This post carries both grief and gratitude. Doug Hall — beloved mentor, urban ministry pioneer, and dear friend to so many in the EGC community and beyond — has passed away. Below I share a personal tribute. I also want to invite you to EGC’s upcoming Ministry Celebration and Fundraiser, where we will take a moment to honor Doug alongside two other spiritual giants – Ralph & Judy Kee – we also lost this spring.
A Tribute to Doug Hall
It is with deep sadness — and profound gratitude — that I share the news of the passing of my dear mentor and friend, Doug Hall.
My story with Doug (and Judy!) begins when I was a 26-year-old urban pastor, sitting in their two-semester Inner City Ministry class. The content alone was transformative — but what left an even deeper mark was the way they taught it. Before each class, they sat down with every student over a meal. They invited each of us to share our spiritual journeys, our wounds, and our sense of calling — and Doug and Judy did likewise. They created a rich learning environment where honesty and vulnerability were not just permitted but modeled from the front of the room.
I remember sitting in that class and having a strong impression that one day I would come to study and work alongside them. God fulfilled that impression fifteen years later, when Doug and Judy became my Doctor of Ministry mentors. And after completing my DMin, I joined Emmanuel Gospel Center as the founding Director of EGC’s Intercultural Ministries program — the direct fruit of seeds they had planted decades earlier.
Doug and Judy modeled what faithful urban ministry looks like. They led with humility, always learning — seeking out voices like Rev. Michael Haynes and Dr. Eldin Villafane, listening to those who understood the city from the inside. Alongside Dr. Villafane, they helped found Gordon-Conwell Seminary’s Center for Urban Ministerial Education — an institution that has shaped generations of urban ministry leaders. Their home — lovingly called the “Hall Hotel” — welcomed hundreds of people over four decades. That same spirit of extravagant hospitality defined their leadership at EGC, where they created space for urban ministry students and practitioners from around the world to be seen and supported.
Doug taught us to think systemically — to understand that the world God created and redeemed operates more like a living ecosystem than a machine. He had a deep appreciation for those so often overlooked by the powerful: urban neighbors, immigrants, people on the margins.
Doug was a prolific writer. He wrote almost every day, sharing his handwritten notes with Judy and letting her type them up. He was constantly thinking and learning. He even wrote a book about systems thinking: The Cat and the Toaster.
Doug’s book, co-authored with Judy Hall and Steve Daman
Writing retreat at Becky and Ken’s home in Vermont, 2020
Doug is survived by his beloved Judy. Their ministry was always spoken of as a duo — Doug & Judy — inseparable in calling and in love. This will be a profound adjustment for her, and we ask for your prayers as our community surrounds and supports her in this season of loss.
I am a better minister, thinker, and human being because of Doug Hall. He leaves behind a legacy that will continue to bear lasting fruit.
Rest well, dear friend. Until we meet on the other side.
Doug & Judy’s Last Visit to our Home, December 2025
Chapter One: Viewing and Goodbye will be held on April 27, 2026, at Bethel AME Church, 100 Wachusett Street, Boston, MA. Visiting hours will be from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., with a closing time of reflection and prayer from 7:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Chapter Two: Celebration of Life will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2026, with the location to be announced.
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Judy Kee Memorial: Robinson Funeral Home, 809 Main St., Melrose, MA
Visitation: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (Orange Line to Oak Grove)
Funeral Service: Saturday, April 25, at noon.
Instead of flowers, you can give to Frontier Nursing University, HEAL Africa, or South End Neighborhood Church
For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this? (Esther 4:14)
In January, I was asked to facilitate a session on the question: What should the Church’s response be to U.S. Immigration Policy in 2026? Here, I share insights from that session, along with additional reflections.
Let me begin by underscoring three points, which are largely interwoven.
This is not merely a political question; it is also a human one.
This is not merely a political question; it is also a theological one.
This is not merely a political question; it is also a missiological one.
A Human Issue
We begin by reminding ourselves that the question of immigration is not merely an abstract political issue for debate but a deeply human one with real-life consequences.1
To underscore this, I want to share a text I recently received from an immigrant friend with a pending asylum case. With their permission, I share a portion of that text to humanize this issue.
With events unfolding in uncertain ways, may you please not only keep us in your prayers but also check on us periodically, because if anyone is not safe anymore, we’re also exposed and vulnerable, with our asylum interview stretched into the unknown future. The level of violence I’ve seen online involving ICE reminds me of the day the ruling party youth and former war veterans came chanting at my house to beat, destroy property, and harm me. It reminds me of the day a provincial governor singled me out because of my race and told the people to get rid of the enemy and anyone like me, because I was a living reminder of what they hate. It reminds me of an ambassador from my country and the ruling army that threatened me while I was doing humanitarian and peacebuilding work because the ruling party deemed me an enemy of the state. At no time did I ever think state-sanctioned political violence could become global and find me here in the U.S.
Keep us in your prayers, and please check on us. We are rattled and shaken but not dismayed. My text reflects my human fear, not my faith, for I’m aware that God’s will endures. Thank you for caring for us.
Now, multiply this text by millions, and one begins to come to terms with the human stakes at play.
A Theological Issue
Next, we need to understand that the questions surrounding immigration are not merely political but also deeply theological. This fact is sometimes lost or overlooked in our public discourse, and even, many times, among Christians. That is because…
Public theology is theological reflection that participates in public discourse for the common good. Public theology provides a framework for Christian social ethics and serves as a bridge between theology and public discourse. While a relatively recently named discipline, the Church has practiced public theology throughout the ages; it was formally named in 1974 and has since developed into a recognized discipline.2
As it pertains to the topic of this article, a private theology question would be: What does the Bible teach about loving neighbors? Whereas, a public theology question would be: How should a society structure immigration policy in light of human dignity and neighbor-love?
A Missiological Issue
We also need to remind ourselves that this is not merely a political issue but also a missiological one. This, too, is often missed or quickly glossed over by many Christians who are often sucked into debating immigration policy in the same rancorous, polarized way so common in our day. This debate is often devoid of meaningful theological reflection and consideration of the Missio Dei, the Mission of God.
In my 2001 thesis project, I outlined what I referred to as “A systemic theology of diaspora (refugee and immigrant) ministry and mission.”3 In that paper, I offered four interrelated theological points that build upon one another.
God, as part of His overall work of advancing His Kingdom, has always had a clear design on redeeming people from every tribe, tongue, and nation (Gen. 12:1-3; Matt. 24:14; Acts 1:8; Rom. 16:25-27; Rev. 5:9).
In the New Testament, God’s design for advancing His Kingdom includes creating and using a multi-ethnic community called “the Church” where Christ-centered unity is fleshed out amid cultural diversity (Rom. 10:12; I Cor. 12:12-13; Gal. 3:28; Eph. 2:11-20; 3:6; Col. 3:11).
God’s means of accomplishing His redemptive plan among all peoples of the earth has always included the strategic use of diaspora peoples (Gen. 12:1-3; Ruth; Esther; Jeremiah 29:4-7; Acts 8:1,4; 11:19; 13; Acts 17:26-27; James 1:1; I Peter 1:1; Rev. 1:9; 21, 22).
God’s means of carrying out His redemption plan, and thus advancing His Kingdom rule on the earth, has always included the mandate to His people to offer hospitality and service to the “aliens” and “strangers” among them (Ex. 23:9; Lev. 19:33-34; Deut. 10:17-19; 26:1-13; Matt. 25:31-46; Heb. 13:2).
When I present this theology in a lecture or sermon, I often pause after each point and ask, “Have you ever heard this point preached?”
For many Christians, they immediately answer “yes” to the first two points (though point #2 is often a more theoretical “yes” than a regularly experienced one). But at points three and four, the “yeses” become dramatically fewer.
For point #3, many Christians miss the golden thread throughout Scripture: God always used diaspora people for his redemptive purposes. Sometimes this movement was voluntary, like when Ruth followed her mother-in-law, Naomi, from Moab back to Bethlehem, or when Abram followed God’s call to go to a land he did not know (Genesis 12). In both cases, there was divine purpose in the moves.
In other cases, the movement was involuntary, like when the Jews were carried into exile to Babylon or when Joseph was trafficked to Egypt, or when there was a persecution of Christ followers in Jerusalem and Christians were scattered near and far, or when the last diaspora saint was exiled to the Isle of Patmos.
In all of these cases, God had redemptive purposes in mind to use his diaspora people to bless their new communities (Jeremiah 29:4-7), to advance the Gospel (Acts 8:1-4), and to apprehend and testify to his heavenly vision (Revelation 1:9; 21).
If God has always used diaspora people to accomplish his will, it is imperative that we adopt this perspective as our mental model for any consideration of refugees, immigrants, and human migration. Unfortunately, this is often not the case.
Similarly, in point #4, the mandate for God’s people to practice hospitality to foreigners and strangers is often overlooked as a core practice of our modern Christian discipleship. This mandate is another golden thread interwoven throughout the corpus of Scripture. God’s people were commanded time and again to attend to the orphans, widows, and strangers (foreigners). In the Old Testament, the command to attend to foreigners was repeatedly linked to the memory of when God’s people were foreigners in Egypt (Exodus 22:21; 23:9).
“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, you shall not oppress the foreigner. The foreigner residing among you shall be as the native-born among you; you shall love the foreigner as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 19:33-34).
In the New Testament, this command is reinforced in the parable of the Sheep and Goats.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me'” (Matthew 25:31-46).
So, from a Christian perspective, before we jump to any consideration of our modern immigration policy in the U.S., we must root ourselves deeply in our ancient calling to love the foreigner and alien among us. How are we doing with this task?
