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Finding a flower in the crack
A discussion group for people involved in the child welfare system in Boston has led to collaboration as members learn from each other and better understand the system which affects their lives and directs their work.
Photo credit: KevinCarden via Lightstock
Finding a flower in the crack
A story of shared humanity within the child welfare ecosystem
by Kay Rideout
One meeting — that’s all they agreed to in the beginning.
On Feb. 26, 2018, an email from Liza Cagua-Koo of the Emmanuel Gospel Center (EGC) pinged the inboxes of six individuals intertwined with the child welfare system in Greater Boston. A suburban fostering grandmother with the church-based initiative Home for Good. An urban bivocational pastor and social worker with the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE). A leader from the New England Christian non-profit Fostering Hope. A certified counselor and foster parent.
The email extended an open-ended invitation.
“You are receiving this email because I or someone else on this list knows about your engagement in supporting & recruiting families doing foster care and/or adoption,” Cagua-Koo wrote. “I don’t have an agenda for this time – the goal is for you to connect….”
Recognizing the opportunity to build on shared connections and passions, the group agreed to meet in MARE’s Newton offices the following month.
Before this meeting, individuals in the group had experienced the weight of the child welfare system — each from a different vantage point.
As a kinship foster parent, Wendy Jacobi knew the difficulties facing children and families in the system and the lack of available resources. For 17 years, Jacobi and her husband have worked to build support systems encompassing neuropsychologists, developmental pediatricians, and childcare workers.
For years, Rev. Dr. Ricardo Franco recognized the need for cross-system collaboration between churches and child welfare workers but found that the timing was never quite right. Letters, emails, and intentional conversations led to few open doors.
“It really is invaluable. Just having a space where people feel comfortable, where they feel safe, where they truly feel like they can share their thoughts — even if they haven’t fully grappled with them.”
Never envisioning himself in the world of foster care, Jonathan Reid began his journey as a foster parent with negative assumptions surrounding both children in the system and their families. Through interactions and first-hand experiences with these families, Reid became passionate about helping to reframe churches’ perceptions of children and families within the child welfare system: a desire which has since led him to develop the Fostering Hope initiative.
Though individual, their experiences represent patterns of pain and complexity embedded in the child welfare system.
Like many complex systems, the child welfare system can often feel concrete: heavy, immovable, challenging to navigate, and often built on conflicting agendas. A system where families are both separated and supported — where turnover rates are high, emotional and professional burnouts are frequent, and change is glacial.
But life, movement, and beauty are still at work in heavy, inflexible spaces. Despite the difficult realities in every system, there are moments when the concrete cracks long enough for a flower to take root in the gap.
On that day in 2018, eight individuals, connecting on shared hopes and experiences, discovered a crack in the concrete.
“I prayed for this and I (had) been waiting for this — more than pray … I yearned for this,” Franco said. “I longed for this in my heart from the very beginning, but I didn’t feel like it (had) any echo, any resonance with other people.”
One meeting turned into two, and two turned into a series of monthly meetings arranged over four years — interrupted by COVID-19 but not derailed.
The group’s structure was organic and relational: formed by Cagua-Koo and Franco’s intentional decisions to empower all the voices and individuals in the room. This context, set apart from the whirlwind of personal and professional responsibilities, cultivated honest discussions.
“(Systems language has) definitely made a big difference in (Fostering Hope’s) thinking and planning as an org. I’m regularly thinking about some of these simple baseline questions like, ‘OK, what’s an unintended consequence if we do this? Who is this going to affect that we wouldn’t want it to affect?’”
“It really is invaluable,” former Fostering Hope Programs Coordinator Ana Maria Tormes said. “Just having a space where people feel comfortable, where they feel safe, where they truly feel like they can share their thoughts — even if they haven’t fully grappled with them.”
More people entered into the conversation as members and guest speakers — individuals from different backgrounds, communities, roles, beliefs, and experiences — who could together better understand the system which affected their lives and directed their work.
A dozen individuals participate in this space today. Group members have come and gone as needed, introducing friends, co-workers, and supervisors along the way.
Years later, the fruit that has come from the group can be seen internally and through participating leaders’ efforts.
Connection has led to collaboration: both within the group and with those outside of it.
Group members have shared insights and resources at Vision New England’s forums that connect Christian leaders across the region interested in engaging the foster care space. They have successfully supported one another throughout the COVID-19 pandemic: working together and coaching one another as they transitioned from exclusively in-person events to virtual spaces that effectively engaged new families.
But while these collaborative, external accomplishments are significant, leaders in the group consistently point to the internal, personal and relational fruit that has formed within and between them.
Intellectually, group members were exposed to systems models that help articulate and inform the ecosystem in which they operate. Discussions surrounding differences between urban and suburban strategies, characteristics that define supportive foster families, and best practices for church–agency collaborations have given new language and ways of thinking to those involved in the conversations. Group members are not just sharing what they already know but revealing new insights and points of leverage in their discussions with one another.
“I can read books about strategies and how to support families, how to recruit families — there are tons of materials … but this has been my best social work education in terms of bringing the humanity of the field in front of me.”
“(Systems language has) definitely made a big difference in (Fostering Hope’s) thinking and planning as an org.,” Reid said. “I’m regularly thinking about some of these simple baseline questions like, ‘OK, what’s an unintended consequence if we do this? Who is this going to affect that we wouldn’t want it to affect?’”
The intellectual curiosity this learning requires has served the group well as individuals engage their own stereotypes, preconceived narratives, and misplaced assumptions. As people from different spaces in the child welfare system and the broader systems serving urban families gathered in one room, shared stories and experiences quickly began to challenge individual perspectives.
For Jacobi, one of the most significant moments of learning took place when a family case worker was invited to share the complexity and weight of her role with members of the group. “She talked about her trauma — that she had been traumatized [by her job] had never occurred to me … I so wanted to weep for this woman,” Jacobi said. “That to me was the moment that made me say, ‘I understand it now.’”
In conversation with eight other group members, each voiced this same perspective–shift — this expansion of worldview that has added new layers of complexity to their perceptions surrounding other individuals, churches, organizations, institutions and families interacting in the child welfare ecosystem.
“I learned so quickly from the insights (and) from these other folks sharing their perspective,” Reid said. “Adding insights and ideas and concepts and perspectives that I would have not ever known or thought of had I not been at a table with them and in a space where we could kind of quietly listen and learn from each other.”
Cagua-Koo noted that the work of listening to one another and “humanizing” individuals within the group has been a critical outcome.
Franco echoed this idea. “The learning for me has been the (human) part — the humanity of all the players,” Franco said. “Because you know what? I can read books about strategies and how to support families, how to recruit families — there are tons of materials … but this has been my best social work education in terms of bringing the humanity of the field in front of me.”
Shared humanity has brought more than a perspective shift: it has brought healing, compassion, and mutual trust.
“Regardless of what progress looks like to each person, nothing will move forward if we cannot maintain each other’s humanity and change the way in which we view systems and our place in them.”
This shared humanity has the potential to become a foundation from which leaders in the system can work together to reimagine better ways to support vulnerable families and their children.
“Descriptors of the child welfare system in the urban context vary from ‘needed’ to ‘broken’ to straight up ‘demonic’ — and what word you use largely depends on your felt experience with its institutions and your vantage point in a society with a history of separating children from their families and over-policing families of color. Some activists would like to see the child welfare system radically overhauled, even abolished,” Cagua-Koo said. “But regardless of what progress looks like to each person, nothing will move forward if we cannot maintain each other’s humanity and change the way in which we view systems and our place in them.”
Like Cagua-Koo, members of the group have come to recognize that the child welfare system is not simply a machine to be overhauled, endured, or defended but that it is also a broad web of human beings working to support children and their families — human beings who are all subject to the limits of their organizational systems and institutional worldviews.
And while each group member lives within these limits, they have found that — together — limits of understanding, worldview, and best approach can be challenged.
Nevertheless, entering a deeply relational space that brings tangled, messy narratives to the forefront requires humility, patience, and commitment. It demands both the desire and the capacity to make space for critical conversations amid organizational priorities, family routines, external meetings, and overflowing schedules. It involves a willingness to journey into unknown areas and follow the path as it unfolds.
“Certain people stick, but not everybody stays,” Cagua-Koo said. “The more that you have a singular focus on quick and ‘effective’ action, probably the harder it is for you to be in the group because of the way the group has had to flow.”
The work needed within these complex systems is not simple or easy, but it is possible.
A few years into the process, this group is still just beginning — a crack, if you will, in the concrete. But out of this crack, a flower of collective learning, mourning, celebration, humanity, and possibility is beginning to grow.
Kay Rideout
About the Author
Kay Rideout served as a Summer 2022 Communications and Research Assistant at EGC. She is currently working towards a B.A. in Multimedia Journalism at Taylor University in Indiana and plans to graduate in 2024. Kay is passionate about in-depth narratives (specifically those coming from lesser-seen spaces), storytelling and the value of an individual’s lived experience. While still in the process of discerning post-graduation plans, she knows narratives will play a key role in whichever field she enters! Having grown up both overseas and in the Greater Boston area, she enjoys Boston’s unique culture and culinary experiences (Mike’s Pastry topping the list!).
College Ministries and Churches Serving University Students
This guide includes Boston-area Christian campus ministries and a sample of churches serving college students.
Skyler via Lightstock
College Ministries and Churches Serving University Students in Boston
by Rudy Mitchell, Senior Researcher
With its 150,000 students and 35 colleges and universities, Boston has long been known as one of the leading college towns in America. The greater Boston area has about 50 colleges and universities and over 250,000 students. Known as the Athens of America, Boston also hosts many thousands of international students, scholars, and researchers.
Here is a selective guide to some Boston-area Christian campus ministries and a sample of churches serving college students.
If you are a prospective student, parent, youth worker, or advisor, this information can help you find a Christian group or staff worker. If you believe God is calling you into campus ministry, Boston is a strategic area with many opportunities for ministry. If you have a concern to pray for Boston-area campuses, students, and ministries, this guide provides an overview and some information to start with. Current students with questions about God or the Christian faith can use this guide to find fellow students or campus workers to talk to or meet with.
General Campus Ministries
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF)
"The purpose of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is to establish and advance at colleges and universities witnessing communities of students and faculty who follow Jesus as Savior and Lord: growing in love for God, God’s Word, God’s people of every ethnicity and culture, and God’s purposes in the world." — IVCF, Our Purpose
Leadership: Susan Park, Area Director
Contact: newengland@intervarsity.org
InterVarsity has ministries, groups, or staff covering the following campuses: Babson College, Berklee College of Music (including Boston Conservatory), Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, Bunker Hill Community College, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS), New England Conservatory, Northeastern University, Radcliffe College, Tufts University, and the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Some ministries on various campuses are focused on serving specific undergraduate or graduate groups. For example, Harvard Graduate School Christian Fellowship serves Harvard graduate students in the Law School, Business School, and others.
For contacts and information on staff or groups, visit intervarsity.org/chapters.
Cru Boston
“Cru is a caring community passionate about connecting people to Jesus Christ. Our purpose is helping to fulfill the Great Commission in the power of the Holy Spirit by winning people to faith in Jesus Christ, building them in their faith and sending them to win and build others. We help the body of Christ to do evangelism and discipleship in a variety of creative ways. We are committed to the centrality of the Cross, the truth of the Word, the power of the Holy Spirit and the global scope of the Great Commission. … Cru offers spiritual guidance, resources and programs tailored to people from all cultures in every walk of life.” — Cru, What We Do
Website: cruboston.com
Leadership: Sharon Kumar, Cru Team leader in Boston
Staff contacts: cruboston.com/contact
Cru has groups, ministries, or staff covering the following campuses: Babson College, Berklee College of Music (including Boston Conservatory), Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, Bunker Hill Community College, Emerson College, Emmanuel College, Harvard University, Lesley University, Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt), Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), New England Conservatory of Music, Northeastern University, Roxbury Community College, Simmons University, University of Massachusetts Boston, Wellesley College, and Wentworth Institute of Technology.
Navigators
“The Navigators Christian Fellowship at Boston University is a community of students and friends who want to know God and Jesus Christ and who want to love and encourage each other while walking through life together in Boston.” — The Navigators Christian Fellowship at Boston University
The ministry has weekly small-group Bible studies and large-group meetings.
Navigators is a 90-year-old international, interdenominational Christian ministry known for its emphasis on discipleship and its motto, “to know Christ and to make him known.”
Website: bunavs.org
Craig Parker, City Leader
Rich Brzoska, Campus Director
Chi Alpha
Chi Alpha is a campus ministry that seeks to reconcile students to Christ and build a strong foundation for a lifelong relationship with Him. It is affiliated with the Assemblies of God denomination.
