Mosaic Bulletin 2020

ARTICLES | ART | VOICES FROM THE COMMUNITY | MOSAIC SPOTLIGHT

Issue no. 2 | Spring 2020

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The Artist Behind the Mural: Everett Reynolds in His Own Words My name is Everett Reynolds and I am 24 years old. I was born and raised in Belize, and about 10 years ago, my family and I migrated to the U.S.A. Three years and a half ago, I discovered my passion for art, starting with just a few small canvases. And what began as a hobby quickly escalated into a career. I’m influenced by all forms of art, whether that is photography, tattoos, painting, drawing, and even music, because one of the best aspects of art is all the mediums you can explore and learn.

About a year ago, I decided to try my hand at murals. The space kid “DREAM BIG” mural on Belvedere in Waukegan, IL was my first. Although my canvas paintings are very inspiring, I really wanted to spread positivity through art on a larger scale for those who didn’t have access to them. What better way than to put it on a big wall? I wanted the young people to see themselves represented in art, and I wanted to shed light on the diversity of the community. The “DREAM BIG” mural aims to inspire young adults and children, expressing that they can become whoever they dream to be, no matter what that is or where you’ve come from. My main goal is to use my art to spread positivity and to evoke ambition.

I aspire to be a role model showing that “No one way is the right way.” You do what works for you. I’ve met tons of great people throughout this art journey. This is just the start of my career, and I hope to continue inspiring positivity and change through my art.

You can follow Everett on Instagram.

Table of Contents The Editorial Staff

In collaboration with

Juliany González Nieves Meron Araya Alexander Mailhot-Beutel Daniel Cho

Editorial Letter

PART II: ART

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Black Student Union

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64

Racist

by Mo Williams

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Torture

by Christian Meyer

by Daniel Hartman

PART I: ARTICLES

A Journey of Reconciliation: Reflections from Seminary, Church, Community Partnerships for the Gospel

by Daniel Hartman

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17 African American Women Theologians You Should Know About

by Emmanuella Carter

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A Message from the Persecuted Church to the Western Church

by Meron Araya

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The Advantage of Being a Minority: An Immigrant’s Missional Narrative

by Daniel Yang

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Building a Longer Table: Decentering Whiteness in Our (Re)Conciliation Conversations

by Juliany González Nieves

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On Being Asked to Give “The Women’s Perspective,”

by Melody Schwarting

PART III: VOICES FROM THE COMMUNITY 75

My Journey

by Pastor Harry Stackhouse

MOSAIC SPOTLIGHT 80

Leslie Rogers

by Meron Araya

Art by Everett Reynolds.

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ARTICLES | ART | VOICES FROM THE COMMUNITY | MOSAIC SPOTLIGHT

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THE EDITORIAL STAFF

JULIANY GONZĂ LEZ NIEVES

MERON ARAYA

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Juliany moved to IL in 2015 to pursue a Master of Divinity at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. She came to TEDS with a BS in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras, and years of experience in ministry. She loves art, poetry, music, and the Caribbean. You can follow her on social media and read her blog at glocaltheology.com.

Meron was born in Eritrea, and is a graduate of TEDS with a Master of Divinity. She came to TEDS with a background in Civil Engineering and a few years of experience in the industry and, also teaching at community colleges. She splits her time between writing, serving the church, and researching global issues focused on North and East Africa.

ALEXANDER MAILHOT-BEUTEL

DANIEL CHO Daniel Cho serves as associate pastor at Journey Church in Waukegan, IL. Daniel was born in Korea, raised in Canada, and theologically trained at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in the United States.

Alexander Mailhot-Beutel was born in rural Wisconsin, fell in love with the mountains of Colorado during his freshman year of college, and ultimately found a new home in the vibrant, diverse city of Chicago. He graduated from Moody Bible Institute with a degree in Urban Ministry and is currently finishing an MA in Intercultural Studies at Trinity.

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Editorial Letter

by Daniel Hartman In Mosaic, we often emphasize listening—listening to God and to others. In this issue, we invite you to listen. We invite you to listen theologically, historically, geographically, and culturally.