Is our impulse to build walls or to build bridges to the foreigner and alien among us? How are our discipleship muscles performing in loving people who are culturally or religiously different from us? Have we befriended refugees and immigrants as an expression of our higher citizenship to the Kingdom of God? This must be our starting point for any discussion on policy and practices related to diaspora people.
From the four interconnected theological statements outlined above, we can comprehend and cooperate with what God is doing on the earth today in sending the nations to our doorstep. Systemically speaking, when statements two, three, and four are practiced, statement one is advanced. When the Church pursues Christ-centered unity within cultural diversity, engages diaspora peoples in missions, and offers hospitality and service to “aliens” and “strangers,” then people from every tribe, tongue, and nation will be redeemed.
On the other hand, when statements two, three, and four are not practiced, statement one is inhibited and delayed. It is important to underscore that the omission or neglect of any one of the last three statements will impede the realization of the first statement. When Christians unify along sectarian lines instead of Christ, when they operate in ethnic silos, or fail to love the strangers among them, then the Kingdom of God will not be realized.
With the human, theological, and missiological perspectives established, let us now examine current U.S. immigration policy and practice, and consider how the Church might respond in this context. First, we need to understand the realities of our current moment under the second Trump administration.
Changes in Policy and Practice since Trump Returned to Office in 20254
Here is a brief summary of some of the changes:
Stronger Border Enforcement and Restrictions on Entry. Beginning in 2025, the administration implemented a series of executive actions aimed at sharply reducing unauthorized crossings at the southern border, including ending certain parole programs, expanding barriers and enforcement personnel, and limiting access to asylum at the border. These actions followed the collapse of a bipartisan congressional proposal in 2024 that had sought to tighten border enforcement while also reforming the asylum system.
The U.S. Refugee program was effectively shut down. The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) was suspended beginning January 2025, resulting in a near halt in refugee arrivals, except for a few limited exceptions.
A rollback or wind-down of many Temporary Protective Status (TPS) programs. These terminations and at-risk terminations have affected over one million people. TPS Terminated/Discontinued under Trump 2025–Jan 2026: Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Somalia (March 2026), South Sudan, Syria, and Venezuela (attempted/contested). Some of these are being contested in court.
New travel or immigration restrictions for people from certain countries and paused legal processing for people from those nations already in the country. Nineteen countries were banned from entry in a June 2025 proclamation, expanded to 39 effective January 1, 2026, and effective January 21, 2026, it will be expanded to 75 countries.5
Detention expanded sharply in 2025, with detention reaching record levels (69,000 by January 26 — compared to the Biden administration’s high of 40,000) and people spending longer time in custody as cases move slowly.
Deportation priorities have shifted from a targeted approach to a more universal one, with more aggressive interior enforcement and removals, and broader use of faster processes in some cases (including expanded expedited removal).
Who is being detained and deported now?
It’s not just the “worst of the worst.” Three categories have emerged:
People with a deportation order — These are often long-term community members who were not enforcement priorities before now.
Raids in various spaces where immigrants or migrants gather — ICE raids most commonly occur in three types of spaces. First, workplaces and job sites — including factories, farms, construction sites, and warehouses — have historically been the most visible locations for large-scale raids and employment audits. Second, public spaces such as streets, parking lots, and transit hubs are frequent sites of at-large arrests, where agents detain individuals in areas open to the public. Third, residential homes are sometimes targeted in operations aimed at specific individuals, though entry into private spaces typically requires a judicial warrant. In many cases, ICE targets individuals based on skin color and language or accents.
Asylum seekers — Even those with strong cases are now increasingly being detained before or after a court hearing or a mandated “check-in.”
That’s what has changed under the Trump administration. The human costs are real, the stakes are high, and the Church cannot afford to be silent or confused. So the question before us is not merely political — it is deeply pastoral and theological: How should we respond? While not discounting any Scripture already offered above, I would like to frame our response around five biblical goods that must be held in tension.
Five Biblical Goods That Must Be Held in Tension
Human dignity (Genesis 1:27)
Hospitality to the stranger (Deut. 10:19; Matt. 25)
Justice and order (Romans 13)
Truth and responsibility (Ephesians 4:25)
Solidarity in the suffering Body of Christ (I Cor. 12:26; Col. 1:24; Philippians 1; 3:10)
A critical feature of this framework is that these five biblical goods must be held in tension. We cannot pick one of them and ignore the others. I often see people pick one and huddle up with others who pick the same one, while ignoring the rest. Doing so will not steer us in the right direction and will undercut our role as people of God called to be shalom seekers in our nation and world. We need to wrestle with how these five goods can be faithfully embodied in this moment.
Without these goods being valued and held in tension, various distortions emerge:
Hospitality without order → chaos and backlash
Order without mercy → cruelty and fear
Compassion without capacity → burnout and overwhelm
Enforcement without truth → dehumanization
Let me comment on each of the five biblical goods. I will give more attention to the last three, as the first two are more self-evident or have already been covered in my previous comments.
1. Human Dignity
This is self-evident but often overlooked in practice. According to Scripture, all human beings are made in the image of God and are worthy of respect. In order to move forward in a positive direction, we must apply this good to all people, including immigrants (regardless of legal status), ICE agents, politicians, and people who are our political opponents. It is impossible to make progress as shalom seekers without grounding our conviction and actions in this first good. Indeed, the dehumanization of others sabotages any chance of fruitful discourse and of moving forward as a more just and compassionate society.
2. Hospitality to the Stranger
I gave this point significant attention in my previous comments, specifically under point #4 in my “Systemic theology of diaspora (refugee and immigrant) ministry and mission.” Please refer to my comments on this point there.
As I shared above, if we adhere to a biblically informed social ethic, it must include meaningful hospitality toward refugees, immigrants, and strangers. Indeed, until recent decades, the Church in the U.S. has historically led the way in providing hospitality to refugees. This social ethic has been among the highest ideals of both the Church and U.S. civil society, but over the last decade or so, there has been substantial opposition to this biblical good.
3. Justice and Order
Throughout the Christian tradition, civil authority has been recognized as a legitimate institution — a gift from God meant to uphold order, restrain evil, and promote the common good. Romans 13 clearly affirms this role, calling believers to live as respectful, law-abiding residents and citizens. But Scripture also draws a boundary: when earthly powers demand what God forbids or forbid what God commands, the people of God are called to a higher loyalty. In moments like these, Acts 5:29 (“We must obey God rather than men”) and Revelation 13’s warning about beastly empires remind us that our ultimate allegiance is not to any nation or ruler, but to the Lord of heaven and earth.
Jesus himself modeled this principle in the Gospels, repeatedly transgressing religious and civil laws — particularly Sabbath regulations and purity codes — when human dignity and well-being were at stake. His pattern of choosing the person over the regulation offers the Church a compelling model of faithful, prophetic action when earthly laws conflict with a higher loyalty to God’s kingdom.6
There are many nuances to this conversation, and different parts of the Body of Christ have worked this out in different ways over the centuries. To this day, there is tension within the Church over how this is to be worked out. This is another reason we need to come together as a diverse Body to listen to and learn from one another.
People who select this good as the primary (or only) good often cite Romans 13 without including other passages in Scripture that support drawing a boundary. Read in context, Romans 13 follows Paul’s call to reject vengeance, bless persecutors, and overcome evil with good. The passage affirms legitimate authority but also places moral limits on power, holding rulers accountable for wrongdoing.
Romans 13 does not exist apart from Romans 1–12, where Paul establishes God’s ultimate authority, the dignity of human beings, the limits of power, and the call to sacrificial love. “There is no authority except that which God has established” (Romans 13:1). “Love does no harm to a neighbor” (Romans 13:10). When the state (or anyone) acts in ways that harm, dehumanize, or deny justice, the Church is not rebelling by speaking — it is being faithful. Scripture is clear: “We must obey God rather than human authority” (Acts 5:29).
As a reminder, racial segregation was legal, and the church stood up to change the law. Slavery was legal, and the church stood up to change the law. So, too, must we today.
While there is a danger in misapplying Romans 13 in isolated, weaponized ways, there are concrete elements of justice and order that need to be incorporated into any holistic shalom-seeking response to immigration policy and practice in our day. Among them:7
Remove Violent Criminals: This is indeed the state’s responsibility. Scripture affirms the legitimate role of governing authorities in restraining harm and upholding public safety (Romans 13:3-4). This must be done with discernment and justice — without criminalizing entire communities.
Respect for due process for all: Due process is already embedded in our laws, yet it is not being honored equally, particularly for immigrant communities. “Do not show partiality in judging” (Deuteronomy 1:17). “Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits” (Exodus 23:6).
De-escalation and Non-Violence: “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9). We must call for restraint, wisdom, and safety for all.
A Secure Border: Border security should protect life and uphold the common good — not dehumanize people.
Bipartisan Immigration Reform: This is the right thing to do. Justice is not partisan. “Do what is just and right” (Jeremiah 22:3). We must call for real solutions that fix what is broken.
Sidebar: Thoughts on Our Broken Immigration System and the Need for Reform
Our U.S. immigration system is broken because our political system is so dysfunctional that it resists any meaningful Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). We have long needed CIR in our country, but because our political environment is so partisan and divided, politicians prefer to use the issue of immigration in a weaponized way that appeals to their base rather than work toward better legislation. Because CIR legislation has not passed, the executive branch retains significant discretion and power, which tends to provoke reactions and backlash from one administration to the next, outraging each base until another backlash can occur.