In Boston, there are Chi Alpha Christian Fellowships at Boston College, Boston University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Website: chialpha.com
Christian Union
Christian Union seeks to “bring spiritual transformation and renewal to campus by seeking the Lord, growing in knowledge and love of His Word.” Staff teach “intellectually rigorous Bible courses, disciple students one-on-one, and coach students to develop as Christian leaders.” — Christian Union
Christian Union ministers at Harvard University and Harvard Law School.
Website: cuglorialaw.org
Leadership
Don Weis, Christian Union Director of Undergraduate Ministry at Harvard
Justin Yim, Christian Union Ministry Director at Harvard Law
Contact: glorialaw@christianunion.org
Coalition for Christian Outreach
Coalition for Christian Outreach is a national student ministry partnering with local churches. Its vision is to see students empowered by the Holy Spirit to live out the public implications of their personal transformation in every sphere of life. They love Jesus intimately, view the world Biblically, live obediently, join in Christ’s restoration of all things, and invite others to do the same.
Locally, the ministry serves students at Boston College and Berklee College of Music and partners with the Church of the Cross.
Leadership: Garrett Rice, Campus Minister, Boston College
International Students Inc. (ISI)
“International Students, Inc. exists to share Christ’s love with international students and to equip them for effective service in cooperation with the local church and others.” — International Students, About Us
Leadership: Steve Hope, ISI Boston City Director
Boston International Student Ministry
“Our mission is to collectively serve international students, scholars, and their families by providing valuable services and activities. … The services we offer consist primarily of friendship partners, holiday host families, seminars, tourism, and ESL classes (conversational and academic). Spiritual activities such as Bible studies and church participation are also offered for those who are interested.” — Boston International Student Ministry, About Us
Website: ismbostonwest.org
Contact: Michael Dean
For more information on international student ministry in Boston, see the Emmanuel Gospel Center’s New England’s Book of Acts, Section 2, pp. 103-113.
Reformed University Fellowship (RUF)
“Reformed University Fellowship - (RUF) is a campus ministry that reaches college students from all backgrounds with the hope of Jesus Christ. College is a time when beliefs are explored, decisions are made, and lives are changed. We invite students into authentic relationships and the study of God’s Word.” — Reformed University Fellowship
Boston University
Website: rufbu.com
Campus minister: Nathan Dicks
Harvard University
Website: ruf.org/ministry/harvard-university
Campus minister: Michael Whitham
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Website: ruf.org/ministry/massachusetts-institute-of-technology
Campus minister: Solomon Kim
Sojourn Collegiate Ministry
Sojourn is a New England campus ministry with a focus on community, justice, and faith. Serving Northeastern University, Boston University, University of Massachusetts, Boston and Tufts University (Bread Coffeehouse).
Website: sojourncollegiate.com
Leadership
Boston Lead: Linsey Field
Executive Director: Tim Hawkins
The Archdiocese of Boston has a Campus Ministry Office with links and information about its many Catholic campus ministries: bostoncatholic.org/chaplaincy-programs/college-campus-ministry.
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Churches with college student ministries or serving college students
Abundant Life Church, Cambridge
A number of college students attend this church led by Pastor Larry Ward. Associate Pastor Kadeem Massiah is experienced in campus ministry.
Website: alccambridge.org
Phone: (617) 864-2826
Bethel AME Church
College Corner is Bethel AME’s college ministry.
Website: bethelame.org/church-school
Facilitators: Sis. Shironda White & Rev. Carrington
Phone: (617) 524-7900
Boston Chinese Evangelical Church (BCEC)
BCEC has a long history of serving college students.
Website: bcec.net
College ministry staff
Ryan So, Director Young Adult & College Ministries, (617) 426-5711, x219
Chris Horte, Director of Student Ministries, Newton Campus, (617) 243-0100 x207
Central Square Church, Cambridge
The conveniently located congregation tends to have many college students attending.
Website: centralsquare.church/youngadults
College ministry staff
Jean Shim, Pastor of Young Adults & Ministries
Phone: 617-420-2232
Email: info@centralsquare.church
Christ the King Church, Cambridge
Christ the King is centrally located between Harvard and MIT at 99 Prospect St. in Cambridge and supports several Reformed University Fellowship groups on campuses.
Website: ctkcambridge.org/college
Phone: (617) 864-5464
Church of the Cross
The campus ministry is a partner with Coalition for Christian Outreach, which is a national student ministry partnering with local churches: ccojubilee.org/about-us.
Website: cotcboston.org/staffandclergy
College ministry staff
Garrett Rice, Director for Collegiate and Young Adult Ministry
City Life Church
City Life Church serves students from many campuses with community groups, monthly city-wide meetings, and retreats.
Website: citylifeboston.org/university
Hyunjo Park and Jamie Lee, University Ministry Interns
Cornerstone Church of Boston
Cornerstone has both young adults and students in its congregation. Its campus ministry contact person is Danny Yoon.
Jubilee Christian Church
Jubilee’s College & Young Adult Ministry is called “Influence.”
Website: jubileeboston.org/influence
Phone: (617) 296-5683
Email: connect@jubileeboston.org
Park Street Church (PSC)
PSC partners with Cru Boston to reach undergraduates and InterVarsity to reach graduate students on campus, but college students involved at Park Street Church also participate in other on-campus ministries.
Ministries
College community: parkstreet.org/ministries/college/
Internationals: parkstreet.org/ministries/internationals
Boston Healthcare Fellowship: healthcarefellowship.org
Staff
Tammy McLeod, Director of College Ministry
Tim Leary, Director of Grad Student Ministries
Dr. Raymond Kam, Minister to Internationals
Symphony Church
The Symphony College Congregation meets at 967 Commonwealth Ave. in Boston.
Website: symphonychurch.com/college
Email: admin@symphonychurch.com
Staff
Michael Oh, College Pastor
*For more complete information on churches, see our online Church Directory and map.
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College Campuses & Christian Ministries Serving Them
Babson College
Cru, IVCF
Berklee College of Music
Cru, IVCF, Coalition for Christian Outreach, Berklee House of Prayer
Boston College
Cru, IVCF, Coalition for Christian Outreach, Chi Alpha, Asian Baptist Student Koinonia (ABSK)
Boston University
Cru, IVCF, Navigators, Reformed University Fellowship, Sojourn Collegiate Ministry, Chi Alpha, Asian Baptist Student Koinonia (ABSK)
Brandeis University
Cru, IVCF, Asian Baptist Student Koinonia (ABSK)
Bunker Hill Community College
Cru, IVCF (Christian Fellowship)
Curry College
IVCF - Crossroads, JAM, Office of Spiritual Life
Emerson College
See nearby Park Street Church, City Life Church, & Cornerstone Church
Center for Spiritual Life: emconnect.emerson.edu/organization/spirituallife
Emmanuel College
Cru, IVCF, Mission and Ministry (including Community Service)
Harvard University
Cru, IVCF, Christian Union Gloria, Southern Baptist Chaplaincy, Foursquare Church Chaplain, Reformed University Fellowship (PCA), Asian Baptist Student Koinonia (ABSK), and other denominational chaplaincies. Radcliffe also has an IVCF group.
Lesley University
Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt)
Cru, IVCF
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS)
Cru, IVCF
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Cru, IVCF, Reformed University Fellowship, Chi Alpha (Baptist Student Fellowship), Asian Baptist Student Koinonia, Octet Collaborative-Christian Study Center, Cambridge Roundtable on Science and Religion (for faculty, contact: dyamash@mit.edu)
New England Conservatory of Music
Cru, IVCF (NEC Christian Fellowship)
Northeastern University
Agape Christian Fellowship (CRU), InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Asian Baptist Graduate Student Koinonia, Chinese Christian Fellowship, Open Table (Lutheran-Episcopal Campus Ministry), Sojourn Collegiate Ministry, Youth Empowerment Ministry, and YWAM Friends (International Students)
Roxbury Community College
Cru
Simmons College
Cru
Suffolk University
Youth Empowerment Ministry
See nearby Park Street Church, City Life Church, and Cornerstone Church
Tufts University
C. Stacey Woods Programming Board (Partnering with IVCF), University Chaplaincy, Sojourn Collegiate Ministry (Bread Coffee House)
University of Massachusetts, Boston
Cru, IVCF, Sojourn Collegiate Ministry, UMB Christians On Campus, First Love UMass, and Life On Campus
Wellesley College
Cru, IVCF, Asian Baptist Student Koinonia (ABSK), Wellesley Symphony Church group, Awaken the Dawn (Christian Acapella Group), Wellesley CityLife Church group
Wentworth Institute of Technology
Cru, Alpha Omega
To find further information about specific campuses and groups, you can typically use a search with the following pattern: “name of school” and “student organizations” (category: religious & spiritual).
We’re following the lead of people of color. Here’s why you should too.
Despite good intentions, white people tend to run ahead and take the lead, taking action that is uninformed, misdirected, and not well received by BIPOC communities. How can they learn to adopt a role that better reflects the redemptive power dynamics of God’s kingdom?
Pearl via Lightstock
We’re following the lead of people of color. Here’s why you should too.
Four reasons white people should follow BIPOC leaders
By Megan Lietz, Director, Race & Christian Community Initiative (RCCI)
It was one week after the murder of George Floyd. Communities of color were reeling. Newsfeeds were exploding. And white evangelicals, wrestling with expanding worldviews and anxious energy, were asking the well-intended but complicated question: “What can we do?”
I remember a white church reaching out to me to discuss the possibility of them hosting a panel. While their language reflected openness, the event was well underway. “Have you been in communication with Black people or sought their perspective on what they think would be a helpful response?” I asked. The line went quiet. I was rather certain they had not. Because at that point, many of the Black folks I’d spoken with were wrestling deeply with hard emotions and trauma. They had not yet gained clarity on a collective response.
This is one example of how white people can seek to respond to racism without following the leadership of those most impacted. Despite good intentions, white people tend to run ahead and take the lead, taking action that is uninformed, misdirected, and not well received by Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities.
“Despite good intentions, white people tend to run ahead and take the lead, taking action that is uninformed, misdirected, and not well received by BIPOC communities. ”
The Bible sets a different example for us in Acts 6:1-7. Here we see Hellenistic Jews, a part of the ethnic minority within Christianity at the time, speaking up because their widows were being overlooked in the daily food distribution. The disciples, who were of the Hebraic majority, appointed wise and Spirit-filled Hellenists to lead the response to this problem. The dominant group supported the leadership of godly people on the margins as they led the efforts to make things right. The result was the spreading of the gospel and the making of disciples.
As a ministry that seeks to build shalom across racial lines, the Race & Christian Community Initiative (RCCI) has not always followed this biblical example. That’s because we have been shaped by a sin-sick society too. But as we explored in a recent article, we’re pivoting to better align our beliefs with our actions, shifting from being a “leader” to a “follower” of BIPOC leadership.
This article explores why white people are not best suited to take the lead and invites them into a role that better reflects the redemptive power dynamics of God’s kingdom.
Positioning: People of color are best positioned to understand racism and how to respond
People of color are closer to and more experienced with the problem. Not unlike how a person might benefit by speaking to a pastor or counselor who has been through the experience that person is navigating so we should learn from those who have firsthand experience with the problem of racism. People of color are more likely to understand how the oppressive systems of racism work and what the impacted communities need in order to overcome its manifestations.
White people, on the other hand, have not experienced oppression because of the color of their skin. They also tend to lack proximity to those who have this experience. This distance can often contribute to misperceptions, blindspots, and biases.
I often see this play out among my fellow white evangelical brothers and sisters when we seek to address racism through personal discipleship and interpersonal relationships. While of some value, this approach doesn’t address many of the realities that established and continue to uphold racism. People of color tend to address racism through community, organization, and systems-wide approaches that generally have longer-term and broader impact. We need both approaches to nurture shalom in our communities.
RCCI leans heavily into personal discipleship but also has a strong communal element and is learning how to support BIPOC-led efforts that contribute to longer-term and systemic impact.
Because BIPOC communities have struggled against racism for centuries, their history includes resistance and communal wisdom about navigating racism. From assuming interdependence and mutual liberation to community organizing and creatively incorporating resistance into daily life, they have developed principles, practices, and different ways of thinking that have faithfully supported the movement for liberation over the years.
Emmanuel Gospel Center
By and large, white folks have not resisted racism throughout history. As a result, they tend to lack the examples, theological frameworks, and imagination to respond to racism most effectively.
One of the most common obstacles I hear from my fellow white evangelical brothers and sisters is that we simply don’t know how to confront racism in our context. We are neither aware of nor know how to navigate pathways for change. The American political and socio-economic system generally works for us as white people. That’s not to say that white people don’t experience challenges, but those challenges are not on account of the color of our skin. As a result, we have not had to learn how to advocate to ensure our own well-being.
Even I, as the leader of RCCI and someone who seeks to actively and intentionally confront racism in my personal life, feel like there are basic processes around how to advocate for racial equity in my community I still don’t know. I, like many white evangelicals, am ignorant and inexperienced in areas many BIPOC folks have had to learn out of necessity.
