Dear Church, Serve Alongside Others

  Dear Church, I want to sit here and talk about the ways I wish the Church would do better. I want to rattle off the ways I wish people would really step up and make progress. But I also think the most vulnerable and honest way I can talk about this idea of serving…

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Dear Church, Wash Your Face

On March 8th, the world celebrated International Women’s Day. It’s a day in Women’s History Month that recognizes the incredible contributions achieved and accomplished by women, overcoming the systemic prejudices of patriarchal societies around the globe. But it also highlights the constant battles women around the world must face for actual equality and equity with…

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Dear Church, Be Love and Do Good

Dear Church, February has two popular community activity themes of national interests and benefit, Saint Valentine’s Day and Black History Month.  Both themes promote acts of love and thoughts of consideration and conciliation.  Valentine’s Day provides an opportunity to remember to love.  It spreads joy throughout the community.  Black History acknowledges the works of African…

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Dear Church, It’s Time to Overturn Tables

Dear Church, Anger. It is something that we don’t talk about much. We have categorized anger as a sin; however, the emotion of anger is not a sin. According to Ephesians 4:26-27 (The Message), “Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t…

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Dear Church, Follow Christ and Not the World

Dear Church, In February of 2017, I traveled to Colorado Springs to take part of a prayer event and to spend some time with friends. During a down moment we headed to a department store for lunch and for some ‘light’ shopping. The checkout line was pretty long, filled with very pregnant women preparing for…

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Dear Church, I Am A Racist

Dear Church, In August 2011, I read my first Dr. Martin Luther King book, Strength to Love.  This book would be a turning point in my life, not so much because of what was written on its pages, well yes, it was what was written on its pages, but not in the usual sense.  You…

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Dear Church, God’s Children Need More

Dear Church, As a Christian and an educator in New Orleans Public Schools, I recognize the need for God’s children to have backpacks and school supplies, but we may be limiting the way we see God’s power manifested to transform our world. God’s children need more; they need the grace and courtesy to walk with…

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Dear Church, Refuse to be in Denial

Dear Church, I write to you to admit that I am a recovering racist, working to overcome the lies ingrained in me by white supremacy and a racialized society. I share this to be transparent with you, to own up to and change the ways I’ve bought into the illusion of race and white supremacy,…

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Dear Church, Music Can Bridge the Divide

Dear Church, In 1979, President Jimmy Carter declared June, Black Music Month. Later in 2009, President Obama renamed it African-American Music Appreciation Month. This month was created to celebrate the influence African-Americans have had throughout the world by their music that has been created. It tells stories of faith, freedom, love, and justice. For years,…

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