How do people who claim to follow the way of Jesus help in such a scenario as this?
First and foremost, we must filter the issue of immigration through a thoughtful, holistic biblical moral lens, and we cannot do this alone; we need perspectives from the whole body of Christ, not just our corner of it. We need to consider how we can be salt and light in this moment, rather than adding to the toxic environment that’s unfolding in our church sanctuaries and in the public square. And we need to demand more of our politicians rather than allowing them to use immigrants as their political pawns.
4. Truth and Responsibility
Public discourse today is rife with misinformation and lies. Indeed, the Prophet Isaiah’s words, spoken centuries ago, have never been more apt: “For truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter” (Isaiah 59:14).
Ephesians 4:25 admonishes the people of God: “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.” This certainly applies to how we engage with social media and civic discourse on immigration policies and practices.
Truth is not just accuracy — it’s moral love. In Scripture, lies don’t merely misinform; they injure. And responsibility means we don’t get to speak carelessly about whole groups of people made in God’s image.
Let me give some examples of how this plays out in our day.
Irresponsible speech sounds like:
“I saw it on Facebook, so it must be true.”
“They’re animals/invaders.”
“They deserve whatever happens.”
Responsible truth sounds like:
“I’m not sure whether that claim is accurate — I should verify it before sharing.”
“We can support order and still speak with compassion.”
“Even if someone broke a law, they remain a human being deserving due process and dignity.”
Christians can affirm the need for immigration enforcement — but we must insist on truth and dignity. When enforcement is fueled by fear and falsehood, it ceases to be justice and becomes cruelty. The quickest way to dehumanize a group is to lie about them.
A dehumanizing sentence sounds like: “They are eating our cats and dogs.”
A truthful sentence sounds like: “Some migrants commit crimes, but most do not, and all remain image-bearers with legal rights.”
As we wrestle with these things together in a truthful and responsible way, we gain greater biblical moral discernment.
5. Solidarity with the Suffering Body of Christ
Our world today is groaning as in the pains of childbirth (Rom. 8:22). As of this writing, there are 56 active armed conflicts worldwide, marking the highest global total since World War II. One ramification of these conflicts is that 121 million people have been forcibly displaced. Many millions of these individuals and families are fellow Christians.
A groundbreaking 2024 study maintains that “at the end of 2024, there were more than 10 million Christian immigrants present in the United States who are vulnerable to deportation. Overall, about 80% of all those at risk of deportation are Christians, including about 61% who are Catholic, 13% who are Evangelical, and 7% who are adherents to other Christian traditions.”⁸
Let that sink in. The immigrant community is suffering in the U.S. now, and a large percentage of those suffering are not strangers to us — they are our Christian brothers and sisters.
In I Corinthians 12:26, the Apostle Paul records these words: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” Whenever one part of the Church is suffering, the whole is called to suffer alongside it. The Catholic writer Henri Nouwen observed that the Greek word for compassion literally means “to suffer with.”
Are we suffering in solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters?
Conclusion
The primary question before the Church is not simply what immigration policy should be, but what kind of people we will become in responding to this moment. For such a time as this, we are invited to embody a witness marked by truth, justice, hospitality, and Christlike love — trusting that faithful presence is itself part of God’s redemptive work in the world.
Action Steps Toward Practicing Faithful Presence
1. Begin with Relationship
Intentionally build a friendship with an immigrant or refugee neighbor, coworker, or church member.
Listen to stories from different perspectives — especially from the immigrant community — before forming opinions.
Participate in cultural events, shared meals, or community gatherings that foster mutual understanding.
2. Practice Informed Compassion
Commit to learning from reliable sources before sharing immigration-related information online.
Read or study Scripture passages related to migration and hospitality as part of personal or small-group discipleship.
Engage resources such as The Bible and Migration course together as a church or small group.
Attend a frontline prayer meeting such as the one sponsored by our partner, Agencia Alpha.
3. Strengthen the Church’s Welcome
Volunteer with or support local ministries serving immigrants, refugees, or asylum seekers.
Help your church evaluate whether immigrant newcomers can easily belong, participate, and lead.
Consider forming a small hospitality or accompaniment team to support immigrant families and churches as they navigate daily challenges.
4. Cultivate Responsible Public Engagement
Speak about immigration with humility, accuracy, and dignity — especially in polarized conversations.
Pray regularly for immigrants, policymakers, border officials, and community leaders alike.
Encourage elected officials toward policies that reflect both justice and mercy, resisting dehumanizing rhetoric from any side.
5. Practice Solidarity
Learn about global displacement and pray intentionally for suffering parts of the Body of Christ.
Support organizations providing legal aid, resettlement assistance, or humanitarian care.
When immigrant members of the Church experience fear or uncertainty, check in personally — presence itself is ministry.
Volunteer to be a doorkeeper at a local immigrant church. This sounds simple, but it is a powerful way to stand in solidarity through a ministry of presence.
Write to a person who is detained.
Other Resources
The Bible and Migration, a short video course produced by The Center for Public Theology and Migration
Where have my views on immigration been shaped more by media, politics, or fear than by Scripture and relationship?
Which of the five biblical values (dignity, hospitality, order, truth and responsibility, solidarity in suffering) do you feel most drawn to — and which do you struggle with most? Why?
How does my understanding of citizenship in the Kingdom of God influence (or challenge) my national identity?
Where do I sense the Spirit inviting me toward greater compassion, humility, or courage in this moment?
Church & Discipleship
How often does our church teach or model hospitality to strangers as a core practice of discipleship?
Which of the five biblical goods (dignity, hospitality, order, truth and responsibility, solidarity in suffering) does our congregation emphasize most? Which might we unintentionally neglect?
Are immigrants and diaspora Christians recipients of ministry in our church — or partners and leaders within it?
How might listening to immigrant believers reshape our theology, worship, or mission priorities?
Public Witness & Civic Life
What would it look like for Christians to model a different tone in public conversations about immigration?
Using the five biblical goods, where do we see them show up in — or disappear from — our current U.S. immigration policy and practices?
How can we pursue justice and order without sacrificing compassion and dignity?
Where do we see misinformation shaping Christian conversations, and how might we respond faithfully?
What does it mean to be “salt and light” in a polarized political environment without becoming partisan actors?
Notes
1 I was sitting at a Starbucks in Melbourne, Florida, while working on this article. Sitting across from me was a couple from El Salvador and a visiting guest from Ecuador. I shared my project with them and asked how things were in their communities with ICE in Florida. They shared how challenging things are in their communities and how great the fear is simply because of the color of their skin. They told me about friends who had been detained, and recent raids at workplaces where immigrant friends worked. It was good to ground my writing with these real human beings in mind.
2 Most scholars agree that the modern term “public theology” was first clearly articulated and popularized by Martin E. Marty (a church historian at the University of Chicago) in his 1974 article, “Reinhold Niebuhr: Public Theology and the American Experience.” In this essay, Marty used public theology to describe how Reinhold Niebuhr engaged American political and social life through theological reflection. Marty did not claim to invent a new kind of theology — he named something already happening.
3 Gregg Detwiler, DMin Thesis Project, “Nurturing Diaspora Ministry and Mission in and through the Local Church.”
4 Donald Trump’s executive actions and policy changes associated with immigration matters are symptoms of our broken immigration system and the backlash of toxic partisan politics. When Joe Biden took office, he reversed many of the policies of the first Trump administration. The story of border control under Biden is far more complicated than the news sound bites that say the border was wide open. That is not true, but there were record-setting crossings under the Biden administration. This all points to the need for sane, bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform. As I note later in this article, “Our U.S. immigration system is broken because our political system is so dysfunctional that it resists any meaningful Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). We have long needed CIR in our country, but because our political environment is so partisan and divided, politicians prefer to use the issue of immigration in a weaponized way that appeals to their base rather than work toward better legislation. Because CIR legislation has not passed, the executive branch retains significant discretion and power, which tends to provoke reactions and backlash from one administration to the next, outraging each base until another backlash can occur.”
5 Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bhutan, Bosnia, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Republic of the Congo, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.
6 Examples of Jesus transgressing law for the good of people are numerous. Most striking are his repeated Sabbath violations: healing the man with the withered hand (Mark 3:1-6), the woman bent double for 18 years (Luke 13:10-17), and the man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-18), among others. When his disciples were challenged for picking grain on the Sabbath, Jesus responded with a principle that reframes the entire question: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Beyond the Sabbath, Jesus also touched lepers (Mark 1:40-45) and the dead (Luke 8:54), associated openly with Samaritans (John 4), welcomed the touch of a woman deemed sinful (Luke 7:36-50), and disrupted commerce in the Temple (Mark 11:15-18) — each act a transgression of existing law in service of human dignity. Importantly, Jesus was not dismissive of the law; he declared he came to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). His hermeneutical key was love: “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:40). This pattern suggests that when laws reduce people to categories rather than honoring them as image-bearers of God, faithful obedience to Christ may require prophetic resistance.
7 Some of these elements are found or adapted from statements made by the National Latino Evangelical Coalition.
8 The study was conducted in partnership with the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, the National Association of Evangelicals, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and World Relief to produce a new report on the impact of proposed deportation on American Christian families. See https://www.gordonconwell.edu/center-for-global-christianity/deportation-impact-report/
As I sat in Starbucks writing this article, this group of young people from the local high school marched right in front of me. I appreciated their zeal in wrestling with what justice looks like in this arena. May we all, likewise, wrestle.
