Each pastor asks each of their leaders to come with a list 4 or 5 beliefs that they consider foundational for a Christian church.
Explain to your leadership how you have arrived at this area of interest. In addition to your personal faith, watching the videos may provide you additional material.
- You don’t have to be a Bystander
- ttps://www.dropbox.com/s/7452pqh59c4rxvx/Church%20Instruction%20Video%2
https://bit.ly/GuideAntiracism You may have to copy this and paste it into a new browser.
ADDRESSING THE MEMBERSHIP
ADDRESSING THE MEMBERSHIP OF EACH CONGREGATION
- You will ask each member to identify the statements that they agree are appropriate for a Christian church.
- This is the beginning of a multi-congregational conversation within the larger church. Inform the members of all participating churches that each church will see the cumulative results of each church’s membership.
- Also inform the membership that they each will soon receive a couple of brief surveys of your membership with some questions about our understanding of both the nature of church and faith as it considers what the Gospel has to say with respect to racism. Again, the cumulative results of each church, without individual names attached, will be share with the participating churches.
- When these results have been gathered and graphed for visual reflection, the churches will arrange for some shared church assemblies in which to reflect together on the results.
- Hopefully, each assembly will include members of both Black and White churches and in this mixed company you will engage in the discipline of Active Listening to deeper understand the impact of racism in our society. (This discipline will be further defined below.)
- Then the churches will engage in an adaptation of the Truth and Reconciliation process developed in South Africa to deepen our understanding.
- This will involve a process described below in having some Black Christians share their experience of racism in their lives from early to present experiences.
- Also it will involve some White Christians testifying to what they have learned about their participation in racial structures of our society and their commitment to re-write the story of their lives.
- Having experienced both of those sets of stories, the group will begin to explore how together they can begin to re-write the story of faith addressing racism as ambassadors of reconciliation.
Here is a link to a longer video that explores the process in more detail.https://bit.ly/GuideAntiracism