To be clear, white ignorance and being ill-equipped cannot be an excuse for inaction. We must do our self-work and learn as we go, but we should go forward with BIPOC folks in the lead.
People of color also are not as invested in the status quo because, unlike white people, it’s not designed for them and doesn’t center their needs or experiences. As a result, they may be more likely to resist unjust policies that white folks see as acceptable, personally benefit from, or may not be willing to sacrifice for change.
For example, if the admissions policies and locations of exam schools in Boston are more likely to accept and be accessible to white children, white families will be less likely to advocate for changes. Instead, they may vehemently oppose it! BIPOC families, on the other hand, will be more likely to advocate for change because it’s their children who could be excluded if they don’t. If the status quo works for you, you’ll be less likely to invest the energy and make the sacrifices needed to work toward equity. You’ll protect your advantage instead of ensuring the whole community’s well-being.
Unexamined Socialization: White people are not aware of the profound way their socialization impacts them
Similar to anything we’re immersed in during our upbringing, it’s often hard to see: It’s the water we swim in, the air we breathe. Like any culture, we’ve been socialized to value certain ways of thinking, doing, and being over others.
While cultural preferences are not a problem per se, because we’ve been socialized in a society that values white people over people of color, we often think that white ways are “right,” “normal,” and even normative. This is usually not determined by biblical prescription but by the dominant culture.*
Because our socialization runs deep, we can end up defaulting to our conditioning instead of following in the footsteps of Jesus.
“Because our socialization runs deep, we can end up defaulting to our conditioning instead of following in the footsteps of Jesus.”
For example, I grew up believing meetings that began and ended on time, stuck to the agenda, and achieved pre-determined goals were better than those that did not. When I hosted multiracial workshops, these beliefs impacted my practice. I’d value starting on time over extended fellowship, “getting through the content” over making space for wrestling with questions or hard emotions, and teaching from the facilitators over the stories or perspectives of the group. This didn’t mean I wouldn’t allow such stories or wrestling, but I had to choose to make space for them with intentionality. I did so because of my ideological commitment and training, but deep down, I’d feel anxious. I’d be concerned that if we pressed in too much, we wouldn’t get to the “more important” content, and “my” gathering or leadership wouldn’t be seen as a “success.”
Through direct and indirect feedback, I saw my posture and approach contributed to some people of color feeling they didn’t have the space to engage fully and authentically. I had to work — and continue to work — to hold my conditioning and its value in tension with flexibility, being present with others, and caring for the holistic needs of the group. Though doing the latter is something I feel less comfortable and experienced with, I continue to see how Jesus modeled and uses these practices to nurture his transformation.
Limitations: The leadership and presence of white people naturally create limitations to engaging across racial lines
Due to their socialization in the dominant culture, white folks often have deeply rooted mental models that shape their cultural understanding of what’s “right.” As a result, they can uphold the dominant culture in ways that constrict space for BIPOC folks who do not conform to or feel at home in these spaces. This is true regardless of their awareness or good intent.
Even if a white person tries hard to develop trusting relationships and create space for genuine collaboration, barriers remain. Because white folks are seen not only as individuals but also as a representative of their racial group, their very presence can trigger undesirable emotions, bring to mind personal and communal histories, and enact power-laden patterns of behavior to which both white folks and people of color default. These are not the patterns Jesus desires for us. They are the fruit of a sin-sick world.
When I first started RCCI, I would host and initiate multiracial events to cultivate constructive conversations and nurture multiracial community. I learned, however, that even if I invited people of color to shape the vision and collaborate early on, I held power that functioned to preserve my vision because I convened the meetings and offered the initial ideas.
José Roberto Roquel via Lightstock
While people of color did speak into an event’s vision or agenda, they tended to offer suggestions that adjusted or developed my ideas. Despite my explicit invitation to make the events their own, they tended not to operate outside of the framework I provided. I believe this wasn’t because they always agreed with me, but because my own postures, practices, and processes did not invite them to express dissent. Perhaps it was because I didn’t invest the time to develop trust in the way I could have. Perhaps it was because I assumed — and inevitably projected — that my ideas, shaped by my mental models and experiences as a white woman, were exciting and effective across racial lines. Perhaps it was because I shied away from asking hard questions or creating space for real conflict. Or maybe, people of color simply found challenging me not worth the energy it could take them to help me understand.
Not only were the gatherings confined by my initiation, leadership, and vision, but the conversations were limited as well. Now, I’m not saying the discussions were not rich and meaningful: I remember people asking bold questions! But the conversations were not as deep as they could have been had I not been facilitating.
In a multiracial space, especially a white-led multiracial space, people of color might not feel they have the safety or support to “go there.” Without status-quo-challenging BIPOC leaders facilitating and having full authority, which may not be possible under white leadership, people of color may be less likely to take risks, speak truth, and offer perspectives that can help us all eliminate white supremacy. When people of color are in the lead, or even the conveners and hosts, this dynamic can shift and create more spaciousness for BIPOC communities.
Kingdom Reality: Modeling power dynamics of the kingdom
Most importantly, when white folks follow BIPOC leadership, it models the power dynamics of the kingdom. God created each of us in his image (Gen. 1:27) and intended for us to be in right relationship with one another. He created us as members of an interdependent body (1 Cor. 12:12-26) with equal value and standing before him. We are to interact with mutuality and respect that honors the image of God in each person and each ethno-racial community.
When white folks follow BIPOC leadership, they are taking a step to correct an unjust and human-made hierarchy. They’re choosing to live into ways of being that can work to restore the equal power dynamics the Lord intends.
“When white folks follow BIPOC leadership, we’re taking a step to correct an unjust and human-made hierarchy. We’re choosing to live into ways of being that can work to restore the equal power dynamics the Lord intends.”
Living into these redemptive power dynamics is hard. Society does not teach or equip white people how to do this. People’s imaginations are small and their experiences are smaller.
RCCI desires to nurture multiracial community that can model redemptive power dynamics and — through kingdom ways of being — work together to build shalom across racial lines. We are committed to learning how to do this and to creating pathways and resources so others can do the same.
For more information, check out our homepage or connect with Megan to hear more about RCCI’s journey and how we might be able to support you.
How these dynamics can play out in real life
I would like to share a story that offers examples of when I did and didn’t follow BIPOC leadership, illustrating some of the dynamics mentioned above. I hope the Lord might use it to speak and inspire his kingdom reality.
I remember the excitement I felt when I received an email about a Christian conference highlighting justice, mercy, and humility. I eagerly clicked through the website to explore the topics addressed. I was disappointed that the conference, led by a predominantly white organization in 2016, did not seem to address racial justice. I expressed my disappointment to the event organizers and shared how I felt this negatively impacted the witness of the church. Though I don’t believe any changes were made at the time, the event organizers invited me to lead a workshop on racial justice the following year.
I was pumped. As a young woman and the new program director of RCCI, this felt like a great opportunity. I enlisted a good friend and woman of color to develop the workshop and lead with me. We put lots of time and energy into preparing, but at the end, I felt like our presentation was one of my most successful flops.
Due largely to my influence, we designed a lecture-style presentation. It focused on conferring knowledge and centered the experiences of the people at the front of the room. While this may have been more appropriate for the large crowd the organizers told us to expect, it fell flat before the dozen or so practitioners who actually attended. In retrospect, it should have been more interactive, more relational, more honoring of the other experiences in the room, and more engaging of heart, body, and spirit.
The following year, I was informed that the same conference was now taking applications for workshops to fill a limited number of spots. I reached out to those who had led race-related workshops the previous year so we could ensure racial justice was represented.
A Black leader replied, saying he had an idea for a multiracial panel, but he did not have the bandwidth to coordinate it on his own. Instead of submitting my own proposal, I chose to support this leader’s vision by helping complete the application, being a liaison between him and the conference coordinators, and addressing logistics on the ground. In the end, the panel was a success. It convened a group of practitioners who had been laboring together for over 15 years and allowed them to reflect on how racial reconciliation movements had changed over time. Each panelist shared their unique stories and perspectives in ways that interacted with one another and the audience. The panel was followed by an informal lunchtime discussion where participants could ask questions and go deeper.
Upon further reflection, I noticed that the approach in my own workshop reflected the dominant patterns and pitfalls I’d seen in much of my white-evangelical education. However, the postures and practices in the BIPOC-led workshop seemed more transformative and appropriate in that context. As I opened myself to a different expression of the body of Christ, I learned how to better invite folks into ways of being and learning that nurture the kingdom of God.
Pearl via Lightstock
As I continue in the ministry of racial reconciliation, I’m committed to following the leadership of godly people of color. In practice, this is easier said than done. The process of learning how to follow BIPOC leadership is challenging and time-consuming. It takes a relentless examination of my socialization, reflection on how my actions are functioning, and honesty about where I’m defaulting to my cultural conditioning when it doesn’t uphold the ways of God. I don’t always have the mindfulness or energy. Too often, I jump into engaging race-related issues in the lead. But by God’s grace, I’m learning to do differently. I’m learning to be differently.
God is our healer and the one who brings about change. May we follow him and those best positioned to lead his work of healing and justice. I hope you’ll reflect on the reasons we’ve offered for following the leadership of people of color and consider doing the same.
* In A Many Colored Kingdom (pp. 134-142), Gary Parrett talks about how the Bible celebrates, connects with, challenges, or condemns culture. While there are some things the Bible celebrates that we should strive for, and others that it challenges or condemns that we should question or avoid, much of our culture today is not directly addressed in Scripture. There are connections between now and then, but what people should eat on Thanksgiving or the best way to preach a sermon, or the type of music that should be played Sunday morning are simply not addressed in Scripture. As a result, we should not ascribe an unbending moral value to those things Scripture leaves open for cultural conditioning. The Bible should be our guide, however, for the practices about which morality is clear.
Boston Church Directory
The Boston Church Directory Directory may be used for a variety of scholarly, relational, and spiritual purposes.
The Boston Church Directory lists Christian churches located within the city limits of Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge.
The Directory may be used for developing relationships between members of Boston's Christian community; referrals; finding a church home; research in church planting; and other scholarly, relational, or spiritual purposes.
![Ethiopian Churches in Greater Boston [map]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57ff1c7ae58c62d6f84ba841/1506113852983-TSLLC1FENTJJGZYIO7MM/orthodox+cross+church.jpeg)
Boston Church Directory Map
The Boston Church Directory lists Christian churches located within the city limits of Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge.
Boston Church Directory Map
The Boston Church Directory lists Christian churches located within the city limits of Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge.
The Directory may be used for developing relationships between members of Boston's Christian community; referrals; finding a church home; research in church planting; and other scholarly, relational, or spiritual purposes.
Church History
Explore the history of the Church in Boston with a look at Christian movements through the centuries.
Explore the history of the Church in Boston with a look at Christian movements through the centuries.
A stunted imagination
We can have a strong ideological commitment without corresponding actions. This disparity can be seen in how I collaborated across racial lines in the early years of RCCI’s ministry.
kathleenmadeline via Lightstock
A stunted imagination
Examining the gap between belief and action in the ministry of racial healing
By Megan Lietz, Director, Race & Christian Community Initiative (RCCI)
I remember feeling a call to the ministry for as long as I can remember.
And yet, whenever I imagined a minister speaking or preaching, I would always imagine a man. Even when I imagined my own future, I would see a man with a mic in his hand.
I have a deeply held belief in God’s calling on my life, but my imagination was limited by the examples I saw around me. Though I grew up in a denomination that affirmed the ordination of women, I have no memories of seeing women in up-front, senior, or full-time ministry roles when I was a kid. It wasn’t because women were absent from these roles, but because the dominant pattern was emblazoned in my mind and limiting my imagination.
Watts Media Ministry via Lightstock
I, and many white people, encounter a similar problem when addressing issues related to race. We default to the examples we see around us and to our socialization, forces that can trump even deeply and explicitly held beliefs. It can lead us to take actions that can look good, be affirmed by others, and be in alignment with the examples around us — and still uphold the unequal power dynamics that oppose the reconciliation made possible through the cross. It’s important that white people committed to racial healing examine our actions to see if they function in ways that nurture the healing work of Christ.
“Just because we believe something doesn’t mean we are living it out.”
Just because we believe something doesn’t mean we are living it out. We can have a strong ideological commitment without corresponding actions. This disparity can be seen in how I collaborated across racial lines in the early years of the Race & Christian Community Initiative’s ministry at the Emmanuel Gospel Center.
If you had asked me about my philosophy for multiracial leadership, I would have talked about servant leadership, collaboration, and the importance of following the lead of people of color. These were the approaches I had written about in my seminary papers, that I tried to follow in ministry, and that I believe I practiced when I served on staff at a Black church for five years, submitting myself to Black leadership.
But when it became my turn to lead, my turn to steward my own ministry, I found myself defaulting to the power dynamics and practices I’ve been socialized in. In almost every example of white leadership I had seen, white folks were in control. So, when I led, I upheld the racial status quo without intending it.