Ash Wednesday arrives on Wednesday, March 5, to launch us into the season of Lent and the corresponding Jewish holy days. I have felt led to fast social media for those forty days. Forty days of no social media, not being triggered by other FB friends, a time to become quieter, still some of the noise, and be more reflective. A time to right-size myself in being reminded that God is on His throne and I’m not.
Some of my friends have urged me not to go. “Now is a time to press into the fray, not back away!” they say. Others have asked me why I am doing it. Here is a little more background to why I’m stepping back.
My local church is currently in a sermon series on Moses’s life entitled, Faith Over Fear. I have been asked to preach the seventh sermon in the series from Exodus 6, where God underscores to Moses that He is the Deliverer of his people, not Moses.
Earlier in the Exodus narrative, back when Moses was a prince in Egypt, he saw an injustice happening when an Egyptian was beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Moses was enraged by this injustice and took matters into his own hands by killing the Egyptian. Moses had the right impulse but took the wrong action. He wanted to stop injustice, but he did it by taking matters into his own hands. And that is very easy for us all to fall prey to!
A lot of injustice is happening in our world, and there’s a lot to be angry about. Our political atmosphere is charged like never before, and social media is masterful at sparking fires that often create more heat than light. It is so easy to become triggered to react in fleshly and unhelpful ways. That’s one reason I am taking a social media fast.
After Moses killed the Egyptian, he fled the desert of Midian, where he lived a life of quiet solitude as a shepherd for the next forty years. In this quiet desert, he encountered God in the burning bush and moved from merely knowing about God to knowing God. In the desert, God stripped away things from Moses’s life, and as he tended sheep, God nurtured a shepherd’s heart into Moses.
Moses was in the right environment – He got away from the noise, in a place of solitude. There are times we need to do that as well. We must move into a quieter place to allow God to strip away and add what He knows we need. One of the loudest places in our society today is in the land of social media. Sometimes we need to step back to meet with God to allow Him to do his stripping and adding work to make us more fit to be used as a tool in His hand. That’s what I feel called to do in the next forty days. I am not abdicating my responsibility; I want to right-size myself in God’s plan so that he can better use me, making me more responsive to the promptings of His Spirit than my impulsive flesh.
Might God be calling you to take a step back? Selah.
A Facebook friend recently admonished me not to overreact in fear or anger to things I am seeing in the political arena of our nation now because God is sovereign and in control of things in the long term. What follows are some of my reflections about trusting in God’s sovereignty and our involvement in the political arena.
Nations and empires rise and fall and shift. As a person who believes in the mysterious sovereignty of God over human affairs, I believe that God will not be thwarted from working out His will over time. However, looking at the long history of God‘s people in scripture and human history, we see that God’s people were often at odds with His will and ways. Sometimes they asked for a king, God gave them what they wanted, and they suffered for it. All that can be part of God’s sovereignty, too.
In the present moment, we can believe in God’s ultimate sovereignty while knowing deeply that we can be part of the problem. So, for me, it is a dance of trusting in God‘s sovereignty over the long-haul while also doing my level best to discern what is good, right, wise, and praiseworthy in real time. People are observing how Christians make meaning of and respond to this moment. They are observing what we affirm, what we disdain, what we aspire to be as a nation, and – even more important to me – what we aspire to be as the people of God.
With that tension in mind, I respond as best I can to what I observe. We can excuse – or even as I see some of my Christian friends do – celebrate the antics and actions of Donald Trump and company – or we can try to be more measured and discerning. I get some of the underlying anger that makes a Donald Trump presidency possible, but that shouldn’t prevent us from critiquing his behavior and actions that we find contrary to the Kingdom and the common good. And, to me, a lot fits in that later category.
Reasonable people can disagree about how we should best respond to the Ukraine and Russia situation, and our broader view of supporting foreign wars. Believe me, I am in no way a warmonger. I disdain America’s fascination with guns and power. I favor diplomacy and other actions. But the way we go about things matters. What I saw in the Oval Office yesterday was not something to be celebrated. Donald Trump’s lack of emotional intelligence was on full display, and I do not believe that serves us well as a nation and our power in the world.
I agree with some underlying policy decisions—things like the need for government reform in USAID and other areas—but disagree with how they’re being done in such a destructive, haphazard way. What should be done with a scalpel or even a saw is being addressed with a bomb. The indiscriminate approach of a particular American billionaire oligarch is gravely hurting millions of people.
As a follower of Jesus and an American citizen, I must decide whether what I see is good, bad, or a mixture and determine how best to respond.
A few other points to ponder:
What we do locally and how we live out our faith in serving others in a Jesus-aligned way matters more than our opinion in national politics. I am not saying the latter is unimportant, but how we live our lives in service to others must come first and be primary over pontificating about national and global politics. In other words, if we fixate on being consumed by national and international politics, it can hinder us from making any real difference in our communities. Love starts local and grows out from there.
We cannot make meaning alone! We need one another and a diverse perspective to understand what is going on and how we should act. Even in this post, people shared their perspectives based on their experiences and convictions. As I have listened, I have learned and adjusted my views here and there. We can’t make meaning or act alone to solve our problems. We need one another. We need the diverse Body of Christ. We need to be humble, teachable, and willing to change.
As I write this essay an article has just been released by Christianity Today entitledDeep in the Heart of Megachurch Country, Dallas Mourns a Summer of Pastor Scandals. The article reports on the sad state of affairs “which has seen a string of at least eight pastors step down from megachurches in the past few months over moral failings, mostly sexual in nature. The leaders oversee at least 50,000 in-person churchgoers.”As the details of each case emerge the heartbreak is palpable and the ripples of pain and mistrust these failures have generated are hard to fathom. This epic failure combines with a long string of other failures in recent years which point to an underlying systemic disease that is the seedbed to this kind of bitter fruit. And, while I don’t have data to support this, it is not unreasonable to deduce that a significant part of the problem is a lack of soul care and attention to holistic self-care among these leaders. I speak from personal experience.
When I was a younger leader (an urban church planter, more precisely) I came to recognize my deep need to attend to my own self-care and soul care. (1) Through painful public failures of Christian leaders who were my colleagues and peers in ministry, I came to see the fallout of Christian leadership failure up close. Soon after these failures occurred, I was asked to take up the leadership void in our church planting endeavor, but as I was called into this role, I became keenly aware of my own vulnerability to failure due to my inner wounds and brokenness that had not been sufficiently addressed. In this vulnerable state, I set out on an earnest quest to find healing for the inner trauma of my soul and to learn how to structure my life in a way that would provide the internal and external support to carry the load of leadership that I was being called to. I go into this story in much deeper detail in my essay,Transparent Confessional Relationships: Normal Christianity and the Need of the Hour for Christian Leaders.
In this essay, I will put forth that the biblical practice of sabbath provides a framework for holistic self-care, especially important to maintain healthy Christian leadership. A soon-to-be-released study by the Emmanuel Gospel Center called The Church Landscape Review (CLR) underscores this point. The CLR interviewed 21 pastors who had been interviewed ten years earlier as they were all in the early stages of planting churches. While not questioned about pastoral self-care directly, there was significant data that emerged from the interviews that were related to the need for holistic self-care. These church planters echoed what I had observed decades earlier in my own church planting experience: holistic Christian self-care is imperative for Christian leaders.
The CLR revealed various windows of insight into the need for self-care, but one place in particular where this showed up was when the pastors were asked to offer advice to their younger selves in church ministry. Here are a few samples of their responses:
Get therapy and start on your journey of social and mental health much earlier. I received leadership coaching, mental health, and great pastoring. My wife did, too. If I could go back…and meet myself [ten years ago], when I planted [the church], I would say, ‘Wait a minute. While you’re doing this, go see this therapist, and let’s get some of your pain and your anger, and some of that stuff really dealt with. I would say, ‘Hey, church planter, there might be reasons deeper than what you can see that drive you to work so dang hard and try to bring forth a congregation out of nothing. It would probably be worth your time to figure out what that is. And I have counseled a lot of church planters to do just that.’
I would give myself lots of advice on self-care practices that I wish I had started earlier. I’d share a little bit about how pastoral ministry is really hard, and it’s really heavy. And it’s really joyful, too. And so what are some, some ways that I could help, I think, find health and sustainability in the difficult seasons?
I was a classic overachiever. I had to learn that was not right. It wasn’t healthy. We’ve learned how to take breaks and rests and pace ourselves a little bit better. If I’m resting spiritually, that’s part of my work. And my church agrees with that.
I wish I had taken better care of myself and trusted that God was going to take care of his church. I wish I would have spent more time just preparing myself to go the long haul, not just the church.
Similarly, Derrick Puckett, Pastor of Renewal Church of Chicago, reflects on why self-care is especially needed for Christian leaders.
Being a pastor or church planter can be one of the most time-consuming, heart-wrenching, and difficult endeavors someone can take on. At the same time, it can be one of the most winsome and fulfilling endeavors. And all of these qualities can be highly problematic if pastors don’t take time to reflect on their own health. As a pastor takes care of others, the first thing to be thrown out the window is usually care for their own self. This is why many pastors find themselves depressed, overweight, harboring secret addictions, or all over the internet for some type of failure. Biblical self-care helps us avoid these paths. (2)
Puckett continues by describing what biblical self-care is and how, for Christian leaders, it needs to be shaped by biblical understanding and practice.