From diverse times, places, and cultures, we offer articles and art with the hope of building a longer table toward God’s intent for life on earth. Around this table, reconciled with God and one another, may we “listen to understand and speak to serve.”

Our framework is Christ-centered reconciliation, rooted in the historical reality of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Our prayer is that God stirs your heart toward greater faithfulness in God’s Kingdom. To God be glory now and forever, amen.

En Mosaico frecuentemente enfatizamos el arte y la práctica de escuchar -escuchar a Dios y a otras personas. Esto es lo que deseamos hacer con esta edición del Mosaic Bulletin: invitarte a escuchar. Te invitamos a escuchar perspectivas teológicas, históricas, geográficas y culturales.

Esta publicación ofrece al lector artículos y arte proveniente de tiempos, lugares, y culturas diversas, con la esperanza de construir una mesa más inclusiva que lleve al propósito de Dios para la vida en esta tierra. Nuestra esperanza es que sentados alrededor de esta mesa, reconciliados con Dios y con cada persona, “escuchemos con el fin de entender y hablemos con el propósito de servir.”

Nuestro marco de referencia es la reconciliación Cristo-céntrica, enraizada en la realidad histórica de la vida, muerte y resurrección de Jesús. Nuestra oración es que Dios mueva tu corazón hacia una mayor fidelidad en el reino de Dios. A Dios sea la gloria ahora y para siempre. Amén.

저희 모자이크에서는‘들음’ , 즉, 하나님과 사람들의 말에 경청하는 것을 종종 강조하곤 합니다. 이번

호에서는‘들음’으로 여러분을 초대합니다. 신학적, 역사적, 지리적, 그리고, 문화적인 들음으로

당신을 초청합니다.

이 땅에서의 삶을 향한 하나님의 의도를 구현하는 더 긴 테이블을 만드는 이 소망을 가지고

다양한 시대와 장소, 문화로부터 나온 기사와 예술을 제공해 드립니다. 이 테이블에 둘러 앉아 하나님과 서로와 화목하게 된 이들로서,“이해하기 위해 듣고, 섬기기 위해 말하기”를 소원합니다.

우리의 신앙의 틀은 예수의 삶과 죽음과 부활의 역사적 현실에 뿌리를 둔 그리스도 중심의

화해입니다. 우리의 기도는 하나님께서 하나님의 나라의 더 큰 신실함을 향해 당신의 마음을

움직이시는 것입니다. 하나님께 영광이 지금과 영원토록 있기를 원합니다. 아멘.

Mosaic is a ministry of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. As people entrusted with the Gospel, Trinity Mosaic Ministries aims to advance the ministry of reconciliation and renewal by equipping students, developing resources, and creating new networks. Learn more at mosaicministries.org.

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SHIN MAENG www.shinhappens.com @shinhappens

A Journey of Reconciliation:

Reflections from Seminary, Church, Community Partnerships for the Gospel

by Daniel Hartman

Every time I leave my house for work, I witness a public denial of the power of the gospel. Traveling between North Chicago and Deerfield for the past 10 years has stirred a lament deep in my soul.1 How is it possible to preach Christ, who reconciles people to God and creates one new humanity, and so publicly deny the glorious achievement of His atonement through racially segregated churches? As Lesslie Newbigin asserted, we have compromised our public witness. We preach a gospel that has power to reconcile sinners to God, but to a watching world, this very gospel seemingly remains impotent to reconcile people across racial boundaries.2 This lament has been the source of many tears and prayers.

Through the years, however, this lament has also been a gift—the gift to be disturbed about important questions. This lament, grounded in the hope of the gospel, has fueled a belief that “what ought to be” could supplant “what is.” Indeed, God is reconciling all things through Christ. What might that look like in the northern suburbs of Chicago?

In 2012, through conversations with Pastor Harry Stackhouse (The Sign of the Dove Church Waukegan), I was made aware of a growing conflict between a number of pastors and Trinity International University.

Recognition of this conflict caused us to

Daniel Hartman serves as the Director of Mosaic Ministries, Mosaic Initiative, and Mosaic House Ministries. Born and raised in Wisconsin, he moved to Illinois to pursue a Master of Divinity degree at Trinity. He is currently enrolled in the PhD Intercultural Studies program. He and his wife, Nicole, and their son, Jacob, reside in North Chicago where they live and serve together.

