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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Dear Church, This is no time for complacency. Action is required.

Dear Church,  Over 60 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr., stated: “A solution of the present crisis will not take place unless men and women work for it. Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Even a superficial look at history reveals that no social advance rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. Every stop…

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Dear Church, Let’s talk about some history

Dear Church, Let’s talk about some history. On December 31, 1862, New Year’s Eve, thousands of free and escaped slaves gathered in churches across the North (and some in the South) to anxiously await January 1. On Freedom’s Eve, they waited for freedom to come. Then-President Lincoln’s the Emancipation Proclamation was set to go in…

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Dear Church, What is Your Why?

Dear Church, What is your why? Why do you exist? … As a Jesus lover and follower and founder of Mission Reconcile, I sometimes wonder if the churches of today are executing their purpose and their reason for existence. Are the churches of today functioning like the beginning churches in the book of Acts?  To…

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