Clinically, self-care involves anything someone might do for the sake of their own physical or mental health, like eating well, exercising, or sleeping for eight hours a night. These things are great, but something is missing. None of them address a person’s heart or what may be causing their stress. They are all good habits, but we also tend to treat them as diversions. All too often, we reduce self-care to a diversion from reality rather than truly caring for ourselves…Care for oneself is biblical; however, biblical self-care is much different than worldly self-care. (3)
I resonate with Puckett’s sense that for Christians, self-care needs to be informed by the Bible and incorporate elements that address our inner lives, our spiritual lives, and our souls. Puckett refers to this as biblical self-care;I refer to it as simply Christian self-care. For me, Christian self-care is a fusion of soul care and self-care; it is holistic care that corresponds with the holistic vision of shalom as revealed in Scripture. This holistic nature of self-care is mirrored in Jesus’ words when he summarized the two greatest commandments.
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)
Heart, soul, strength, mind, neighbor, self — all of these dimensions are included in a Christian understanding of self-care. In this article, I use the term “self-care” in this comprehensive way to include care for our bodies, minds, inner life, and social relationships. Self-care refers to anything that we do to keep ourselves mentally, emotionally, physically, socially, and spiritually healthy. This vision of self-care includes the practice of “soul care.” Soul care encompasses the understanding that human beings consist of more than just physical bodies and that our spiritual well-being is vital. Every part of our lives matters; everything about us needs care; everything that is alive needs and requires care. Plants, animals, our bodies, and our souls need care to thrive.
For me, Christian self-care is best rooted in the concepts and practices found within the biblical Sabbath. (4) While sabbath practices may not contain every element included in Christian self-care, they do comprise an essential framework for much of what holistic self-care should include.
There are different ways to describe the various practices contained within sabbath rhythms. (5) I like the way Pete Scazzero, founder of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, describes the actions that shape sabbath practices. Scazzero suggests four words that help us enter into sabbath living: Stop. Rest. Delight. Contemplate. I will use those words as a way to more fully flesh out some of the marks of Christian self-care.
But before we get there, let me first comment on the preparation necessary for making those four sabbath words possible.
Preparing for Sabbath
Sabbath cannot be entered into glibly; it requires thoughtful preparation. A common practice in Jewish communities throughout the ages has been to prepare for the sabbath the day before the sabbath begins. Similarly, in preparing for my sabbath observance each week, I have often used a template with the words—Stop, Rest, Delight, Contemplate—listed on the side margin of a page. I then jot down a few bullet points alongside each heading to flesh out how I will embody those words on my sabbath day. This process of pausing to give some advanced thought to prepare for sabbath is part of my slowing down process each week.
On my longer sabbath seasons, I also follow this slowing down and thoughtful planning process. For example, my practice each February for the past fifteen years has been to pack up my car in the cold New England winter and head south for the warmer climes of Florida. This annual rhythm is a larger expression of my “stopping” work in order to enter into a sabbath rhythm for a season. This annual ritual is about more than merely heading to warmer weather; it’s a spiritual pilgrimage of sorts where I shift away from being a human “doing” to dive more deeply into being a human “being” made in God’s image. I think of this annual pilgrimage as being similar to the Jewish pilgrims of old as they left their normal lives to ascend into the temple and, after dwelling there for a while, they then descended back into their ordinary lives. Similarly, I think of my annual southern pilgrimage as being a kind of embodiment of a Psalm of Ascent, mirroring the movement of ascending into God’s presence, dwelling there for a while, and then descending back into the work He has called me to do.
Christian self-care will look and be shaped differently depending on one’s life circumstances, personality, and cultural differences. Some of us have more power and control to shape our schedule than others. Having said that, I firmly believe that sabbath is a gift meant for all of God‘s children, not just the privileged few.
Let’s now move to the four words that embody sabbath practice and the essence of holistic Christian self-care.
Practical Steps in Sabbath-Rhythm Self-Care
STOP
The Hebrew word for Sabbath carries the idea of stopping, ceasing, and desisting.
The first gift of sabbath is purposefully halting the usual activity and pace of life to step into spaciousness. It’s a necessary prerequisite to receiving the other gifts of sabbath. But ceasing is often easier said than done.
To engage in this first step of sabbath requires trusting God as our ultimate provider and not ourselves. It takes faith to enter into sabbath by stopping our incessant activity, non-stop production, and striving. Indeed, the act of stopping our work and trusting God is part of the regular spiritual realignment process we need as human beings. When we take time to stop our work to enter into sabbath rhythms we mirror the pattern God displayed when He rested from His work on the seventh day of the creation week. We bear witness to being creatures made in His image.
Furthermore, our stopping serves as a prophetic witness to a culture that is prone to ceaseless production and non-stop work. Like the Israelites of old who were delivered from the slavery of endless production required by Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt, stopping our work to enter into Sabbath declares that we are “under new management” to the true and living God.
The speed of our contemporary culture and the clutter of our inner and exterior worlds continuously fight against this priority. But this has been an age-old problem as the Prophet Isaiah acknowledged:
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is our strength, but you would have none of it. You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’ Therefore you will flee! You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’ Therefore your pursuers will be swift!” (Isaiah 30:15-16)
Since the first step of entering sabbath rhythms is to stop, we must consider thoughtfully what precisely we should stop. The answer to this question is not a one-size fits all, but here are some common areas to consider.
Purposefully halting the usual activity and pace of life to step into spaciousness; including slowing down and embracing silence and solitude.
Ceasing what we normally do in a day to create wide open space that will prepare us for heightened attentiveness to God and appreciation for His beauty and goodness.
Beyond these general guidelines, other more specific ones need to be determined. Here are some examples from other Sabbath practitioners:
“I don’t do housework, home repairs, shopping, or managing money.”
“I avoid anything that can appear on a to-do list.”
“I refrain from doing anything that is not peaceful.”
“I avoid going into my home office and turning on my computer.”
“I unplug from all electronics, including my smartphone.”
These guidelines are not meant to be legalistically observed but life-giving steps to free ourselves to experience God and to enjoy His abundance. When we take time to purposefully STOP, we’re able to embrace that which gives life. Things like rest, delight, and unhurried contemplation.
REST
One of my favorite passages in all of Scripture is Jesus’ loving invitation to weary and burdened souls:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29)
Not all rest is equal. And not all rest is rest. For example, I think we all know what it is like to go on vacation and pack it with so much activity that we need to take a vacation after our vacation. We can also engage in mindless things like laying on the couch and watching television for long periods but morphing into a couch potato rarely, if ever, provides true rest.
Sabbath rest is not merely ceasing our normal activities and exchanging them for mindless activities that don’t contribute to deep holistic rest. Sabbath rest provides space for us to allow our body, mind, and soul to slow down and receive the loving initiatives of God.
Jesus modeled this in his ministry when he called his disciples to come away to rest with him.
“Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.” (Mark 6:31–32)
Sabbath rest involves our whole being—physical, mental, spiritual, relational. As such, we need to carefully consider these various dimensions and discover what things bring true refreshment to our body, mind, and soul.
My wife and I have been blessed to have jobs that allow us to take our sabbath day together. For us, this has been on Fridays for many decades. In practical terms, Sabbath rest for us includes things such as:
Getting a good night’s rest, including giving ourselves permission to sleep in (or take a nap!) without guilt.
Sitting on our back deck or in our favorite stuffed chairs with a cup of coffee allowing ourselves to slow down and move through our day at an unrushed pace.
Doing some physical activity that feels like rest: taking a lovely hike, going on a bike ride, or kayaking on a pristine lake. All of these activities allow us to enter rest in ways that clear our heads, invigorate our bodies, and open our souls.
One thing to note here is that while the various movements of sabbath rhythm—stopping, resting, delighting, and contemplating—are distinct, they are also interrelated into a symbiotic whole. So, resting is deeply intertwined with the next sabbath word…
DELIGHT
The Sabbath was designed by God to be a delight, not a legalistic observance.
If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s hold day honorable, and if you honor it by not going on your own way and not doing as you please…then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob. (Isaiah 58:13-14)
Delight. Joy. Feast. These are descriptive words associated with the Sabbath that illuminate God’s intention. I love that we serve a God who is not a divine killjoy! Our sabbath rhythms are meant to call us into joyful communion with Him, the created world, and with one another.
1 Timothy 6:17 is another passage that beautifully underscores this:
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
Everything for our enjoyment. What a lovely phrase! Entering into the delight stage of sabbath is … well … delightful! The slower pace of sabbath makes this possible, but developing eyes to notice the delights all around us—and God as the Source of those delights—is something we must develop and grow in.
This brings to mind poet and author, Ross Gay and his Book of Delights as a wonderful example of this. On his 42nd birthday, Gay set out to write an essay a day about one delight he experienced each day for the next year. He ended up missing some days but was able to achieve that goal on most days. The book is filled with delights observed from everyday life—generosity, laughter, music, poetry, and lots of nature—as seen through the lens of Gay’s curious eyes. The book so captured my imagination that I started to write my own Book of Delights.
I confess this dimension of sabbath is my favorite! Even in a dark world filled with strife of every kind, there are still delights to behold and delights to experience. Just a random list from my journal:
Dolphins cresting in the lagoon near my Airbnb bungalow / A lady standing for the longest time on the beach gazing into the crashing surf and out into the sea / An elderly couple taking a walk arm and arm / Sunrises on the prairie as I sit on my sister’s back porch in my boyhood home in rural Kansas / Piping Plovers running on their tiny stilted legs to escape the incoming surf / Delectable chef-prepared food served al fresco enjoyed with family and friends / Spending extended time with Rita (my wife) doing things we delight in—coffee shop visits, slow walks on the beach, adventuring to new destinations near and far, among many others …
Observing and cherishing these delights helps recalibrate my heart to recognize God’s presence in the world and His presence beyond it. They cause me to exclaim with the Psalmist, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods” (Psalm 24:1-2). The delights point me back to the Author and Creator of the delights, which in turn spurs me to follow the admonition of another psalm, “Delight yourself in the Lord” (Psalm 37:4). But even beyond moving me from delight to the delight Giver, they also help me to differentiate the temporal world with the eternal. In this way, I can enjoy the delights of this world that come from God’s hands while simultaneously remembering life in God’s Kingdom is so much more than our experiences on earth. It was with this thought in mind that led me to pen the following haiku after experiencing a glorious sabbath trip in Florida.
