Dear 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…

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Dear Church, Listen Beyond Your Racial Identity

I remember being perplexed five years ago by images I saw on the news of civil unrest in Ferguson, MO following the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man. I saw demonstrators destroying and setting fire to their own communities. “Who would do such a thing?” I wondered. I used that misunderstanding…

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Dear 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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Dear Church, Let’s Break Bread and Drink Wine

Dear Church, Like every good preacher’s kid, I was due a crisis of faith somewhere between my late-teens and early twenties. I would not say that my relationship with Jesus ever faltered but my relationship with his church certainly did. Now, I do not for a second regret or dismiss my Southern Baptist roots. I…

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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, 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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