Dr. Jeff Broadnax has been representing GCI with racial reconciliation initiatives held by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). I recently asked Jeff to represent me at a gathering in Montgomery, Alabama. His letter below gives the details of this visit. We have strategically placed his letter in this issue of Update as a good introduction to the similarity training that will be held at each of the Regional Gatherings this summer. Thank you, Jeff, for your instructive and inspirational insights.
I was honored to represent GCI, along with more than sixty leaders and ministry members, on the NAE’s Racial Justice and Reconciliation Collaborative. For two days, we interactively discussed the Christian church’s response to racism, injustice, and social, cultural, and political division in America.
We gathered in Montgomery at the Legacy Sites established by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). Fueling our discussions and reflections were messages from NAE President, Dr. Walter Kim, Dr. Bernice King (daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), Dr. Christina Edmonson, and EJI Founder, Bryan Stevenson. We toured the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice (devoted to the victims of racial terror lynchings) and the newly opened Freedom Monument Sculpture Park [pictured above].
I felt like one of the pilgrims in Jerusalem on Pentecost. Peter’s compelling witness about the life and ministry of Jesus went beyond simply reciting teachings received as Jesus’ disciple. Peter’s narrative recounted his freshly baptized and restorative experience of Jesus’ calling, ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, and personalized sending.
Peter unashamedly proclaimed hard truths to all with ears to hear because he understood that it was by hard truths that Jesus enabled his own ears and eyes to be spiritually opened afresh. The garden of Gethsemane, Pilate’s courtyard, the upper room, and the shores of the Sea of Galilee, among others, were key moments with Jesus that shaped Peter’s passionate witness to “strengthen his brothers.”
So convicting and compelling was Peter’s message, that the pilgrims cried out, “Friends, what should we do?” The answer was clear. “Turn to God and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38 CEV).
Every Jesus-follower’s responsibility is to listen for and hear truth from God, then respond by sharing it. While in Alabama, I saw and heard of the wonders of God “in my own language,” and the Holy Spirit took me deeper into some hard truths regarding racial justice and reconciliation in the Body of Christ.
Christian leaders gathered for the NAE Racial Justice and Reconciliation Collaborative
While sitting in the very same room where enslaved people were chained and examined before being auctioned off, Bryan Stevenson shared his visionary calling from God to confront the darkness of historical, current, and future racial division and injustice with the disinfecting light of truth and reconciliation found in Jesus. He chose Montgomery as the site for these museums because Montgomery represented the heart of racial division in America.
Montgomery was the site where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the President of the Confederate States of America in 1861, and it was where Alabama governor, George Wallace, proclaimed in his 1963 inaugural address, “I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”
These two days of Christian discussions and experiences of hard racial truths of American history were by no means my first. I have visited over a dozen major sites addressing America’s racial history. However, I can say, this experience was the most personalized.
You see, my paternal grandparents and great grandparents were born and raised in this racialized part of the south in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. With God’s help, they navigated in real time the hard truths I was learning about 160 years later.
Before arriving in Montgomery, I toured other key sites of the civil rights movement in Birmingham. I sat in my car and listened to Dr. King read his letter from that very jail to local Christian pastors calling them to experience a metanoia and join Jesus in the ministry of racial justice, inclusion, and reconciliation. (The Greek word metanoia means to change one’s mind.)
I then visited my great grandparents’ graves in the small, unkept cemetery at the end of a rural dirt road. I wanted to share a time of prayerful lament, thanksgiving, and worship to God for his faithfulness in allowing me to live out the dreams they only saw in their mind’s eye. While kneeling there in the Holy Spirit’s comfort, I was also convicted of some personal divisive darkness needing cleansing in Jesus. That’s how he works.
The Christian church, as ambassadors of reconciliation, must shine God’s disinfecting light of grace and truth into the dark brokenness of sin that hides, resides, and at times gets expressed within human interactions. GCI embraces this mandate and at the Friday sessions of the Regional Gatherings this summer, I will lead a Christ-centered equipping workshop designed by Pastor Miles McPherson, called, The Third Option Similarity Training exploring relational oneness in Jesus.
Once washed and compelled by the reconciling forgiveness in Jesus, I humbly look forward to asking the “What shall we do?” question to those ready to explore the hard truths guiding the ministry and message of reconciliation.
From the editor: To our U.S. readers, may you have a meaningful Juneteeth observance! If your fellowship held a Juneteeth celebration with your neighbors, tell us about it. Send your story to elizabeth.mullins@gci.org.
Devotional—Ordinary Love
“You have been given questions to which you cannot be given answers. You will have to live them out — perhaps a little at a time.” —Wendell Berry
I’m new to my neighborhood. I have high hopes of making new friends and building community. I make eye contact, smile, and greet every neighbor I see. And some of them return the greeting.