Whitney L. Schwartz via Lightstock
What is worse is, I did so without noticing it. I did so while feeling normal, praiseworthy, and good. The truth was I was operating in ignorance and self-deception.
One factor contributing to this is that it seemed like I was doing all the right things. When coordinating multiracial events, I brought people of color into the process early on. I collaborated. I invited their perspective. On the surface, it looked good. But the ministry still centered my ideas, left me as the ultimate decision-maker, and kept me in control. It reflected many of my internalized beliefs of what a leader was, but not the upside-down power dynamics of the kingdom.
Ironically, I had wanted to share power. I was trying to do so the best way I knew how. But good intentions were not enough to turn the tide of a lifestyle of socialization. I lacked the examples, imagination, and mindfulness needed for transformation.
My defaults shaped my actions more than the vision of Jesus Christ.
“As Christians, it’s not just about what we confess with our mouths but what we confess in our actions. ”
As Christians, it’s not just about what we confess with our mouths but what we confess in our actions. We must ask ourselves, “Are our actions being influenced more by our socialization or by the example of Jesus?”
If we don’t examine ourselves, the dominant culture will be our default.
We must ask this question of ourselves, the Lord, and our communities. We must get feedback, reflect, and expose ourselves to different examples that can help expand our imaginations. In doing so, we open ourselves to God’s transformation and ongoing alignment with him.
Dorothy Greco via Lightstock
At RCCI, our reflection is bearing fruit. We’re making a shift to better align our beliefs with our actions. We will no longer initiate multiracial events because we think it’s a good idea, maintain control over the process, or come to Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) with our ideas in hand. Instead, we’ll follow the initiation and vision casting of BIPOC folks for RCCI events or support the equity-building work they are already doing in our communities.
I’m glad to be able to share how I came to see the gap between my beliefs and actions. But seeing the discrepancy is only the beginning. It takes work not only to see but also to be mindful of something and to see how it continues to show up in our actions. It takes intentionality, support, and community input. It takes commitment to work at it — and to keep working at it. It takes the revelation and grace of God.
I’m excited for what it will look like for RCCI to further develop partnerships with and accountability to people of color. We’re working it out. But we’re committed to figuring it out. We are seeking the Lord and trusting that, through the process, the Lord who revealed our need for alignment will help us align ourselves with him. As we open ourselves to God’s transformative work, we pray that he will teach us to challenge the status quo, expand our imagination, and more fully and freely follow him.
May it be so with us and in the body. Amen and amen.
Christian Creatives and the Church
The arts are an important opportunity for spiritual formation. How can churches reach unbelievers through the arts while caring for the creatives in their pews at the same time?
Photography by R9 Foto for The Emmanuel Gospel Center
Christian Creatives and the Church
It’s time for the two to support each other.
by Hanno van der Bijl, Managing Editor, Applied Research & Consulting
Armani Alexis Acevedo is an artist, designer, entrepreneur, and hip hop artist. Everything he does is to glorify God, but at one point in his life, he just could not see a home inside the Church for his creative passion.
He is thankful for the spiritual foundation he received from his church growing up but he didn’t feel fully supported in his calling until recently. A lot of that has to do with the buy-in of his pastors, including Davie Hernandez, co-senior pastor of Restoration City Church.
“It definitely is an encouragement to know that your pastors support you in that way, from the little things, even sharing my posts, or my songs, or our collections — he's probably wearing one of our tees right now,” Armani said. “Those things really mean a lot.”
But Armani still hears parishioners voicing their disapproval: “I don’t think this glorifies God” or “This art is too loud.” These moments don’t come without pain as Armani invests hours and heart into his creative projects.
“As artists, I feel like we do see things a little differently and appreciate detail more and the commitment behind it,” he said.
Christian creatives like Armani intentionally pursue their vocations as believers and artists, actively integrating their faith and work.
They live in the tension of a Church trying to stay faithful in a changing world. They’re caught between competing visions of what the Church should look like and how it should operate.
They don’t always feel seen. Many feel like spiritual orphans in a world that neither understands nor values their faith and a Church that neither acknowledges nor appreciates their gifts.
Some church leaders do see them. They say Christian artists are an untapped resource.
Pastor Valerie “Val” Copeland, pastor of Neighborhood Church of Dorchester, said God has given every Christian gifts and skills for a reason.
“Christian creatives sit in church without their gifts being used, without space being made for their gifts, while they sort of dry up on the vine,” she said. “If we need a singer or guitarist or drummer, we'll search them out. But where's the imagination to say if they are gifts that God has given you, then it's incumbent upon us to figure out how to make room for them?”
“Christian creatives sit in church without their gifts being used, without space being made for their gifts, while they sort of dry up on the vine.”
It hasn’t always been this way. Historically the Church has been a driving force for the arts, integrating it in its worship, teaching, and architecture. In some places marked by post-Christianity, the churches may be empty but their beauty continues to bear witness.
The arts have the power to speak to people in ways that sermons can’t. The Christian creatives sitting in the pews could help address some of the biggest challenges facing churches today. This is an opportunity for churches to support creatives while at the same time mobilizing them for mission.
In an effort to help churches do that, we connected with Christian creatives and pastors to learn from them how churches can support and equip the artists sitting in the pews.
A creative God
Christian creatives say they draw inspiration from the Creator — and that churches should too.
“God is the first artist,” Pastor Val said. “The beauty of art and the drama of art calls our hearts to something greater than ourselves and reminds us that God’s design is intentional: the way that he uses color, the way that he uses the drama of thunder and lightning, the way that he calls us to be creative in how we love the world.”
God’s creation is not only beautiful, it's also unique. He made humans in his image to reflect his creativity. For Michael “Mike Mack” McPherson, founder of Elevation Conference, the rich diversity of God’s created order is the “essence of creativity.”
“God is the first artist. The beauty of art and the drama of art calls our hearts to something greater than ourselves and reminds us that God’s design is intentional.”
“He could have easily made every single bug the same — every single ladybug could have the same amount of spots, and he decided that he would splatter and make them all look so different and so unique,” Mike Mack said. “But then we come into the Christian world and we look at art and music and we're like ‘It's supposed to sound like this.’”
Creatives embrace the call to “sing a new song.” They thrive on expressing themselves through their work, improvising to bring something new out of the old.
Many creatives feel that a lot of churches function exactly the opposite way. The familiarity of traditions provide safety and stability; however, if churches hold them too tightly there can be little room for something new. The tension between creative expression and commitment to tradition can often be at odds.
“The overarching problem is that the Church is terrified of so much. The Church creeps around so much,” Mike Mack said. “The Church still has — despite what Paul said — a 'taste not, touch not' mentality (Col. 2:20-23) about almost everything that could be considered sin and is probably not actually sin.”
Christian creatives often face the impossible task of producing art that checks all the boxes for churches theologically and for the world aesthetically. Placing restrictions on artists that don’t concern the core message of the gospel chokes creativity.
A creative Church
The COVID-19 pandemic forced churches to get creative. The crisis compounded the new challenges with long-standing issues that surfaced and threatened division. Many people did not return to worship services after lockdown measures were lifted, and increasingly younger generations don’t want anything to do with the institutional church.
To minister in this new reality, Pastor Val said “our missiology has to shift.”
“I talk to a lot of folks who are just really hanging onto the Church by a string,” she said.
Christian ministry is often geared to preaching that appeals to the head, but it is missing out on the power of the arts to reach the heart.
“This is definitely an area that the Christian Church has fallen asleep on,” Pastor Val said. “We've sort of limited God to the area of our brain: think about it, write about it, talk about it.”
Pastor Valerie Copeland
But with the state of the broader culture, this will not be enough to communicate the gospel effectively to many people. The call of Jesus’ Great Commission is to “go” to people instead of telling them to “come” to the Church.
“I think too often we're waiting for people to meet our criteria — and it's completely backwards,” Pastor Val said. “This idea — I'm willing to do whatever it takes to tell you about God: a God that loves you, a God that inspired all of this beauty, and a God that finds beauty in you — I'm willing to do whatever it takes. You've got to be willing to do whatever it takes.”
Pastor Val said Grace Chapel’s passion week display was a moving example of how God can use the arts to “preach” the message of the gospel. The display included beautiful art installations with quiet spaces for reflection.
“The last installation is just an empty tomb, and I can't tell you how that thing just brought me to my knees,” she said. “I've heard many sermons about the empty tomb that didn't bring me to my knees. Seeing that empty tomb brought me to my knees.”
In addition to proclaiming the Good News in different ways, Pastor Val said Christian creatives have the opportunity to help heal the fallout from broken or false views of God. Images have power, and when they’re not created to look like the people they’re meant for, it can have a lasting negative impact. Creatives can step in to redirect the image and narrative that disaffected people have of God.
“Give them platform, stop hiding them, stop discouraging them, be more encouraging, give them opportunities to present — especially on Sunday mornings. If you look around your congregation, there’s probably people who do all sorts of really cool, really unique things.”
“One of the ways that Christian creatives can be helpful is in bringing these important issues to light but also in correcting the narratives that have been associated with these images, and redirecting the narrative towards what is true and who we are as Christian believers,” Pastor Val said.
For churches that want to take the risk and change their approach to ministry, it will likely mean a painful period of adjustment, she said. But church leaders who worry about how to reach the unbelievers in their community may not realize that God has already provided them with the answer right there in the pews.
God has equipped Christian creatives in their congregations with gifts to preach the beauty of the gospel. But they must be empowered, not exploited.
“Give them platform, stop hiding them, stop discouraging them, be more encouraging, give them opportunities to present — especially on Sunday mornings,” Mike Mack said. “If you look around your congregation, there's probably people who do all sorts of really cool, really unique things.”
Creatives have their own ideas for how churches can begin to support them as they live out their calling to glorify God. They stress that this will mean a change in the usual mindset and approach to ministry. Of the many ways they can help, churches can start praying and thinking creatively about how they approach their finances, building space, and ministry staff.
Creative with support
One of the basic ways churches can begin to think creatively about equipping the artists in their pews is by supporting them financially.
An economy shaped by modern technology and social media has conditioned us to expect things to be free. Coupled with the tendency in churches to spiritualize volunteerism as Christian service, this dynamic puts Christian creatives in a difficult spot. They’re often expected to use their gifts and skills for free. And not complain about it.
“One of the things that does concern me is the inability for creatives, in general, particularly Christian creatives — particularly Christian creatives of color — to make a living,” Pastor Val said.
“We’ve got to start seeing people as an investment in the kingdom versus their output as the investment.”
It’s not fair the way churches impoverish Christian artists as they pursue their ministries, Pastor Val said.
“Christian creators contribute so much more to our economy than they get back,” she said. “They contribute so much more to the economy of the Church than they get back.”
When churches exploit the work of their people, it compromises the Church’s witness to the world.
“Justice starts in the house of the Lord. We cannot be out there fighting for justice and defending the rights of the poor and the exploited and then be exploiting people within the house of the Lord,” Pastor Val said. “We've got to start seeing people as an investment in the kingdom versus their output as the investment.”
Individual Christians can also think creatively about their tithing and giving. Mike Mack is confident that there are believers in the area who want to “make sure that New England’s a hub for artistry” and that Christian creatives have the tools and access they need to thrive.
“Somebody out there has that heart, but they've probably been told that the only way that you can give is to give it directly into the Church,” he said.
Being open to think creatively when it comes to finances is an opportunity to walk in step with the Spirit and partner with what God is doing on the ground.
“Are you listening to the voice of God? Do you ever wake up in the morning and say, ‘What does my city need? What do I gotta do?’” Mike Mack said. “Do you ever see somebody who's a creative and just think to yourself, ‘Wow, this person could really use assistance. I believe in what they're doing — let me help them out’?”
Creative with space
Boston is not kind to Christian artists and creatives looking for event space. They can have a tough time finding venues that will meet their needs at an affordable rate.
Many churches have significant real estate footprints with resources that could be used to support the work of creatives. Stewarding those resources well has kingdom implications.
Mike Mack said that along with everyone else, church leaders will one day have to give an account for what they received and what they did with it — “especially the stuff that we prayed for.”
“You look around and it’s like, what resources is the church sitting on? What young, up-and-coming rapper is actually the greatest preacher in your church, and you’re just not utilizing him because you don’t like the way that he does it?”
“‘Lord, I need this, please give me this.’ And he's like: ‘You just want it for yourself, you wicked servant. You just want it so you can hoard it. Why should I give it to you?’” Mike Mack said. “Somebody's praying for their building fund right now — got money coming in from everywhere — and have no plans of using it for the people who gave to it.”
Churches can use their spaces to host concerts, exhibits, and other artistic events. They can work collaboratively with creatives to further the kingdom in their local communities with the use of their building space.
Creative with staff
Beyond physical assets and resources, churches can build out their ministry staff with Christian creatives who feel called to serve in the church.
