TESTING GOD’S SPIRIT (CONTIN)

• Begin as a team of religious institutions to heal the racism in our society.

Do you ever wonder what could happen if churches of different races but the same Gospel not only believed but demonstrated that races working together and supporting each other could release the full beauty of God’s creation?

I know that there is plenty of stress in your ministry. I also know that like the Israelites who walked through the wilderness, there is no easy solution that will magically relieve you of that stress. Yet, consider how having a positive vision of hope to offer your congregation could affect your own spirits as well as energize your church and offer a beacon of hope for those in the larger society.

Since the shooting of George Floyd and other recent police shootings, the nation’s cognitive eye again has been opened to one of America’s greatest sins–racism. We have not been able to “love our brothers and sisters as ourselves.” Yet at our deepest level, we know that this is the witness to which we are called as humanity.

As depicted in the PowerPoint presentation, Step by Step Guide to Anti-Racism Ministry,

we have some significant advantages that can enable us to make a healing impact on our world. 

1. We already have formed communities that are connected to other Christian communities that contain every ethnic identity in the world.

• We have a shared faith in God, who invites us to be part of that healing force that God intends.
• Our shared Scriptures tell our story of imperfect people like us who have learned the power of forgiveness to heal mistakes and give visions of a more perfect world.
• We draw our inspiration from a God who took a “no people” and made them into “God’s people,” leading them across a hostile wilderness to a Promised Land.
•  For Christians, this same God demonstrated in the person of Jesus, who was born in an insignificant village in a third-rate colony of the Roman Empire, how God can start small and will not be defeated even when the world does its worst.

 6. We can adapt the Truth and Reconciliation process from South Africa to enable the whole church to hear Black Christians tell the stories of the impact of racism, both personal and institutional, on their lives.

8. Confession and forgiveness are part of our continued ritual. We rehearse the stories of how confession of imperfection can liberate healing possibilities in both the Hebrew Scriptures (e.g., David) and the New Testament (e.g., the disciples).

•  White members are invited to discover the healing power of confession and the possibility of forgiveness, which can lead to a renewed commitment to being a healing force in society.
•  Together, we can begin to rewrite the story of our church and society inspired by a vision of hope that can lead us across our own wilderness of racism towards a Promised Land of Healing and Hope.
•  We can be an Ambassador of Reconciliation🙁 2 Corinthians 5:16-21)
• We can: engage our membership in a bottom-up, congregation-wide conversation. This conversation would make use of surveys, questionnaires, and other Internet methods.
  • to lead the membership in first reaffirming their basic beliefs and then exploring their implications for an anti-racist witness.