But many do not.
“Not Ideas About the Thing but the Thing Itself” is a poem by Wallace Stevens. Borrowing that idea, author Greg Boyle describes, in The Whole Language, how we don’t want to settle for a description of the kingdom, we want the kingdom itself.
When I read that, I teared up. It connects very deeply to the longing in me. My desire for connection and unity with my neighbors is a longing for the kingdom itself.
Do you long for more than ideas about the kingdom?
Longing can feel like sadness, but it indicates that there is more — more than ideas. Longing tethers me to hope — hope in Jesus’ restorative, reconciling action in my neighborhood. I hope in the reality that we are created for belonging and kinship.
How do I cultivate belonging when my neighbors don’t appear to want to connect?
I don’t have the answer. Perhaps I will have to live it out, a little at a time.
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And he shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord! Psalm 27:13-14 NKJV
We wait. We pay attention to the goodness of the Lord. We stay consistently available and near. We smile. We will not settle for merely the idea of the kingdom kinship.
Prayer:
Strengthen our hearts, Father. In the face of questions, empower us to be of good courage, Spirit. We are grateful for you, Jesus, our answer. Amen.
By Elizabeth Mullins, Update Editor
Durham, NC, US
Healthy Church—Kidz Blast
On June 1, Grace Communion Cleveland, by the power of the Holy Spirit, successfully organized and held a free event for kids to celebrate the start of their summer vacation from school. As a connecting point, the engagement event was held where we meet for services. From noon until 4 p.m., our common area was filled with families who we invited from two of the elementary schools in our community.
Students enjoyed games, earning tickets for prizes, and a bounce house that was always filled with children. We also set up an indoor roller skating rink in the gym. We served hot dogs cooked on the outdoor grill, lemonade, bags of popcorn, and frozen popsicles to fill hungry people.
A mother and daughter team in our congregation never took a break from creating beautiful individual works of art on the faces of children and adults. Our hired balloon artist continually made fun balloon sculptures for everyone who waited patiently in line. Some children took the opportunity to create a canvas board painting at a table run by an artist who has a studio in the building. The table offering stacks of children’s books that were donated by the literacy cooperative were happily taken home by families as they left the event.
We estimated that there were more than 200 people in attendance. We felt very blessed to have had such a wonderful connection with our community. Glory to our God!
By Pat Shiels, Love Avenue Champion
Cleveland, OH, US
Healthy Church—Replicating Leaders
On June 2, the Montreal congregation celebrated the ordination of two assistant pastors. Bill Hall, National Director of Canada, was with us to ordain Marie-Line Tremblay and Pierre Duguay
Marie-Line’s role as an assistant pastor and main responsibility is to our families, including the supervision of children and youth ministry. Pierre’s main field of service and role is that of Love Avenue Champion.
By Roger Labelle, Pastor
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Community Meals
On May 30, the Grace Communion Pikeville congregation celebrated its ninth anniversary of serving free meals to our neighbors. For several years, we offered Easter and Christmas meals to our community. But nine years ago, we sensed God was telling us to do more. We sought to understand what the “more” was, and we felt God telling us to feed people meals on a regular basis, more than twice a year. And the community kitchen was born.
We started by serving a meal at the end of each month. Over time, we adapted as we discerned the needs in our community and felt an urging by God to do more. We went from serving a meal a month to a meal a week. Then in 2020 during Covid, we began serving meals two days a week and have continued to do so.
God has made the way for us to be able to serve and provides the means to do so, often in very unexpected ways. Through the hard work of our volunteers and community partners, we serve an average of 800 meals a week.
We are truly privileged to be able to share the love of Jesus to our community through our meals. Our motto is found in Matt. 25:35 “For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat …”
Debby Bailey, Pastor
Pikeville, KY, US
Meet Michael Mitchell
“I love what I see happening in this denomination at this time; I really believe that God is at work in GCI.”
Discover Michael Mitchell’s story as a GCI Ministry Coach in Kingston, Jamaica. Click here or on the image below to see the full profile.
To honor their hard work and accomplishment, we want to announce our GCI graduates in our newsletter. Do you know anyone who is graduating from secondary / high school, college, university, technical / vocational school?
A photo of the graduate, if possible. (It doesn’t have to be a cap & gown photo.)
Deadline for submissions: Wed. July 3.
You’re Invited to Ghana
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The GCI Ghana 50th Anniversary Celebration and Conference is planned for August 18–26, 2024 in Accra.
We would like to encourage everyone who would like to visit Ghana to participate. A visit to the historic Cape Coast “Slave” Castle is part of the scheduled events.
Dr. Greg Williams, GCI President, and Pastor Gabriel Ojih will be joining us in the celebration. They and many other invited guests are expected in the country on Tuesday, August 20, 2024.