“Put the creatives in your church on staff. Pay for their position,” Pastor Val said. “Put people on staff so that they're actually able to do what they need to do and also support the life that they need to live.”
Bringing creatives on staff may not come intuitively to some church leaders. It may mean interrogating our ideas of what a church staffer looks like.
“You look around and it's like, what resources is the church sitting on?” Mike Mack said. “What young, up-and-coming rapper is actually the greatest preacher in your church, and you're just not utilizing him because you don't like the way that he does it?”
“Church” may not look exactly the same anymore. Christian creatives may have interests that don’t naturally align with the way many churches usually approach the arts. They might not play a musical instrument or want to lead the children’s Christmas play.
“It’s glorifying God just in a different approach. I think once people can realize that, they’ll definitely leave more space for more opportunity for creatives like myself and others.”
“We have to start — and I'm hoping even at my church — making room for the ministries — no matter how unique they are — so that this is a place where they can flourish,” Pastor Val said. “This is a place where we will financially invest in that ministry just like we're going to invest in the summer camp, the food pantry, the marriage retreat.”
Pastor Val said church leaders should recognize that creatives are also theologians. They should invite creatives to look for ways they can visually bring to life what is being taught or preached from the pulpit.
“One of my dreams is that someone would do a dramatic piece of the encounter between Jesus and Satan in the desert, where they have this word battle, and Jesus literally drops the mic at the end. It is done. It's a wrap,” she said. “It's so dramatic. This interaction between Jesus and Satan is intense, it's high stakes. And I'm like, why hasn't this been made into a dramatic piece yet?”
Creatives like Acevdeo are confident churches can make use of them and support them at the same time. He encourages creatives to be plugged into a local church community, rooted and grounded in Christ alone. He believes this spiritual vitality will help shift hearts and minds within congregations to make room for artists with unique gifts who relate in different ways.
“It's glorifying God just in a different approach,” Armani said. “I think once people can realize that, they'll definitely leave more space for more opportunity for creatives like myself and others.”
WATCH: Church & Creatives
Have you ever experienced music or art that has helped you feel closer and more connected to God? For many people, creativity and artistic expression have become an important part of their faith. The Emmanuel Gospel Center connected with Christian creatives and pastors to learn from them how churches can support and equip the artists sitting in the pews. Watch this video that dives into this world of faith and creativity while highlighting opportunities for support and collaboration.
Why I Love CUME
After almost 50 years of providing theological education to urban ministry practitioners, CUME’s vision and mission are still being turned into a beautiful reality each semester.
Why I Love CUME
by Jeff Bass, Executive Director
On January 21, I attended the opening convocation day at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s Boston campus, more commonly known as CUME, or the Campus for Urban Ministerial Education. I am an adjunct professor at CUME, and each spring, I teach one of their core urban ministry courses, Living Systems in the Urban Context.
Attending the convocation is one of the obligations of teaching at CUME. But even though I went out of duty, it didn’t take long to reconnect with my sense of why CUME is so important and to remember why I make teaching there one of my priorities. Throughout the day, I was reminded why I love CUME, and I went home with a renewed appreciation for and commitment to CUME’s vital ministry in urban Boston.
I love CUME because it is a genuinely diverse expression of the church in Boston. The Bible is clear that we are heading for a multiethnic reality, with people “from every nation, tribe, people and language” standing before the throne (Rev. 7:9). The CUME community is the best representation of this that I have experienced. The room has no majority and is a glorious mix of Black, white, Asian, and Latino; men and women; people from different countries and backgrounds; and a range of ages from young adults to seniors. It’s a joy to worship, pray, interact, teach, and learn in this beautiful expression of the kingdom of God in Boston.
Jeff Bass teaching a class in the Living Systems in the Urban Context course in Spring 2023. Emmanuel Gospel Center.
I love CUME because of the passion and commitment of the students. The vast majority of CUME students have jobs as well as active ministries. In one small group session, we heard from a student who has a full-time job, is a senior pastor and a grandfather, and is, of course, taking classes at CUME. His energy for his life and learning was palpable, as was the energy from all the students I interacted with that day. It’s inspiring to be with so many people who expressively love the Lord, invest in their learning and growth, and put their faith into action in their whole lives.
I love CUME because of the real difference it makes in the lives and ministries of its students and graduates. CUME students are urban ministry practitioners. They are not there just for academics but also to deepen their knowledge and practical skill sets so they can engage in effective ministry now and in the future. While I was eating my lunch, a student came over and spoke to me for five minutes about how he is applying what he learned in my systems class and how it is positively impacting his ministry. CUME undergirds the active ministries of its students with theological understanding and tools for practical ministry, and it is fun to see the enormous impact this has had across the church in urban Boston over decades.
“CUME undergirds the active ministries of its students with theological understanding and tools for practical ministry, and it is fun to see the enormous impact this has had across the church in urban Boston over decades.”
I love CUME because of its strong and dedicated leadership. I’ve known CUME’s dean, the Rev. Dr. Virginia Ward, for many years now. She is a gifted and passionate leader who is building a solid team around her. The feeling at the convocation that day was one of confident team leadership, with all the parts working together to create an excellent experience for the students. Despite its many challenges, CUME is well led and is moving forward with strength and competence.
I love CUME because its mission is critical to the health of the church in urban Boston. CUME’s mission dovetails beautifully with EGC’s mission, and this dovetail is intentional. CUME was founded in the 1970s to provide theological education to urban ministry practitioners. At the same time, EGC was re-envisioned as a center for applied research and ministry development, all in the service of Christian leaders. As we approach the 50th anniversary of CUME’s founding, I love seeing CUME’s vision and mission still being turned into a beautiful reality each semester as we continue to work together to strengthen Christian leaders and seek the peace and prosperity of this city to which we have been called.
Snapshot of CUME
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary—Boston
Campus for Urban Ministerial Education (CUME)
1976
CUME was founded in September 1976 at Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
Student Body*
For the 2021 to 2022 academic year, total enrollment at CUME stood at 138 students, including 86 men and 52 women. 72% of the enrolled students are ethnic minorities, not including international students. The students represent 28 denominations and come from 19 different countries. Like other theological schools, CUME’s enrollment has been negatively impacted by the COVID pandemic.
African American: 46 students (33%)
Asian: 25 students (18%)
Hispanic or Latino: 26 students (19%)
White: 12 students (9%)
Two or more races: 2 students (1%)
Unknown/Unavailable: 19 students (14%)
International Students: 8 students (6%)
Faculty
CUME has two full-time and 14 adjunct professors.
African American: 10 (63%)
Asian: 1 (6%)
Hispanic or Latino: 1 (6%)
White: 4 (25%)
Certificate and Degree Programs
Urban Ministry Graduate Certificate
MA in Christian Ministries
Master of Divinity, including the Urban Ministry Track
Languages
Classes are taught in English as well as some in Spanish and Portuguese.
*The data is based on Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s ATS Enrollment Reports for Fall 2021. The numbers are based on fall census data from September 27, 2021, and not on full-year totals.
Learning How to Pedal
It’s not just about what you do, it’s how you do it.
Learning How to Pedal: Balancing “Doing” and “Being” in the Work of Racial Justice
It’s not just about what you do, it’s how you do it.
by Megan Lietz, Director, Race & Christian Community Initiative (RCCI)
This is the final article of a three-part series on critical lessons RCCI is learning in its first five years of ministry. RCCI focuses on providing biblically based education to white evangelicals to nurture racial healing and justice.
All my life, I have kept a fast pace. I find satisfaction in checking tasks off my list and getting things done.
While this has helped build the ministry of the Race & Christian Community Initiative at the Emmanuel Gospel Center, it is also one of our most significant liabilities.
When I go too fast or am too focused on “getting the job done,” I am more likely to do things that may look good on the surface but actually hinder racial healing and justice. Not only am I not fully present with people, but I’m also less aware of how I have been shaped by and may be perpetuating racism.
For example, with less time for reflection and intentionality, I will likely make decisions based on personal biases. I may center myself in cross-racial conversations. Or I may align with a narrative that has been used to perpetuate unjust power dynamics instead of the counter-cultural values of Christ.
It is for this reason that establishing a healthy rhythm of “doing” and “being” is critical for the work of racial healing and justice.
Rhythms of being and doing
Jesus balanced a busy ministry schedule with prayer, rest, and time away from the crowds. The time he spent away from the demands of ministry allowed him to receive from the Father and align with his will. It helped him model, usher in, and invite others into kingdom ways of being.
In a world where racism is in the air we breathe, spiritual practices help us reflect on what is influencing us and how we may be hindering racial harmony. They empower us to follow Jesus more freely and fully in a multiracial world.
We must balance doing and being to experience Christ’s liberating and healing power in our lives and communities.
“When I go too fast or am too focused on “getting the job done,” I am more likely to do things that may look good on the surface but actually hinder racial healing and justice. Not only am I not fully present with people, but I’m also less aware of how I have been shaped by and may be perpetuating racism.”
My colleague at the Emmanuel Gospel Center, Liza Cagua-Koo, talks about doing and being like two pedals on a bike. You need to use both to move the bike forward. If you only use one pedal, you will wobble and inevitably fall.
Balance external work with internal work.
Balance pushing with resting.
Balance giving generously with setting healthy boundaries.
Balance action with reflection.
Balance caring for others with caring for yourself.
Doing and being. Being and doing.
It is the rhythm we need to pedal forward.
This doesn’t mean we strike a perfect balance. It doesn’t mean there is a “right” amount. As a matter of fact, it’s not about achieving a rhythm or balance within itself.
Rather, it’s about responding to a dynamic reality in a way that enables one to be present to God, others and oneself. It’s about cultivating ways of being in consecrated time that helps us see, examine, do and be different as we go about our lives.
Who is like the LORD via Lightstock
The difference balance can make
During RCCI’s first five years of ministry, I’ve seen both the negative impact of imbalance and the life-giving, forward motion that appropriately prioritizing doing with being can have.
An over-emphasis on doing led me to take action that looked good on the surface and bore a measure of fruit. But it had elements that were problematic and counterproductive. Here are some examples:
At a regional conference, I co-led a workshop that focused on an intellectual understanding of crossing cultures. It didn’t consider the lived experiences, feelings, or concerns of people of color in the audience, many of whom cross cultures every day.
I invited the perspectives and leadership of people of color in the development of multiracial events. But I still maintained control and decision-making power as the initiator, convener, and host.
I had been asking a Black colleague to engage in ways that required a high level of trust and relationship. I hadn’t taken the time needed to nurture a meaningful and trusting relationship and was asking for trust I had not earned.
When we focus on doing over being, we can take one step forward and two steps back. But when we take a more balanced approach, we can contribute to healing and liberation.
When being and doing are better balanced, ministry bears healthier fruit. Here are some ways we've seen this at RCCI:
One project at an advanced stage of development was unintentionally centering white people. I was able to slow down and adjust it so that we could take steps to decenter whiteness and learn from the process.
I invited the perspectives of people of color on sensitive topics in a way that wasn’t extractive but created energy for ongoing participation.
I could be present in a conversation with a Black colleague in a way that was a mutual blessing and healing to my sister in Christ.
If you want to leave a legacy of healing and liberation, you need to pedal between doing and being. Pedaling creates the balance needed for the ride.
Practices that nurture balance between being and doing
I’m developing personal and professional practices that contribute to healthy ways of being. It has taken time to incorporate what I have, and it will take a lifetime to deeply integrate these practices into my life.
What I’ve been able to put in place has been made possible by my privilege, my role as a ministry director, the incredible people and organizations who have taught and supported me, and the grace of Jesus Christ.
“In a world where racism is in the air we breathe, spiritual practices help us reflect on what is influencing us and how we may be hindering racial harmony. They empower us to follow Jesus more freely and fully in a multiracial world.”
I recognize that not everyone is in a position to do these things but I encourage you to think about your next step.
Pearl via Lightstock
Monthly day of prayer and reflection for RCCI: I take one day a month to pray and reflect. To sit with God and consider with him how he may be speaking through his Spirit, my experiences, and feedback from others. During this time, I may reflect with Jesus on ministry and engage in prayerful strategic planning. I may practice self-examination or simply take extended time to connect with the Lord.
While reflecting for a day a month may not feel accessible to everyone, opportunities to reflect and connect with God can take many forms. Imagine what might work for you, whether it be a minute or day, and take time to reflect.
Reflection Questions
What are ways you connect to God?
How might the Lord be speaking to you through his Spirit, through your experiences, and through others?
What opportunities may you have for reflection?
How could you more consistently incorporate practices of connection and reflection into your life?
Adjust pace: Doing too much or going too fast can negatively impact our balance and being. I can easily find myself in this position. I have had to learn to slow down and discover what boundaries and practices I needed to maintain a healthier pace.
