Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. – Colossians 3:11,14

The Holy Spirit has led a group to form. Through sharing our reasons for participation we have developed a kinship. We have identified a few ways to get started working together.

There is a need to understand the state of racism in American. Some think we’ve made great progress since the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. 50 years ago. And, this may be so on the surface, but we have a long way to go. And, this group aims to help us get there.

We have identified some areas that we can work together:

Education

We are working on Training the Trainer, leveraging existing programs. From there, we’ll be working to inform our churches and the community through training and workshops.

We are providing opportunities for discussion by hosting performances of The Stain – a play leading into a dialog about race. We are also planning showings of movies like Hidden Figures along with a meal and an opportunity to discuss the movie with a diverse panel.

Resources

We’re compiling a vocabulary of terms often used in discussions about racism. One of the challenges in these discussions is make sure we’re on the same page.

We have started to gather resources from our various denominations and the internet at large.

Reconciliation

We held our first our first gathering, The MLK Time of Prayer. The feedback was not to wait a year to do another, so we will plan for another in the next few months.
Leveraging the success of our first event, we are planning a Day of Lament, along the lines of what the One Race Movement has done. A day filled with prayer, lament, confession, forgiveness, and repentance. Intertwined would also be food, fellowship, praise, and worship.

Fellowship and outreach

We will be sharing events among our churches. We attended a joint trip to Sight & Sound – JESUS.

We have begun discussing pulpit exchanges and joint worship services.

We are considering joint mission trips to serve together.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; – Corinthians 5:16-18

How we got here

80 members of 15 churches got together in September 2017 to determine ways we could do bigger things together. Andy Crouch, who led the evening, challenged those gathered to identify a need that could better be addressed by a group of united churches than any one church.

One of the two needs identified was to address racism and racial reconciliation. A group has begun to meet to determine what to do.

The first meeting of the group was earnestly committed to doing something, but was not sufficiently diverse to have a clear understanding of what to do.

A second meeting saw a more diverse group of 18 gathered on February 6th, 2017. We shared stories about what brought us to the meeting and a desire to do something. As kindred spirits, we are now prepared to determine next steps.