SB day #3 - more rain...
I've pretty much given up on spring break '06.
Anyway, jst a brief post for now anyway. So the book I began to talk about yesterday by Michael Battle and Tony Campolo is called The Church Enslaved: Spirituality for Racial Reconciliation. "Spirituality" is the word I couldn't remember. I'm flying through it and depending on my plans for the evening, I should finish it tonight. The author's make a pretty interesting statement about what is required for churches to become integrated. Their solution is that white churches send members for their churches to become members of black churches. I found this solution surprising and intriguing. I would love to hear what people think about this. I think there would be a great strength to white people submitting to black spiritual leadership, but I also recognize that there is plenty of room for bitterness and resentment to pop up in this scenario. What would be gained by this migration? What would be lost? Is this idea way to farfetched?
Pondering...
Anyway, jst a brief post for now anyway. So the book I began to talk about yesterday by Michael Battle and Tony Campolo is called The Church Enslaved: Spirituality for Racial Reconciliation. "Spirituality" is the word I couldn't remember. I'm flying through it and depending on my plans for the evening, I should finish it tonight. The author's make a pretty interesting statement about what is required for churches to become integrated. Their solution is that white churches send members for their churches to become members of black churches. I found this solution surprising and intriguing. I would love to hear what people think about this. I think there would be a great strength to white people submitting to black spiritual leadership, but I also recognize that there is plenty of room for bitterness and resentment to pop up in this scenario. What would be gained by this migration? What would be lost? Is this idea way to farfetched?
Pondering...
(Just to post a bit about what we talked about at lunch today) First I want to say I applaud the idea, I really do. I think that it’s a great idea, definitely intriguing. I’m sure that you can have extremely powerful experiences using this technique to integrate churches. I’m just afraid that this will be viewed in light of racial busing.
Does the idea that you having one church “send” / “ship” / “give” members to another church create the idea that the “senders” have something that the “receivers” do not? Do we really know how well any blanket solution would work to solve an issue that hundreds of years old?
Can we still create powerful experiences for people, once we are aware of this possible viewpoint? I don’t know, but I know that I would be really interested to attend/participate in a church that was a major ethnicity or racial area than me. I would be curious to understand what I could learn from them. What things they are doing that works for them. How does God speak to them in their context? And does/can that help other communities (racially exclusive or inclusive alike) to know and understand God any better? And I guess ultimately; if they asked me, share what I have come to understand about God and how that has impacted my life today.
Posted by
Nick Larson |
8:27 PM
The model that is used towards the end of the book is that of Mission Year. It is a non-profit that gives a handful of people (usually college students and young adults) the opportunity to be immersed in a community where they are the minority. They get hooked up with a church and offer only to be in support of the pastor. No taking over any leadership. I know a couple of people who did mission year and they learned a ton. Campolo's son started mission year, so obviously he's biased, but it is a good model if people can go into a community as a minority and support the leadership that is already there. As we discussed, I'm also sceptical of blanket solutions, but this might at least be the beginning of a useful paradigm shift...
Posted by
dlweston |
4:29 PM