Hold it all loosely cherish it but not too much It’s but a shadow
And to pen this short poem on the day of my last sunrise on the beach before heading back to Boston after my annual southern pilgrimage.
Remember the sunrise is a shadow of things to come And the sunset is the doorway into fullness of joy.
But lest I give the wrong impression, sabbath delight isn’t just about me or just about my relationship with God. It also involves delighting with others. Part of living in slowed-down mindfulness is about noticing and responding to others around me.
Immediately following the Scripture passage I earlier referenced about God giving us everything for our enjoyment, the passage continues:
“Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way, they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:18-19)
Taking hold of “life that is truly life” means being generous and willing to share with others. So, part of entering into sabbath delight is living with a keen awareness of how we might bless others. Sabbath delight is meant to be shared with others. This starts with those who are closest to me, my spouse, children, and grandchildren but need not stop there. That’s why in the same Florida sabbatical that I experienced all the loveliness mentioned above, I took equal delight in:
Helping a man living on the beach air up his flat bike tire and providing him breakfast / giving generous tips to those who served us as chambermaids and waitstaff / giving the gift of patient listening to an old friend who was grieving the loss of her husband after a long period of illness / sharing deep heartfelt conversations with lifelong friends and praying together for our concerns over our children and aging parents …
All of this and much more comprise the Delight dimension of sabbath practice. The final word is…
CONTEMPLATE
In observant Jewish homes throughout history, different rituals are done to commemorate Shabbat. Throughout Shabbat, the focus is on creating a sacred time set apart from the workweek, centered around family, community, and spiritual renewal. Many of the rituals such as the lighting of candles and shared festive meals aim to enhance the special atmosphere of the day. Time is spent in prayer, study, relaxation, and family togetherness.
Taking some cues from this Jewish tradition, we can see that spiritual contemplation is part of sabbath practice. How this is shaped in our current sabbath practice will vary, but being mindful to include spiritual contemplation is an important component to living out the sabbath framework.
For me, this contemplation often involves prayer journaling. I am an avid journaler, so this comes easily to me. I might use the prompt of the Examen Prayer, a form of daily prayer that St. Ignatius observed and taught as a way to pause and review our days with God. In the Examen Prayer, we try to notice the movements in our soul toward God (consolations) or away from God (desolations). This prayer is often done at the end of the day but can easily be adapted to use as a way to reflect on our past week. This form of contemplative prayer can be done alone, with your spouse, or even with your whole household.
Lord, when did I feel Your presence this week, when did I feel drawn toward You and Your purposes? And, Lord, when did I feel drawn away from You, your love and beauty?
In the slowed-down pace of sabbath, we can do activities that nurture personal and family contemplation. Some activities Rita and I commonly do include:
Reading a short devotional together and discussing it—often this comes from the Psalms.
Taking a silent prayer walk or hike on the beach or in the woods.
Listening to an inspirational podcast or audiobook and discussing it.
It should be noted, however, that this contemplation is not always easy and pain-free. Sometimes our contemplation and honest communication surface fissures in relationships that need to be addressed. Sometimes this involves confession of sin, asking for forgiveness, and dealing with conflict; all activities are not easy but always lead to greater shalom. Observing regular sabbath rhythms makes all of this possible, including keeping our most important relationships healthy.
Conclusion
Practicing holistic self-care informed by the sabbath framework of stopping, resting, delighting, and contemplating is essential for human flourishing and spiritual health. But for Christian leaders there is even more at stake as we noted in the sad stories at the start of this essay. Not only is our spiritual health in play but also those we have been entrusted to serve. The Apostle Paul acknowledges this when he admonished young Pastor Timothy with these words: “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Timothy 4:16). Given the epidemic of failed Christian leadership in our day, the siren call to attend to these core practices of holistic Christian self-care must be urgently heeded by us all.
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(1) In this article, I use the term “self-care” in a more comprehensive way to include care for our bodies, minds, inner life, and social relationships. Self-care refers to anything that you do to keep yourself mentally, emotionally, physically, socially, and spiritually healthy. This vision of a comprehensive view of self-care includes the practice of “soul care.” Soul care encompasses the understanding that human beings consist of more than just physical bodies and that their spiritual well-being is vital. Soul Care is caring for the whole person. Every part of our lives matters; everything about us needs care; everything that is alive needs and requires care. Plants, animals, our bodies, and our souls need care to thrive.
(4) Scripture teaches two kinds of Sabbath rest: 1) Creation Rest — The first one was revealed in creation when “God finished His work and rested” and then was reaffirmed in the Law given at Sinai, the fourth of the 10 Commandments. This form of Sabbath rest is about following God’s design in the order and rhythm of life and work. It’s about structuring our lives in ways that enable us to flourish and bear witness to our God and his offer of Shalom. 2) Redemption Rest — The second form of sabbath rest is redemption rest and was revealed when Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished!” It is through Jesus’ finished work that we receive spiritual rest that does not come through our own efforts but by trusting in what Christ has done on our behalf. Both of these types of rest must be entered by faith.
(5) Marva Dawn, in Keeping the Sabbath Wholly, highlights four movements and rhythms of sabbath: ceasing, resting, feasting, and embracing.
It’s officially Election Day, November 5. I woke up at 3am and could not go back to sleep. I fear doing this but feel compelled to do so. I will post this and will not check this post again on election day. Thanks to David W. Swanson for giving me some of the words I am feeling and for the courage to say them. I have borrowed some of his language but do not claim to fully represent his views. He only got me half way there. So, here’s where I stand, plain and unvarnished.
I believe Donald Trump is toxic and will do damage to our democracy and bring harm to some of our most vulnerable neighbors. I cannot in good conscience vote for him.
Also, people I love will vote for him. I understand some of the reasons they are. I’ll still love them.
I believe Kamala Harris is misguided in some of the most essential elements of our humanity and design for human flourishing. I believe this will do harm to the unborn and to our social fabric. I cannot in good conscience vote for her.
Also, people I love will vote for her. I understand some of the reasons they are. I’ll still love them.
(As much as I would love to chose between truth and love, as I understand them, Jesus won’t let me.)
I know this post might trigger people who are committed to either of these candidates. I don’t relish that. And I am not going to take an inordinate amount of time defending my position on Nov 6 when I come back on social media. I just feel I need to say it.
The Day After the Election: Emotions and Actions After the Election
What will the day after the presidential election be like for you? For our nation?
According to the polls – if you believe the polls – there is a high probability that we won’t know who the winner is. But whenever the eventual moment comes and a winner is declared, then what?
In all probability, allegations that the election was not fair will start flying. That idea, of course, has been sown in the ground for many months. “Another rigged election!” some will rage. Perhaps litigation to contest the election. But can we trust the results of those cases in an era of mistrusting all institutions?
But above all of this noise, what will your emotional state be the day after the election is declared? Despondent if your side lost? Gloating if your side won? Or worse. Accepting civil unrest and violence as the price we must pay?
Because I am a follower of Christ, my chief concern is how Jesus calls me and other espoused Christ followers to respond and conduct ourselves. I do not want to be among the gloaters, the ragers, the violent, or the despondent. I hope to retain my spiritual and emotional equilibrium. I hope to be rooted in my steadfast calling that remains the same on November 4, 5, 6, 7… That calling is to follow the Prince of Peace to continue to work for the shalom of my neighborhood, city, nation, and world. Included in this calling is to refuse to dehumanize or demonize others, including those whose political sensibilities are radically different and even offensive to me. I will continue to pray the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray. It’s such a powerfully perfect prayer, and one we need to pray and ponder deeply today and in the coming days.
OUR FATHER (Father of us all – progressive, conservative, somewhere in between) in heaven,
hallowed be your name, Your reign come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us,
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For yours is the Kingdom, power, and glory, forever and ever.
Amen.
Beyond Election Winners and Losers: A Call for Reflection
If you believe that if your side squeaks out a win in the U.S. election sweepstakes that all will be well, you probably need to think a little deeper. No matter who “wins” this is a time for deep soul reflection. It matters not whether you are progressive or conservative or somewhere in between. What are the lessons to be learned in this moment? What are the adjustments that must be made? Another word for this exercise is the old fashioned biblical word, “repentance,” which literally means to change the way we think and act. And there is plenty of that needed no matter what camp one tends to identify with. In fact, it’s so much harder to see where one’s own camp needs to repent. It almost requires a miracle. It always requires humility. And sometimes that comes only through great pain.
In fact, it’s so much harder to see where one’s own camp needs to repent. It almost requires a miracle. It always requires humility. And sometimes that comes only through great pain.
Reflection Exercise: Turning from our wicked ways
A familiar verse that is often invoked by conservative Christians is 2 Chronicles 7:14 which reads:
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
The phrase that is often aimed by conservatives at their theological and political foes is the phrase: “and turn from their wicked ways.” The danger of aiming this verse outward rather than inward is that produces blindspots to our own wicked ways.
