Posts Tagged ‘Church’
Dear [White] Church, Allow Your Hearts to Be Uncomfortably Broken
Dear [White] Church, Allow Your Hearts to Be Uncomfortably Broken Pain is a meeting place with God. It is a place of the truest honesty. Pain is not a mistake to fix. Healing rarely comes without pain. A broken heart is always a beginning. This pain is a beginning or this pain is a…
Read MoreDear Church, Open Your Eyes to Racism
Dear Church, I write to you to admit my own blindness as a white woman to our history of racism and the harm that has been done and continues to be done to our brothers and sisters of color. I encourage us white folks to support one another as we open our eyes to these…
Read MoreDear Church, I Write to Share a Recipe for Gumbo!
Dear Church, Given America’s polarized divisions, it’s time to make gumbo! As a proud native of New Orleans, I have absolutely no reservation in sharing that gumbo is my favorite food on the planet. I love the shrimp. I love the sausage. I love the chicken. I also love the okra. Gumbo brings diverse ingredients…
Read MoreDear Church, I Can’t Hear You
Dear Church, Hello! Are you there? A social awakening is happening outside the walls of your well-constructed edifices. Do you not see it? Your people are hungry for change, yet you are earnestly trying to return to what once was, instead of embracing what is. In the spirit of returning to a sense of normalcy,…
Read MoreDear Church, God Bless America
Unclench your fists. Hold out your hands. Take mine. Let us hold each other. Thus is God’s Glory Manifest. “Epiphany,” Madeleine L’Engle Dear Church, God bless America? Really? Tragically, our most recent Epiphany marked the day of clenched fists, angry mobs, and the thunderstorm of violence by white supremacists upon the US Capitol. January 6th…
Read MoreDear Church, The 2020 Census will have a lasting Impact
Dear Church, By now you’ve heard that the 2020 Census will determine how much federal funding each community will get for healthcare, schools, housing, food assistance, and so much more. It will determine each community’s representation in Congress, in state legislatures, in city councils, and school boards. And businesses— large and small—will base their decisions…
Read MoreDear Church, The Virus Attacking the Body of Christ
Dear Church, I am writing to you, sheltering in place with my family, from my home in Washington, D.C. in the midst of the 2020 Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has impacted the entire planet. Our world has changed, and it will never be quite the same again. Nor should it. My prayer is that the…
Read MoreDear Church, Make Room for Lament
Dear Church, I sit and write this letter in the confines of my home as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep through the entire world. If you wake up every morning only to realize that this was not all a bad dream, I am with you. If your voice does not resonate with the inspirational…
Read MoreDear Church, Practice the Gospel
Dear Church, I’m not a local to New Orleans. I have lived here almost 6 years now, but it’s not my native city, it’s not the culture in which I was raised. So there are certain customs and traditions that I wasn’t familiar with when I arrived, bits of New Orleans culture that I had…
Read MoreDear Church, We are called to be reconcilers
Dear Church, You don’t have to do racial reconciliation alone. There’s a whole community ready, willing, and waiting for you to lead us through healing from the deep wounds we all have from institutionalized and systemic inequity. As co-leaders for National Community Church’s Racial Reconciliation small group, we have seen the power of a Christ-centered…
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