Dismantling Racism, One Wall At A Time

“You do well when you really fulfill the royal law found in scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself.  But when you show favoritism, you are committing a sin, and by that same law you are exposed as a lawbreaker. Anyone who tries to keep all of the Law but fails at one point is guilty of failing to keep all of it.” (James 2:8-10)

Some of you may know that in the wake of the recent deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, and related protests across our country, leaders of our United Methodist Church have recently launched a plan of action to encourage and equip church members and others to actively stand against racism.  If you haven’t already, you will begin to see billboards around major metro Atlanta trafficways highlighting “Dismantling Racism: Pressing on to Freedom,” a multi-level effort by our United Methodist Church to initiate a sustained and coordinated effort to dismantle racism and promote collective action to work toward racial justice (Read more about this initiative HERE).

While ending racism throughout our country and world is not a problem that any one of us can solve by ourselves, each of us can do our individual part – we can “tear down the wall” that’s directly in front of us (so to speak), one wall at a time.  And while our church alone can’t fix all the systemic issues that we are inherently part of, we can be more intentional about becoming aware of what those issues actually are, so that we can do better about not unintentionally buying into them or giving them power.

To that end, here are several things “in the works” here at McKendree UMC which are designed to help us both as individuals and as a church to “do our part” in dismantling racism and racial injustice by addressing one “wall” at a time:

● We are currently putting together a task force to prayerfully discern exactly what things we can do as a local church to address this systemic problem.  While we have several McKendree members who have already volunteered, if you would like to be part of the steering team for this (or even just an interested member), please email me HERE and I’ll let you know when we are ready to get started.

● Rev. Teddy Rollins (Senior Pastor of the predominantly African-American United Methodist Suwanee Worship Center on Brogdon Rd.) and I have begun meeting not only to get to know one another better, but also to prayerfully begin considering what our two churches might do together as ministry partners to address this issue in our local Gwinnett communities.  At this point, we don’t know exactly what form this partnership will take:  it might result in an occasional pulpit swap between the two of us in our respective churches; a joint Bible/topical study shared with both congregations; a joint mission project or activity; or something else that the task force I mentioned above may help us figure out.  But please be in prayer that our relationship together bears fruit which will help us as God’s people jointly to address this issue.

● We as a church will strive to be more intentional about showing more ethnic diversity on Sunday mornings and on online/streaming worship services.  While we at McKendree are in many ways already a more diverse congregation than some churches (approximately 30% of our active membership is non-white/Caucasian), for the past three months during our time of quarantine, our online services have unintentionally lacked that diversity.  For this we are truly sorry, and agree that we need to be more intentional about reflecting who we actually already ARE as a diverse congregation (as well as what we seek to become more of in the future).
           So, whoever you are and whatever your background, we would love to have you to help us lead a prayer, read a scripture, do a welcome, or something else (perhaps even in a second language!) for either one of our in-person or online worship services (or both).  If you are interested in helping us show who we really are, please contact Nada Long HERE.

● To help us as individuals become more aware of the power and unintentional control that “Implicit Bias” already has over most of us, I want to invite and encourage those who are interested and willing to exploring this topic to join me in taking a $20, “at-your-own-pace” short online course sponsored by the Commission on Race and Religion of our UMC called Implicit Bias: What We Don't Think We Think.  You can read about the course, what it offers, and sign up for it HERE. 

● (If you’re reading this before July 1^st), You’re invited to join fellow United Methodists around the world in a live, denominational online Town Hall meeting Dismantling Racism: Pressing On to Freedom on Wednesday, July 1^st at 12:00pm CST (1:00pm EST) HERE to look at the history of our nation and church regarding the issue of race, and how being more aware of the stark realities of our past can help us build a more Gospel-grounded future together for both our church, country and our broader world.

Of course, none of these things alone can solve the depth of pain and hurt in our society caused by racism, prejudice, implicit bias, and racial injustice.  But it’s my hope that as we seek to address them “one wall at a time,” we will be doing our part in the name of Jesus to take down the larger “Wall” of racism in our country and world, and to fully keep the Law of Love that James talks about in the opening scripture for this article.

Always remember that God loves you and I do, too!