For a more fulsome reflection, ask God to reveal to you particular “wicked ways” that show up across the political spectrum. Are there wicked ways that might tend to be more present in progressive camps? Conservative camps? Or even in moderate camps? What wicked ways might be most present in the camp you tend to identify with? Can you see them, name them, and turn from them?
Normal Christianity & The Need of the Hour for Christian Leaders
Video Version
Many in the Christian community have been rocked by the recent revelation of the secret life of sexual sin and abuse by the renowned Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias. This tragic failure follows in the wake of other well-known leaders such as Bill Hybels. Both of these cases involved abuse of power, and in Zacharias’ case, sexual exploitation and assault on multiple women whom he violated and now face horrific trauma. We lament the pain, loss and devastation of these survivors and pray for their healing and restitution.
But the culture of silence and secrecy that incubates such predatory sexual exploitation is not limited to just megachurch pastors and leaders of large international ministries but also shows up in local congregations. There are ample examples of lesser-known local leaders who have joined the ranks of those whose lives of secret sin and abuse have been exposed. To add to this, there are leaders who have secretly struggled with depression, with some who have sadly succumbed to suicide. While the pressures associated with COVID may have exacerbated these problems, this spiritual malady has extended well beyond the current moment.
But the culture of silence and secrecy that incubates such predatory sexual exploitation is not limited to just megachurch pastors and leaders of large international ministries but also shows up in local congregations.
And the tragedy of these failures does not stop with the leaders themselves or even with the direct victims of their abuse. We know that when a Christian leader (most often a man) falls, it is not just the offending individual alone who suffers but all those who are attached to that person. Often wives and children take the disproportionate brunt from these failures but the harm extends to the parishioners whose trust was violated and to the broader community whose confidence in the Church and our truth claims is eroded.
To me, this failure points to a systemic problem that must be addressed, namely the absence of safe, transformative environments where leaders can bring their burdens, baggage, and temptations BEFORE they grow into full blown sin or some other destructive action.
Please know that my concern does not arise out of a harsh pharisaical posture in a rush to condemn these fallen leaders, but rather out of my own brokenness, vulnerability, and contrition. This is a sad hard reality that calls for lament, deep self-reflection related to our own practices, and repentance.
My Story
Let me share about how these issues have intersected with my own life and ministry. My aim in being as transparent as possible is an attempt to communicate that the burden I feel is not coming from a place of superiority and strength, but instead out of a place of vulnerability and weakness. I open this window into my life with the hope that it will open a space for you to connect with your own story.
As a child and teenager, I was sexually abused by a neighbor and by one of my favorite high school teachers. I was also introduced to pornography and drugs at an early age. All of these wounds, brokenness, and sin became a part of my formation as a person. When I came to faith in Christ at age 18, my life radically changed in many ways but some of the inner wounds and addictions were much harder places for me to find healing and freedom. Consequently, I entered into adulthood and even into my marriage and ministry not having sufficiently dealt with these areas of my life. And I didn’t feel the Church was equipped or safe to deal with these things, so I struggled with these issues on my own, often stuffing or covering them over.
When I came to do church planting ministry in Boston, our team leader abruptly left his wife a year and half into our church plant. Later it was revealed that he had had multiple sexual indiscretions with women in our church. After he left, I became the new team leader at age 26. But as I stepped into this role, I was keenly aware that I had a lot of brokenness and vulnerabilities that I had not sufficiently processed with God and trusted others. Out of desperation, I found a Christian counselor where I “bought” safe space to begin to unpack these areas of my life. I did not want to be next in line to fail publicly and to harm my marriage and the work of the Lord. I knew that I very easily could do so.
While the professional counseling was helpful, it was not sufficient. It was not until I entered into a program called Living Waters that I found a safe healing community that gave me the language, discipleship tools, and pathway to find healing, greater wholeness, and freedom. Through these experiences, I saw even more clearly how anemic most churches and ministries were in providing the community and tools necessary for finding healing and freedom in these areas of brokenness.
Sadly, this spiritual anemia is common not only in congregations but also among Christian leaders. We only need to look at the long list of leaders who have fallen in sin and despair in the past few years to see that Christian leaders are in no way exempt. Locally, I am aware of one well-known ministry that is known for rescuing folks out of lives of addiction, whose senior leadership has had a series of successive failures with leaders reverting to drug abuse, sexual indiscretion, abuse of power, and even suicide. When leaders such as this fall prey to such sin, this suggests to me that something is missing. And this is what I think it is: walking with trusted others in total transparency with our weakness and vulnerabilities.
When leaders such as this fall prey to such sin, this suggests to me that something is missing. And this is what I think it is: walking with trusted others in total transparency with our weakness and vulnerabilities.
The Need of the Hour for Christian Leaders
After the team leader of our church planting effort fell – and soon after I experienced healing with Living Waters – I came to see that I HAD to have one or two or three people that I walked with in total transparency and accountability. A group where I could practice in real time the admonition of James 5:13-16, especially v16:
13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
I came to see that having such a community of practice was not a luxury or an optional activity but one that is essential to authentic Christian faith. And doubly important for Christian leaders. This kind of rich, caring, redeeming community is one of God’s greatest gifts to us as people of God, and especially for Christian leaders.
“Those who remain alone with their evil are left utterly alone. It is possible that Christians may remain lonely in spite of daily worship together, prayer together, and all their community through service—that the final breakthrough to community does not occur precisely because they enjoy community with one another as pious believers, but not with one another as those lacking piety, as sinners. For the pious community permits no one to be a sinner. Hence all have to conceal their sins from themselves and from the community. So we remain alone with our sin, trapped in lies and hypocrisy, for we are in fact sinners….
You cannot hide from God. The mask you wear in the presence of other people won’t get you anywhere in the presence of God. God wants to see you as you are, wants to be gracious to you.”
-From Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian in Community
A Self-Imposed Prison; and a Needless One
The prison of walking alone in our pain, temptations, and sin is a sad self-imposed prison but one that is totally unnecessary. Indeed, as the Apostle Peter noted in 2 Peter 1:3, God has “given us all that we need for life and godliness.” In fact, when we create safe transparent spaces to “confess our sins to one another and to pray for one another,” we find that God does some of his most profound redeeming work in those spaces. When we come out of hiding and walk out of our dark places and into the light, we experience new dimensions of God’s healing.
Becoming Wounded Healers
Another benefit for Christian leaders walking in these kinds of transparent confessional relationships is that it increases our capacity to humbly and authentically call others out of hiding and darkness and to come into the light. We become wounded healers. God uses us in our strengths but he uses us even more profoundly in our weaknesses IF we offer those to him and trusted others in a redemptive healing process.
In my late 40s – after learning and walking in many of the skills that I mentioned above – I went into a debilitating period of depression. I was unable to continue in ministry and went into a directed sabbatical which became another environment for providing tremendous healing grace in my life. And out of that redeemed pit of despair God has enabled me to minister to other leaders who are struggling with depression. God is faithful in redeeming our pain for his glory if we offer the pain to him.
My Life Now: Already,Not Yet
I have been walking with trusted others in the way I have described in this article for nearly 25 years. What has been the result? In short, my life parallels the Kingdom as an “already, not yet” reality. Already: I am a safer leader. I am more comfortable in my own skin than I used to be. My wife feels more secure in our relationship. I am a better father. I have an increased capacity to call other leaders out of hiding because I have been able to integrate my weakness and brokenness into my own story of redemption. And, Not Yet: I still wrestle with temptation (but it does not have the same power that it used to have in my life). There are still areas of brokenness in my life that God is addressing, like peeling back layers of an onion. His perfecting work in me continues and one of his primary go-to tools is the circle of trusted others that I have surrounded myself with.
Resources
Below you will find some resources to help you move toward walking in richer, more transparent confessional relationships. Most of these have been formative resources in my own journey. If you need further suggestions of how to pursue these kinds of relationships in your life, please feel free to reach out to me.
Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load. -Galatians 6:1-5
Reflections from a White Christian on the Importance of Remembering Black History in the United States
Whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves.
-James Baldwin, From “Letter From a Region in My Mind,” The New Yorker, Nov 10, 1962
We won the Super Bowl (or World Series or World Cup or…) It is common in the English language and in popular American culture to use “the royal we” or “majestic plural” to include ourselves in some great feat. We know, in fact, that “we” didn’t win any such thing, but we invoke ownership nonetheless. Similarly, when we begin having a conversation about our nation’s history, many White Americans tend to associate themselves with the positive elements of America’s founding, lineages, and victories.
But when we get into America’s misdeeds, its injustices, its sins, the idea of “we” becomes very difficult for people, especially White people. People say things like, “Well, I wasn’t here. I didn’t do any of that. My parents didn’t own slaves and my grandparents didn’t own slaves.” Indeed, there is a tendency when it comes to mistakes, misconduct, and abuse, to disassociate ourselves from those things while retraining every aspect of perceived positive achievement.
But if we use “we” for the positive things we also need to be willing to use it for the shameful things. This is the power and responsibility of the American “we.” It’s important for anyone who identifies as an American, as a citizen of this country, to not simply embrace all the things about American history that we think are glorious and wonderful, but to also acknowledge and accept the things about our history that are tragic and devastating.
In truth, American history is a mixture of good, bad, and ugly. And the parts of the historical record that we choose to include – alongside that parts that we choose to ignore or are are blind to altogether – make up our version of the American narrative. And when White Americans are blind to both positive contributions of African Americans and the destructive elements of our White forebears, our incomplete and false narratives will cloud our ability to see our nation’s history accurately and impede our ability to make progress toward a “more perfect union” and a fuller expression of the “beloved community.”
