.mp4?dl=0

Then, if you want help guiding your church through this process, I will make you this offer:

CLICK ON THIS LINK AND IT WILL SHOW YOU

HOW TO GO FURTHER:

https://smccutchan.krtra.com/t/n2ISe6Cf9Qa4

RACISM DOESN’T NEED TO DEFEAT THE CHURCH—WE HAVE A FAITH THAT CAN

DEFEAT IT.