Making this shift took a lot of time and energy. It was prompted by the ongoing and loving feedback of people such as my husband, pastor, and supervisor. I was also motivated by the examples of mentors, compelling authors, and years of “wanting” to slow down that never quite seemed to manifest. Realities such as having a second child and a pandemic that turned our world upside down facilitated a four-year process, the fruit of which I’m sharing with you today.
One thing that helped me grow was setting guidelines for and boundaries around my commitments. For example, I set limits to how many evenings I’m out of the house a week and how many events I participate in on any given weekend. I also create a buffer in my day because the work always grows. Sometimes, I cross my own boundaries and, too often, my buffer gets squeezed out, but not without raising my mindfulness around my pace or a desire to do better next time.
“We must balance doing and being to experience Christ’s liberating and healing power in our lives and communities. ”
While guidelines and boundaries help, they can’t be applied well without real-time check-ins. For example, when I heat my lunch during the work day, I often take the two-and-a-half minutes while my food is in the microwave to check in with myself. I reflect on the day’s pace and how that may impact how I interact (or not) with others. Other factors, such as actively trying to avoid a conversation around the water cooler or desiring to skip out of daily staff prayer, are indicators that I need to adjust my pace.
More than anything, I’ve found it helpful to be willing to slow down based on feedback. This can be in a conversation, over the course of the day, or in the life of a project. Shifting to slow down, examine, and adjust is hard. But it’s a huge step in breaking out of our defaults and moving toward intentional, value-aligned action.
Reflection Questions
Where might you need to slow down?
What poses barriers to you doing so?
What tools, resources, or accountability structures could you utilize to maintain a healthier pace of life?
Chris Mainland via Lightstock
Take a Sabbath rest: Keeping the Sabbath can help us slow down and reflect. It can impart perspective on our lives in ways that can help us divest from the world and realign with Jesus.
For most of my life, I didn’t take a sabbath. I didn’t think I could afford the time. But as I stepped out in faith, I came to see I couldn’t afford not to. It was the very inclinations and ideologies, which told me I couldn’t possibly stop, that I actually needed to disconnect from.
Like adjusting my pace, developing a sabbath was a process shaped by the examples and wise words of fellow believers. Once God, by his grace, helped me break away from my idols of busyness and achievement, I started to gain some of the perspective and healthy distance that sabbaths create. God used our sabbath times to nurture my personal growth, spiritual vitality, and holistic wellness.
Now I'm grateful to be able to carve time out one morning a week to connect with God, care for myself, and read for my personal and professional development. I look forward to it each week. It has strengthened my faith walk and ability to lead in ministry.
“For most of my life, I didn’t take a sabbath. I didn’t think I could afford the time. But as I stepped out in faith, I came to see I couldn’t afford not to.”
With two young kids at home, aging parents, and a multitude of responsibilities, it can be hard to protect my sabbaths. But even if my mornings are interrupted, or don’t happen at all, they now represent a baseline I keep coming back to. They anchor me to the life-giver, the liberator, and the lover of my soul. I’m also learning how to carry sabbath mindsets and practices throughout my week, so I can take moments of rest wherever life leads me.
Reflection Questions
What do you feel you just can’t break away from?
How might this thing be functioning as an idol in your life?
What sabbath mindsets, practices, or rhythms could help you submit these idols to the Lord and put them back in their proper place?
Phil Lehman via Lightstock
Struggling forward
In this world, the pressure to over-emphasize doing will always be present. We must resist.
The more we focus on doing to the exclusion of being, the more we will go to our default: social conditioning shaped by racism instead of the heart of Christ. Biases unchecked, blindspots unseen, relationships damaged, power dynamics upheld, and narratives passed on that have functioned to uphold racism for generations.
Action taken: check. Results: mixed — at best.
Just because we showed up at the temple for prayer time doesn’t mean our ways of being with God or others are right (Luke 18:9-14). Just because we’re in the room with the Great Teacher doesn’t mean we’re sitting at his feet (Luke 10:38-42). It’s not holding a title or being at church every time the door is open that makes us more like Christ. Rather, it’s about positioning ourselves to receive from Jesus, being present to him and letting him work in and through our lives.
It can be hard to nurture healthy ways of being in a society that showcases accomplishment, has a narrow understanding of productivity and progress, and glorifies life in the fast lane.
Nurturing one’s way of being and becoming is challenging, time-consuming, and slow. It can be counter to what many of us have been taught to do, focus on, and value.
And yet, it is worth pursuing. Our health depends on it. The health of hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits depend on it. The health of relationships, organizations, social systems, and communities depend on it.
When we move toward a healthy balance, we move toward being more liberated, healed, and whole.
Take Action
Take a moment to just be.
Participate in breath prayer. Breath prayers are short prayers that are said repeatedly with the rhythms of one’s breath. When breathing in, pray, “I am a child of God,” and when breathing out, pray, “I am loved unconditionally.” Reflect on Matt. 11:28-30 in The Message version of the Bible.
White evangelicalism, like so much of society, is deeply influenced by a fast-paced culture and narrow view of productivity. Take a moment to learn from the following authors from outside of the evangelical tradition on Sabbath and rest.
Sabbath as Resistance by Walter Bruggemann offers a theological argument for sabbath rhythms from an academic perspective.
Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey offers a passionate and prophetic manifesto about the need for rest and how it can resist white supremacy.
Learn more about RCCI support and accountability groups that strive to help white evangelicals take action in ways that embody the lessons captured in this blog series. These will be revamped and relaunched in 2023.
Learning to Bring Our Whole Selves
When I only engaged my mind, I was limiting my own and others’ healing.
Learning to Bring Our Whole Selves: Nurturing Holistic Healing in Biblically Based Race Education
When I only engaged my mind, I was limiting my own and others’ healing.
by Megan Lietz, Director, Race & Christian Community Initiative (RCCI)
This is the second article of a three-part series on critical lessons RCCI is learning in its first five years of ministry. RCCI focuses on providing biblically based education to white evangelicals to nurture racial healing and justice.
"I can't let you present like that again." That's what my supervisor at the time, Nika Elugardo, told me right after I gave one of my first presentations at the Emmanuel Gospel Center. I had shared on power dynamics in multiracial congregations, a topic I wrote about for my master's thesis while serving as a research fellow at EGC.
Nika's comment blindsided me. Walking back to my seat, I felt good. I had shared how white culture can unduly influence multiracial congregations and challenged people to consider how their congregational culture may uphold barriers to authentic community.
I soon learned that it wasn't what I had presented that was the problem; it was how. I had offered a presentation with all the correct data, cited my sources, and delivered it like I'd been trained. But somehow, in the process, I had forgotten that I was speaking to whole people. Not just minds. Not just degrees. But to people who needed to be nurtured with resources beyond my narrow academic toolkit.
In retrospect, I realize I had dishonored the whole people that God created these image bearers to be.
I hadn't asked them how they were doing, and I hadn't engaged them in reflection or given them time to process what I shared. There wasn't any dialogue. There wasn't creativity. There wasn't spiritual practice. There wasn't a shared experience other than me passing on information like they were minds in the chairs.
When I walked away from the podium, I felt my presentation had been a success. But over the last five years of ministry with the Race & Christian Community Initiative, I've come to define success differently. It's not only about engaging people's minds or having a polished presentation. It's about nurturing holistic transformation.
If you had asked me five years ago how to disciple people, my answer would not have reflected my practice. I would have thought it did — because I believed it. I'd written all the papers — and gotten A's. It was in my head, but it hadn't been worked into my approaches, postures, and experiences. For all the "right answers" I could give, I didn't know how to nurture transformation.
One thing I needed to learn in this journey was how to use more effective methods of adult education: I needed to treat everyone as valued collaborators and make more room for dialogue and application. Another growth area for me — which this article focuses on — was learning how to engage people in heart, mind, body, and spirit.
Pearl via Lightstock.
Learning the impact of whole-self discipleship
Piloting our first cohort was a great learning experience for me. I was catching on to what transformative learning really looked like and how to nurture it in practice. The cohort provided a space where I could test this out.
Some of the ways this showed up in the early days were opening with spiritual grounding practices (e.g., Scripture reading and prayer), centering our time on dialogue or shared experiences, and leaving plenty of time for self-reflection. As we leaned into this, the cohorts bore fruit.
Over time, I invited others to shape the curriculum. As I did, I learned intentional practices and tools to help people engage their whole selves.
“Like any sin, racism doesn’t infect only one part of us. It seeks to make its home in every part — and it will consume us if it can. ”
I was coming to see that racism wasn't something that could be addressed by appealing solely to one's head. It wasn't only about "right knowledge." If it were, perhaps racism would have already been eradicated. The fact of the matter is that the sin of racism impacts not only our minds, but also our hearts and bodies and spirits.
Like any sin, racism doesn't infect only one part of us. It seeks to make its home in every part — and it will consume us if it can.
As a result, we need to bring our whole selves into this work so we can experience holistic healing. If we only engage our minds, we miss the greater work we need the Lord to do in us and the personal healing necessary for healthy multiracial community.
Below, I share some of the ways I’ve brought my spirit, body, and emotions into the work of racial healing and justice and encourage you to think how you can do the same.
The deeper I go, the more I recognize my own need for healing. And the more I acknowledge my brokenness and invite Jesus to help me, the more I see his healing work in my life.
Laura Cruise via Lightstock.
Bringing my spirit into addressing racism
First and foremost, racism is a spiritual issue. I say this not to over-spiritualize the problem — a tactic that has been used to uphold injustice throughout history — but to suggest tools to make practical action more effective.
One of the tools I implemented early on was a monthly day of prayer and reflection for RCCI. I use this time in many ways, from praising God to seeking his direction for ministry. I often find myself sitting with the Lord and having him reveal how I've been marred by racism or need to grow to lead RCCI more effectively. As I invite the Lord to do this work, he speaks abundantly.
Especially in the early years, he imparted lessons I needed to learn to counter the sin of racism and the impact it had on my life. He reminded me of the value of relationships and community.¹ He helped me to abide in Christ, focus on being over doing, and strengthen my God-given identity. I learned to evaluate success by obedience to him versus the standards of this world.² Though these were lessons I had learned earlier on my Christian journey, he was bringing me to a deeper level: helping me shift from being a person who knew principles for reconciliation to becoming the person who he called me to be as the leader of RCCI.
He still reveals how my ways of seeing, thinking, doing, and being have been marred by racism. He does so through his Spirit, his people, and my experiences in the world.
Through the power of his love and grace, he is changing me, healing me, and helping me relate differently to the body of Christ.
“As white people, we like to think of ourselves as free agents, independent from the impact of history, socialization, and broken systems. But in seeing ourselves as such, we are underestimating the effect of sin and the freeing power of Jesus. ”
This growth isn't something I could have thought my way into, and it's not somewhere I could have gotten by just following my heart. This is fruit born from spiritual practices: prayer, worship, reflection, fellowship, Scripture reading, and soaking in the presence of God.
These spiritual practices — and engaging these practices with people whose cultures, worldviews, and experiences are different from my own — are helping me see the ways the sin of racism influences me. The way it has distorted my perception, my assumptions, my reactions — the ways it has me bound.
As white people, we like to think of ourselves as free agents, independent from the impact of history, socialization, and broken systems. But in seeing ourselves as such, we are underestimating the effect of sin and the freeing power of Jesus.
As I invite God's liberating power into my life, the Lord helps me become more aware and mindful of how racism impacts me. This awareness helps me better evaluate if I’m following God’s way or ways that feel right because of my socialization and cultural conditioning. For example, the Lord helped me see that many of my standards for what is good or excellent have been shaped by white dominant culture. These standards aren’t necessarily bad per se, but they took on an outsized role when I imbued them with a sense of goodness, righteousness, and normalcy. This role wasn’t because of their alignment with God’s will, but because of their broad acceptance and familiarity. I used these standards to judge myself and others, following what I thought was “good” without realizing that my moral judgment was being shaped less by God’s Word and more by my cultural conditioning. Jesus helped me become aware and mindful of this in ways that helped me follow him more freely.
These days, the Lord is not only showing me areas of my boundedness and discipling me into freedom, but giving me glimpses of what it looks like to do things differently. He is expanding my imagination and inviting me into new ways of "fixing" that don't uphold racial hierarchy but nurture the radical, creative, and redemptive work of Christ.
By bringing my spirit into this work, God is changing my values, postures, and ways of being. He is doing transformative work in me. And as he does, it gives me faith that he can nurture transformation in our sin-sick society.
Pearl via Lightstock.
Bringing my body into addressing racism
In the work of racial justice, my body helps me stay honest. It offers physical indicators of what's going on inside. The churning in my stomach, heat in my chest, trembling of my hands, and dull ache in my head reveal that, for as much work as I've done to show up well in certain spaces, I'm still experiencing anxiety, tension, and stress.
Let me clarify that, as a white woman, racism will never impact me the same way it affects the bodies of people of color. The physical manifestations of discomfort that I experience are nothing compared to the embodied generational trauma, the chronic stress that contributes to disparate health outcomes, or the daily violences that accost my brothers and sisters and dishonor the image of God.