There is a power and responsibility in invoking the American “we” and for many White people we need to recover this power by expanding our understanding of this common “we.”
African American History Some Whites Are Blind To
We just finished observing another Black History Month. Some White friends that I know question whether such a month is even needed. “We don’t have a White History Month,” they say. “Why do we need a Black one?” Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, makes the point about the African American contribution to our nation’s history that some Whites are blind to:
What’s interesting for me, when I look at the experience of African Americans in particular, Black people have been so committed to this country, they’ve been so committed to the identity of an America that is committed to equality and justice. In the 250 years of enslavement in which Black people endured being kidnapped, put in chains, brutalized, mistreated, abused, raped — there was daily humiliation and degradation, the violence of slavery. That kind of abuse and mistreatment finally ends in 1865 after the Civil War, after the ratification of the 13th Amendment. And instead of seeking revenge or retribution or violence against those who had enslaved them, emancipated Black people said, “We’re going to make peace here. We’re going to make community here. We’re going to commit to education. We’re going to commit to voting. We’re going to become ideal American citizens.”
When you think about all of the brutality and violence and abuse that Black people suffered and they still were willing to live in harmony with those who had abused them, it says something remarkable about the power of “we.” They believed in an America and they got no credit for that. What they got instead was more abuse. There were over 2,000 lynchings between 1865 and 1877. One of the most violent periods in American history.
And yet, for 100 years, they still believed enough in the American idea that they would continue finding ways to contribute. You saw those contributions in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. And then when they got back from war, they’d be targeted for violence by white supremacists who feared their American military service might cause them to believe that they were an equal. What Dr. King and Rosa Parks and others do in the 1950s and ’60s is so rooted in a commitment to the American identity.
To me, the model that African Americans have established with this country is that even when things are not good we invoke this idea of an American identity. It means that we absolutely have to be willing to acknowledge the things that are harmful, that are injurious in the American South. The entire American South benefited from the institution of slavery — the entire United States did. The rail lines that allowed those companies in the North to become industrialists, the industries that gave rise to all of that growth during the first half of the 20th century — all of it had its roots in this forced labor stolen from Black bodies.
We have to understand that to really be honest. There is no way of saying “they did that.” If we’re going to claim American citizenship and American identity, there has to be a willingness to say “we” just like there’s that willingness to say “we” when an American does something great.”
From Vox Interview with Bryan Stevenson on How America Can Heal
Understanding the Continued Legacy of Slavery
The conversations we have in this country about racism and its bitter fruit, to the extent we have them at all, are polarized and fractured. So how do we engage our fellow Americans in a conversation about America’s foundational sins?
It begins with understanding what actually happened. The taproot evil of American slavery wasn’t involuntary servitude or the forced labor. The taproot of slavery was the ideology that Black people are less deserving, less worthy, less human, less evolved than White people.
Again, Stevenson:
If you understand that’s [White supremacy ideology] the true problem of slavery, then it becomes easier to understand how we don’t really end slavery with the passage of the 13th Amendment. In 1865, my view is that slavery doesn’t end — it just evolves. Because we never deal with the fundamental character that made enslavement so horrific, which is this ideology of white supremacy.
If you understand that’s the true problem of slavery, then it becomes easier to understand how we don’t really end slavery with the passage of the 13th Amendment. In 1865, my view is that slavery doesn’t end — it just evolves. Because we never deal with the fundamental character that made enslavement so horrific, which is this ideology of white supremacy.
Once you understand that, then you can continue to see that legacy play out in the disenfranchisement and exclusion of Black people from jobs in the North and West in the 1950s. When banks don’t give Black people mortgage loans, they don’t help veterans who are Black move into the middle class. You begin to see it in the ’70s and ’80s when we declared this war on drugs and we target Black communities. You see it in the ways in which police violence manifests itself.
And once you understand that, you begin to understand that you are implicated in this story. You are implicated in this moment that we live in where the smog created by our history of racial injustice is still in the air and we’re still breathing it in and it’s corrupting our world view, just like it corrupted the world view of people before us. So it does begin with that understanding.”
From Vox Interview with Bryan Stevenson on How America Can Heal
…the smog created by our history of racial injustice is still in the air and we’re still breathing it in and it’s corrupting our world view, just like it corrupted the world view of people before us.
Reckoning with the Truth: The First Step Toward Healing
How do we move toward racial healing in our nation? What does this look like in practical terms? It begins by reckoning with the truth.
When people are genuinely engaged and recovering from human rights abuses, it always begins with a commitment to truth-telling first. We can’t jump to reconciliation or reparations before we reckon with the truth. And this reckoning with the truth must be done across every dimension of American life. Every entity, every institution has to reckon with the truth and its own historical complicity in the problem of racial injustice.
For me, this begins first and foremost with the American Church. Where was (and is) the Church complicit in overtly or covertly allowing racial injustice to flourish in our nation? Jemar Tisby answers this question powerfully in his book, The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism. I highly recommend this book for anyone wishing to better understand the Church’s complicity in our nation’s sin of racism. Just a few sample quotes from the book gives us food for thought:
Harsh though it may sound, the facts of history nevertheless bear out this truth: there would be no black church without racism in the white church.
Color of Compromise, p52
Black people immediately detected the hypocrisy of American-style slavery. They knew the inconsistencies of the faith from the rank odors, the chains, the blood, and the misery that accompanied their life of bondage. Instead of abandoning Christianity, though, black people went directly to the teaching of Jesus and challenged white people to demonstrate integrity.
Color of Compromise, p31
Through reading this book, we realize that if we built the walls on purpose, we need to tear down the walls on purpose.
Lecrae, from the Foreword of Color of Compromise, p10
We don’t have to go outside our own churches and institutions to uncover our racist complicity. In fact, a great place to start is to begin with our own truth-telling. We can tell our own story about the ways in which our churches and organizations were (and often still are) complicit to racial sin and inequity.
For example, the denomination that I am ordained with – the Assemblies of God – has a clear history of racism in our founding. And, unfortunately, “what is in the roots can be seen in the fruits” to this very day. But it is not just the Assemblies of God that must come to a reckoning, the Southern Baptists and many other Christian denominations have their own stories to face.
Again, Bryan Stevenson, offers wise counsel on how we need to reckon with the truth within our own circles first. “…it begins with the truth-telling, because when you start telling the truth, you recognize things. For me, the question is: What is the truth of our institution as it relates to the history of racial inequality? It’s very, very concrete. How do we frame an investigation into the truth of our history? What is the truth of our history? What is our institutions’ role? What is our community’s role in allowing this landscape to be created that is so shattered by racial injustice and white supremacy?”
So, for me the first place to look is within my own Church first, then the broader Church in the U.S. Judgment always begins with the house of God. But this kind of reflection and confession needs moves beyond the Church to all strata of American life: colleges and university, corporations, banks, and federal and state governments.
Black history is important in and of itself but it is also essential if White people are to better understand their own history. Taken and woven together – Black history and White history – make up the power and responsibility of the American “we.”
Adapted from Salim Munayer’s “When Christmas is Threatening”
The Christmas message is far more powerful and relevant to our pain-racked world than we often recognize. The Christmas story in popular western culture is one of comfort, simplicity and kindness, but the original Christmas was unveiled in a context of discomfort, complexity, and oppression.
The people of Israel in the first century were under occupation, oppression and despair. The Roman Empire dictated every aspect of life and enforced its will by the sword. The emperor Augustus was considered a god and required worship from Roman citizens. In addition, the local Jewish leadership at the temple were fixated with maintaining the position and influence they had with King Herod and the Romans. By doing so, they missed what God was doing, expecting instead the Messiah to overthrow the Romans with military force. This is not dissimilar to today when many people are obsessed and drawn to political power which demands a certain amount of loyalty.
It is in this story of political, religious and social unrest that God decides to reveal himself in human skin. Moreover, he revealed himself not in the palaces or the temple of Jerusalem, but in a small household in Bethlehem. And those who attended his birth were not the elite or powerful, but the marginalized, oppressed and different. It was a young woman who was considered by some to be unfaithful and her husband who was a carpenter, shepherds who were at the bottom of the socio-economic class, and foreigners from afar. An unexpected and unusual company to welcome the king of kings who was to liberate them.
The context of the first Christmas – among the outcasts of political and social power – is often overlooked by modern western Christians. Many Christians emphasize the birth of Christ and completely ignore its contextual message. Christmas is a story that gives hope to those who are ignored, live under oppression, and are marginalized.
Christmas is a story that gives hope to those who are ignored, live under oppression, and are marginalized.
The contextual and theological story of Christmas is full of challenging messages to how we live our lives among the oppressed. Are we going to continue celebrating the holiday in a superficial manner? Or are we going to allow the hopeful message of Christ to reach the most oppressed, marginalized, and voiceless people in our respective contexts?
When we embrace this Christmas message of hope and liberation for these communities, we join the Kingdom of God which opposes every wicked authority and leadership. There is a danger in our time to miss the work of God in history and maintain our gaze on political and religious individuals or trends like many did during the Christmas story. As the Kingdom of God works like yeast and a mustard seed, its impact and effect are not seen immediately. And this message is far more threatening to political, religious and social powers than any Christmas tree you will see.
Reflection questions:
In what ways does my observance of Christmas reflect the way that God entered into the world on the first Christmas?
Does my Christmas observance include the oppressed and the marginalized in any way?
What steps can I take to observe Christmas in a way that lessens my fixation with political power and embraces liberation and hope for the powerless?
