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.
- We have already formed communities that meet weekly and are connected to other Christian communities, encompassing 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.
- 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.
- Confession and forgiveness are integral to our ongoing 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)
- engage our membership in a bottom-up, congregation-wide conversation. This conversation would make use of surveys, questionnaires, and other internet methods.
You can lead the membership in first reaffirming their basic beliefs and then exploring their implications for an anti-racist witness. If interested, let me know at steve@smccutchan.com .