That said, all bodies can offer indicators that testify to the cost of racism. All bodies need to take time to care for themselves if we are to be sustainable in the work of building shalom.
Eating healthy, sleeping well, exercising, and seeing a doctor or mental health professional can go a long way in caring for our bodies. Creating rhythms of rest, recreation, and celebration mirrors not only biblical examples, but also supports whole-self sustainability.
When I don’t do these things, I can be stressed, irritable, unproductive, too sensitive or not sensitive enough. I’m also more likely to act out of unhealthy defaults, emotions and brokenness instead of God’s truth and will for my life. When I do take time to care for myself, my whole ways of being with God, self, and others are healthier. God uses my self-care as a part of the long but faithful healing process made possible by Jesus Christ.
I used to think of caring for oneself as good, but now I've come to see it as necessary. While I know there are many obstacles to self-care, I now pursue them less as good things to do and more as acts of worship. Acts of worship that honor God and give life.
Bringing my emotions into addressing racism³
Of all the parts of myself that I've found most challenging to engage in, it has been my emotions. Feeling seems like such a simple thing. A natural thing. Something we all learn about at an early age. But I've found that my ability to feel around race-related issues has been distorted.
I don't mean my ability to care. I feel deeply called to engage God's redemptive work across racial lines. But that said, feeling passion is only the first step. And once you take that first step, discomfort will not be far behind. Persevering through that discomfort is a much more complex challenge many white people have to learn how to navigate over time. It's this that prepares us for the more challenging work — the ongoing work — of acknowledging our own brokenness, entering into the pain of others, and lamenting before the Lord.
“While engaging the mind is needed, doing so by itself is not enough. If we only engage our minds, we miss the deeper work the Lord wants to do in us and the deeper work that is needed for us to see healing in our communities.”
Though I'm an adult, I feel like sometimes I could learn from the books I read to my 3-year-old. We talk about being happy and sad and expressing these emotions. But I'm still working on allowing myself — even learning how — to feel the pain I see in the work of racial justice.
Not long ago, I met with a Black brother who had been deeply hurt by racism within a Christian community. I wasn't meeting to talk about this experience per se, but I could sense his deep pain and saw that it impacted how he showed up in our conversation. I remember getting off the call and feeling the weight of my brother's pain.
Part of me wanted to stop and lament right then and there. But another part of me felt obligated to move on to the next thing. I had a busy day.
I did take some time to pray. As I got back to my desk, I noticed how good my work was at distracting me from my emotions. It made me wonder how often I use my work to numb the pain.
I wonder how much — even when we think we care — we are so deep into generations of socialization that has functioned to numb our consciousness that we experience invisible obstacles to feeling at all.
But by the grace of God, I notice this temptation in myself and ask the Lord to help me. At this point in my journey, I'm just working on allowing myself to feel. As I do, the Lord calls me more and more into lament, which draws me closer to him, his healing power, and his community.
Prixel Creative via Lightstock.
As I engage my emotions, I’ve taken steps toward restoring my humanity: toward feeling, towards grieving, towards doing these things that are a part of the human experience and help connect people in their humanity. As I engage my body, I feel the cost of racism and learn how to care for myself in sustainable ways. As I engage my spirit, it makes all the difference, and the Lord shows me my brokenness and does the work that only he can do to help me — to help us — heal.
While engaging the mind is needed, doing so by itself is not enough. If we only engage our minds, we miss the deeper work the Lord wants to do in us and the deeper work that is needed for us to see healing in our communities.
Reflection Questions
To what degree have you engaged your heart, mind, body, and spirit in the work of racial healing and justice? Try not to judge — just notice where you are.
What is one part of yourself you feel an invitation to engage more fully?
What might it look like for you to engage your heart, mind, body, or spirit more fully in the work of racial healing and justice?
What is one thing you can do to more fully engage that part of yourself?
Take Action
Check out these resources to nurture different parts of yourself.
HEART
Listen to songs from the Porter’s Gate, an ecumenical and multiracial artist collective, that offers songs for justice and lament (scroll down on the webpage to find) or other songs addressing racism, resistance, and justice. Notice how you’re feeling when you listen to them. Where do you resonate? Where do you feel uncomfortable? What gives you hope?
BODY
Try these grounding practices excerpted from “My Grandmother’s Hands”: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway for Healing Our Hearts and Bodies. These practices can help increase our body awareness and navigate discomfort.
Use Abby VanMuijen’s slide about how emotions can manifest in our bodies as a tool to discern what feelings you may be experiencing based on your physical responses.
SPIRIT
Use this daily examen for living as an anti-racist person as a tool for self-reflection and discipleship.
Here is a liturgy of lament focusing on racism and how it has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the pandemic seems to be lifting, the scriptures and underlying issues transcend particular circumstances. They speak into and could be adapted for current events.
Read this 40-day devotional by the Repentance Project that focuses on repenting of the history of anti-Black racism in our country. You can sign up for daily emails or download the whole guide. While written for the season of Lent, it is appropriate all year long.
We want to learn from you. What do you do to engage your heart, body, and spirit in the work of racial healing and justice?
¹ Versus being a lone ranger or so oriented on accomplishing a task or achieving that I don’t tend well to my relationships with others. These are both behaviors that are shaped by the individualism and narrow views of productivity and success that have been used to sustain racial hierarchy.
² This helped me become more aware of where social norms and practices I used to not see or find acceptable are not in alignment with God’s will. It gave me the courage to challenge them and practice a different way of thinking, doing, and being that is in greater alignment with the Great Reconciler, Jesus Christ.
³ White folks’ emotions around racism have been distorted. On the one hand, white people can become engulfed and immobilized by their emotions. For example, there is a long history of white women using their emotions — specifically their tears — to center themselves in race-related conversations and avoid uncomfortable issues. In urging folks to bring their feelings into this work, I do not intend to encourage "white tears" or other inappropriate emotional expressions. Instead, I am inviting readers to consider another way white people’s emotions have been distorted: a lack of feeling influenced by how we’ve historically turned away from the horrors of racism. I hope that in acknowledging and inviting others to reflect on our emotional numbness, we may be able to express ourselves in healthier and more constructive ways before God and community.
MLK in Boston
There’s more to Dr. King’s time in The Hub than Boston University.
MLK in Boston
There’s more to Dr. King’s time in The Hub than Boston University.
by Rudy Mitchell, Senior Research, Applied Research & Consulting
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is closely associated with half-a-dozen U.S. cities, mostly in the Southeast.
He was born in Atlanta and served as co-pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church with his father. He led a boycott of the bus system in Montgomery and led a campaign against racial segregation and economic injustice in Birmingham. He delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington. He led a march from Selma to Montgomery where he gave his “How Long, Not Long” speech. And he was assassinated in Memphis while fighting for the Black sanitary public works employees.
But Boston has its own share of significant sites tied to the life of Dr. King. And it’s not just Boston University.
Here’s a list of some places in Boston where you can retrace the steps of Dr. King and his legacy.
Twelfth Baptist Church
Location: 160 Warren St., Roxbury
Dr. King often attended Twelfth Baptist Church where he sometimes served as a teacher. He often preached on Sunday evenings and sometimes Sunday mornings when Rev. William Hester was away. (Dr. King’s father knew Rev. Hester.)
At Twelfth Baptist, Dr. King became friends with Dr. Michael Haynes, the youth pastor at the time. Dr. Haynes later served as senior pastor and helped plan Dr. King’s 1965 visit to Boston.
Roxbury Love Story Mural and the former site of Twelfth Baptist Church. Emmanuel Gospel Center.
Up until 1957, Twelfth Baptist was located at the corner of Shawmut Avenue and Madison Street near where Melnea Cass Boulevard is today, marked by the MLK mural, “Roxbury Love Story” on the side of a new building.
Twelfth Baptist Church is currently located at 160 Warren St. in Roxbury. Emmanuel Gospel Center.
Massachusetts Avenue Residence
Location: 397 Massachusetts Ave.
397 Massachusetts Ave. Emmanuel Gospel Center.
Dr. King lived at 397 Massachusetts Ave. from 1952 to 1953 while studying at the Boston University School of Theology. He lived here during the time of his courtship with Coretta Scott who was attending the nearby New England Conservatory of Music and living at 558 Massachusetts Ave.
This building is near the MBTA Massachusetts Avenue Orange Line Station.
Emmanuel Gospel Center.
A plaque on the house reads:
“This house, built in 1884, was home to Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1952-53 while he was enrolled in the Graduate School of Boston University.
The building was rehabilitated in 1987 by the Tenants’ Development Corporation, a nonprofit housing organization founded in 1968 and inspired by the civil rights movement led by Dr. King.
This plaque was placed here on the 60th anniversary of Dr. King’s birth.
January 15, 1989.”
Coretta Scott lived at 558 Massachusetts Ave. before she married Dr. King. Emmanuel Gospel Center.
Northampton Street Residence
Location: 396 Northampton St.
Emmanuel Gospel Center.
Dr. King and his new wife, Coretta, lived in an apartment at 396 Northampton St. after they were married in 1953 and until she graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1954.
The Northampton Street building no longer exists, but a plaque marks its location. The plaque is located near what is now the site of the new Carter School, which is currently under construction, between Columbus Avenue and the MBTA Massachusetts Avenue Orange Line Station.
It reads:
Emmanuel Gospel Center.
“Newlywed Home of Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott met in Boston and had their first date in January 1952. During their courtship, Martin moved to 397 Massachusetts Avenue, and Coretta moved to The League of Women for Community Service at 558 Massachusetts Avenue. They married in Heiberger, Alabama at Coretta’s family home on June 18, 1953. When they returned to Boston, they moved into Apartment 5 in the six-story Lincoln Apartments on this site at 396 Northampton street. Sharing this one-bedroom rental, Coretta graduated from New England Conservatory of Music, while Martin completed his Boston University residency and began writing his thesis. The Kings left Boston for Montgomery, Alabama in July 1954, where they began a shared life of service and advocacy. Coretta wrote, “I came to the realization that we had been thrust into the forefront of a movement to liberate oppressed people, and this movement had worldwide implications. I felt blessed to have been called to be a part of such a noble and historic cause.”
When they were first married, the Kings lived near what is now the site of the new Carter School, which is currently under construction. The 1965 Civil Rights March started at Carter Park. Emmanuel Gospel Center.
Metropolitan Baptist Church
Location: 393 Norfolk St., Dorchester
The former site of Metropolitan Baptist Church on Shawmut Avenue. Emmanuel Gospel Center.
In 1952, the pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church, Rev. Minor, became ill and had to take some time off to recuperate. During his absence, Dr. King served as interim pastor while he was also a student at Boston University School of Theology.
At that time, the church was located at 777 Shawmut Ave. near the intersection of Ruggles Street and what is today Dewitt Drive. That church building no longer exists, but the congregation continues to meet in its Dorchester location.
Metropolitan Baptist Church. Emmanuel Gospel Center.
Boston University School of Theology
Location: 745 Commonwealth Ave.
In September 1951, Dr. King began his studies in theology and philosophy at Boston University under Professors Edgar S. Brightman and L. Harold DeWolf.
With the influence of Dean Walter Muelder and Professor Allen Knight Chalmers and others at the school, he developed his philosophy of nonviolent resistance and affirmed his ultimate faith in God.
He completed his residential studies in 1954 and received his Ph.D. degree in 1955.
“The Embrace” memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King in the Boston Common. Emmanuel Gospel Center.
Boston Common and the Massachusetts State House
On April 23, 1965, Dr. King led a protest march from Carter Park to the Boston Common where he spoke against Boston’s school segregation to a crowd of 22,000.
He also spoke before a combined session of the Massachusetts Legislature at the State House on April 22.
He had previously returned to Boston in 1964 to support a parents’ boycott of the public schools, advocating school desegregation and improved quality of the schools.
Part of “The Embrace” memorial and the 1965 Freedom Plaza.
Learning As We Go
A new way of thinking helped launch me into ministry. It also changed me in the process.
Learning As We Go: A Messy Methodology Nurtured Transformation
A new way of thinking helped launch me into ministry. It also changed me in the process.
by Megan Lietz, Director, Race & Christian Community Initiative (RCCI)
This is the first article of a three-part series on key lessons RCCI is learning in its first five years of ministry. RCCI focuses on providing biblically based education to white evangelicals to nurture racial healing and justice.
I'm a planner. Every strength-based test I've taken affirms that I'm good at developing a plan, sticking to it, and getting it done. My approach to launching the Race & Christian Community Initiative reflected this skill set.
I reviewed the six-page document containing the plans to launch RCCI at the Emmanuel Gospel Center. It involved a year of research, ministry development, fundraising and relationship building that emphasized gaining understanding before taking action and underestimated how dynamic reality is.
I remember my supervisor, Stacie Mickelson, saying in essence: "That's one way you could do it, but I don't recommend it. I encourage you to start taking action now and learn as you go."
When Stacie first said this, I was a bit confused. Had she not seen my well-thought-out plan?
But more than confusion, I felt unprepared.
How could I be ready without taking the time for extensive research? Did all the degrees I had earned not testify to the need to learn before taking action in the world? Besides, I'm a white woman. I have a good chance of getting it wrong here. I want to put in the work so I can learn to effectively engage issues related to race.
“The names of the euro-descended anti-racist warriors we remember – John Brown, Anne Braden, Myles Horton – are not those of people who did it right. They are of people who never gave up. They kept their eyes on the prize – not on their anti-racism grade point average.
”
Nika Elugardo, the director of EGC’s Applied Research and Consulting department at the time, offered some wisdom I still carry with me. She said: “Megan, you don’t need to know it all. You just need to know enough to be ahead of the people you’re leading. When you are, you’re positioned to reach back and help them take the next step.”
The perspectives of my supervisors opened and invited me to a different way of learning. Instead of waiting until we "feel ready" and following the "perfect plan," RCCI now commits to learn as we go. In the process, we are transformed.
Five years into ministry, I've encountered many white brothers and sisters stuck at the same point I was: not feeling “ready” for action when, in reality, if we all waited until we “felt ready,” action would never come. I now want to reach back, offer some things I've realized about "learning as I go," and encourage them to take the next step.
Learning as you go is uncomfortable and requires risk-taking
Learning as you go — as a real-life practice — is messy and requires risk-taking. Perhaps that's why I, as a calculated planner, took some time to warm up to the idea. Or why I, as someone who wants to "get things right," avoided an approach that increased the chance of failure.
It's also not comfortable. And at first, it doesn't increase your confidence to navigate the world effectively. On the contrary, as I’ve waded into the messiness of multi-racial ministry, I’ve often felt out of control or like I don’t have a clear path ahead. I’ve felt vulnerable, frustrated, anxious, unsure, and insecure. Furthermore, this can make me want to “fix,” micromanage, or distance myself from the problem. But these reactions can be counterproductive. Learning to wrestle with the mess, sit with discomfort, take risks, and figure it out as you go are not only healthier responses, but also formative. They can help us develop the postures, perseverance, and skill sets needed to navigate the realities of race.
That said, I want to be clear that diving in as a white person is both necessary and problematic. The hard truth is that we will inevitably make mistakes and hurt people of color. In my 15 years of living across racial lines and five years leading a ministry seeking to contribute to the dismantling of racism, I’ve upset, offended, annoyed, and dishonored people of color. And it hasn’t come through things that felt like “obvious” mistakes. It has happened through moments of carelessness, oversights, blindspots, defaults. Moments when I never intended to hurt anybody. Moments when, sometimes, I didn’t even know I did.
I’ve messed up. And others – usually brave and generous people of color – were kind enough to let me know. I’ve perpetuated the very practices, narratives and ways of being I profess to stand against. I did that. And you will, too. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take action. On the contrary, we need to learn from our mistakes, learn to repair and address the pain we have caused, and keep working toward the dismantling of racism.
Ricardo Levins Morales, a Puerto Rican artist and activist, shared:
“Anti-racist whites invest too much energy worrying about getting it right; about not slipping up and revealing their racial socialization; about saying the right things and knowing when to say nothing. It’s not about that. It’s about putting your shoulder to the wheel of history; about undermining the structural supports of a system of control that grinds us under, that keeps us divided even against ourselves and that extracts wealth, power and life from our communities like an oil company sucks it from the earth. … The names of the euro-descended anti-racist warriors we remember – John Brown, Anne Braden, Myles Horton – are not those of people who did it right. They are of people who never gave up. They kept their eyes on the prize – not on their anti-racism grade point average. … This will also be the measure of your work. … There are things in life we don’t get to do right. But we do get to do them.”¹
I encourage you to dive in. But be thoughtful about where and how you dive in. Be mindful of the potential consequences and be ready to slow down, confess, repent, and make things right.
Creative Clicks Photography via Lightstock.
Learning as you go contributes to quicker learning
When Stacie and Nika encouraged me to take a risk and learn as I go, they weren’t only helping me learn to do differently, they were actually helping me learn more efficiently. Trying and learning through experience helped me refine my ideas with my feet. It was more efficient to come up with a plan and test it along the way than to polish one before trying it.
As someone who had been conditioned to go for the "A" right out the gate, it took some time to get used to this new approach. But I found it invaluable. Not only did I learn a lot on the way, but I got a lot farther piloting my ideas than I would have if I had "perfected" them on paper. What I once saw as glorious plans now feel like a taxidermied butterfly. They look pretty but they don't fly.
One example of how this methodology bore fruit was with RCCI's cohort community. When I started the first cohort, I wasn't planning to launch a program. I just wrote a blog post and invited white people to talk about race. Little did I know God had been preparing people long before they responded to my blog post. He had placed within them a longing to wrestle with issues related to race in Christian community. Seeing this longing and how it aligned with my own, I jumped in. I didn't feel prepared and I certainly didn't know how to start a program. But we had the Holy Spirit's guidance and my supervisors' support. We also had the resources found within our inaugural community. And so this fledgling group grew into our first cohort.
What started with a handful of people has since evolved into our core program. It’s contributed to action taking and inspired testimonies of transformation. (To learn more, you can read RCCI's Cohort Origin Story here.)
While piloting the cohorts, I learned much about leadership, picked up different tools and practices, and developed meaningful relationships. Ultimately, I was launched into ministry. Though we didn’t have the big team or resources that are often associated with growth, our willingness to "try fast, fail fast, and learn fast" helped us go far.
This experience can be captured well in a quote by sociologist, historian, and author, James Loewen: "If we wait until we are ready … we may wind up old and feeble before we ever do anything. Conversely, getting out there and trying to change society can teach us some things and wind up changing ourselves."²
Learning as you go creates opportunity for collaboration
Learning as I go helped me lean into community. To be honest, I'm a bit of a lone ranger. I need a loving nudge to overcome my natural tendencies that are in tension with my Christian ideals. While "not knowing the answers" and not feeling ready could be seen as a setback, these same feelings developed a healthy fear and open posture in me. This approach nurtured collaboration and propelled me ahead.
When I first launched the cohort, I felt I was operating out of a place of weakness. I was a mother of a demanding 1-year-old, who had me up early in the morning and wanting to go to bed by 8 p.m. Leading cohorts from seven to nine left me in a situation where it was hard to give my best. During cohort conversations some nights, my tired mind would struggle to be attentive. As the facilitator, sometimes I wouldn't know what to do next. It was in those moments of feeling my own limitations — and perhaps because of them — that space was created for others to jump in. They could take the lead. They could share experiences or offer resources that may have gone unshared. They could voice questions that may have gone unasked.
What started as collaboration out of necessity became an intentional approach for RCCI. I valued collaboration in principle, of course. I spent significant time listening to and learning from leaders of color before piloting anything. But feeling my own limitations — and remembering that God didn’t design us to do this alone — helped me cement collaboration into RCCI's practice.
For example, after the first cohort, we worked with alumni to envision and try out a "next step" that would eventually become our support and accountability groups. When we piloted our multiracial workshops and community forums, we invited people of color to speak into the process and co-lead early on. While we were still learning how to collaborate well, we were committed to collaboration — and continue to learn how to do so today.
The "learn as you go approach" encouraged a practice of learning with others. Both of these are now part of RCCI’s DNA today.
Mari Yamagiwa via Lightstock.
Learning as go you nurtures liberation
One of the hardest aspects of embracing agile methodology was that it challenged — no, more than challenged — it required the sacrifice of my perfectionist tendencies.
Perfectionism is something people of all races struggle with for several reasons. But it's also something that can — and has — been used to uphold racial hierarchy.
Taking an approach that required me to address my perfectionism served another purpose: it was a means through which the Lord could continue to liberate me from one of the ways the sin of racism can operate in my life.
Taking a learn-as-you-go approach to ministry helps me not only let go of some of my perfectionism. I'm also learning to let go of control.White folks, especially, are accustomed to having more agency because of our white privilege. We can have unhealthy expectations around power because of how our racial group is dominant and centered in society. We expect power, feel entitled to it, think it is something we need.
But white people are not the Creator. God did not intend for us to have control over and above other human beings. We are all created in God's image and commanded to have dominion over the earth (Gen. 1:27-28) — a dominion of stewardship, caring, and mutual thriving so that God's shalom may reign on earth.
I know this in my head, but the desire to be perfect and the desire to control are very human tendencies.
Taking a "learn as you go" approach is working this out of me. It's been a tool of Christ’s sanctification, liberation, and healing.
The practices and postures of "learning as you go" help nurture liberation. It gets us to re-examine and release the ways we've been conditioned and open ourselves to the Lord. It helps align us with his will so that we can more fully and freely follow Jesus in a multiracial world.
“If we wait until we are ready … we may wind up old and feeble before we ever do anything. Conversely, getting out there and trying to change society can teach us some things and wind up changing ourselves.”
When Nika and Stacie encouraged me to jump in, I didn't expect to be holding on to their advice five years later. Their invitation felt like a risk — and it was — but it was one I've found well worth the reward. It's a reward not of security or ease but of Christ-like transformation.
And today, I'm still on that journey of transformation. Each step of the way, God has shown me grace.
Shelton, a member of RCCI's inaugural cohort, recently shared with me about our early years. She said: "Megan, I didn't follow you because I thought you had all the answers. I followed you because you knew you didn't. Because you were willing to journey in community and learn as you go."
Especially with Boston being a hub for education, we are often valued for what we know. But the deeper I get into Christ’s work of healing and justice, the more I realize I don’t know.
This not knowing doesn’t need to be a barrier. On the contrary, it can be a catalyst for transformation, collaboration, and liberation. If we come with a teachable spirit and humble posture, we can find a gift in uncertainty and be changed by a commitment to learning as we go.
Reflection Questions
How might these principles for learning relate or not relate with your own experience?
When might you have received challenging feedback? How have other people’s perspectives helped you to grow?
Where might you be leaning too heavily on your ability to plan, prepare, or control?
What is one area the Lord may be inviting you to “dive into” even if you don’t feel ready?
In that area, what could the dangers and benefits be of you taking a “learn as you go” approach?
¹Ricardo Levins Morales, "Whites fighting racism: what it’s about," Ricardo Levins Morales Art Studio, January 7, 2015, https://rlmartstudio.wordpress.com/2015/01/07/whites-fighting-racism-what-its-about/.
²James W. Loewen, "The Joy of Antiracism," in Everyday White People Confront Racism & Social Injustice: 15 Stories, ed. Eddie Moore Jr., Marguerite W. Penick-Parks, and Ali Michael (Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing LLC, 2015), 31.
Lessons We’re Learning
RCCI’s founding director, Megan Lietz, shares three key lessons that are forming the ministry and that could serve your own pursuits of building shalom across racial lines.
Lessons We’re Learning: Three Takeaways From the First Five Years of Ministry
by Megan Lietz, Director, Race & Christian Community Initiative
As the Race & Christian Community Initiative at the Emmanuel Gospel Center celebrates five years of ministry, we’ve been intentional about reflecting on our journey. We’ve considered the lessons we’re learning, the ways we’re growing, and what we want to carry with us into the future.
RCCI’s founding director, Megan Lietz, shares three key lessons that are forming the ministry and that could serve your own pursuits of building shalom across racial lines.
We invite you to learn from our mistakes. Gain from our experiences. Or simply be affirmed in the wisdom you already know. Take a look and consider three lessons that have been transformative for our ministry and that we believe are foundational to continuing God’s redemptive work across racial lines.
Part I — Learning As We Go: A Messy Methodology Nurtured Transformation
A new way of thinking helped launch me into ministry. It also changed me in the process.
When I only engaged my mind, I was limiting my own and others’ healing.
Part III — Learning How to Pedal: Balancing “Doing” and “Being” in the Work of Racial Justice
It’s not just about what you do, it’s how you do it.
Remembering Pastor Clarence McGregor
Pastor Clarence McGregor, a beloved member of the local community, passed away in September 2022. He had served with Starlight Ministries at EGC and as associate pastor at South End Neighborhood Church for many years.
Pastor Clarence McGregor, a beloved member of the local community, passed away in September 2022. He had served with Starlight Ministries at the Emmanuel Gospel Center and as associate pastor at South End Neighborhood Church for many years.
Known as “Pastor C,” he had a heart of compassion for people who call the streets home. Family, friends, and colleagues testify to the work of God in his life.
EGC staff and friends mourn his passing but praise God for his life and ministry of love.
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What is the Quiet Revival? Fifty years ago, a church planting movement quietly took root in Boston. Since then, the number of churches within the city limits of Boston has nearly doubled. How did this happen? Is it really a revival? Why is it called "quiet?" EGC's senior writer, Steve Daman, gives us an overview of the Quiet Revival, suggests a definition, and points to areas for further study.