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1. Deerfield, a former sun-down town, remains 90% “white” with an adjusted gross income of $185,508. North Chicago is substantially more diverse (majority African American and Latino) with an AGI of $27,911.

2. Lesslie Newbigin, A Faith for This One World?, (New York: Harper, 1961), 81-82.

3. https://www.theatlantic.com/ magazine/archive/1999/10/ poetry-and-american-memo ry/377805/

ARTICLES | ART | VOICES FROM THE COMMUNITY | MOSAIC SPOTLIGHT

seek God together. After prayerful discernment, we decided to bring the two groups together. We gathered in a church sanctuary with high hopes of an introductory conversation. Bypassing the usual pleasantries, the pastors immediately raised issues related to race, gender, and doctrine. One pastor said, “When it comes to racism, we get it. But when racism comes from Christian organizations, the scars are different – this is my brother who is treating me this way. Before we work together, we have to heal the emotional scars of Lake County.” Ouch. Significantly, however,Trinity leaders did not defend nor excuse, but repented and committed to a new beginning toward that healing.We marked our new relationship by remembering the gospel of Jesus Christ through communion together. In one of my most vivid memories, Pastor Walstone Francis (Shiloh Baptist Church Waukegan) distributed the elements with shaking hands and falling tears. The journey of reconciliation began where it always needs to begin—the Lord’s table.

Sensing God was doing something new, we continued meeting to deepen our personal relationships. Eventually, a group consisting of pastors and Trinity faculty took a life-changing trip to Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana in 2014. As a pilgrimage in partnership, we embarked on a “fragile, heroic enterprise of remembering.”3 Led by Dr. and Mrs. Tiénou, our group set out to understand the complex relationships between the continents of Africa, Europe, and the Americas. We looked at the history of slavery, colonialism, and the church. As a “white” American of Norwegian and German descent, I was culturally dislocated in a good yet painful way.

In Côte d’Ivoire, we participated in a conference that brought leaders together from all over West Africa. Conducted in French (many of us needed a translator), we wrestled with profound theological and missiological issues facing local churches.

We also visited a Harrist church—legacy of one of the most effective and far reaching missionary efforts in Africa, led not by a European but by an indigenous leader from Liberia. In Ghana, we visited Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture, where we witnessed how an institution of higher education can serve immediate and relevant missional issues for the sake of the gospel. For me, it was a learning trip of a lifetime. But I was not prepared for what happened next.

One morning we set out along the coast to our next

destination—Elmina Castle. Founded by the Portugese in 1482, Elmina Castle functioned in varying capacities but principally as a stronghold for the enslaved.4 Toward the end of our tour, we came to another structure within the castle—a church. The church sat over the dungeons. I felt sick imagining the scene. With people in chains below them, on their way to permanent enslavement in the Americas, worshippers offered hymns to God and listened to “biblical” sermons.

Tortured cries mixed with reverent praise…a nauseating abomination! Elmina represented the church mixed with worldly power, militaristic expansion, and brutal oppression. As a “white” American Christian, I wept with grief, while my heart burned with anger and shame.

Our team embodied the legacy of these inter-continental relationships in With people in chains below them, on their way to permanent diverse ways. As we shared reflections around the dinner table, I remember enslavement in the Americas, being appalled at the human capacity worshippers offered hymns to for evil and for the church’s capacity for God and listened to “biblical” complicity and/or silence. When our team sermons. Tortured cries pondered how Christians could not only mixed with reverent praise…a allow such evil, but participate in it, Dr. nauseating abomination!

Tiénou remarked, “Never underestimate the power of an environment,” followed by a long pause.The intentional pause encouraged us to reflect about our home environment in Lake County. Representing Christian leadership from Deerfield to Waukegan, we had much to reflect upon.

Returning home, I continued my daily commute. Somehow cries and praise were still mixing, albeit now next door to one another. “Ideas die hard,” shared Dr. Tiénou. The idea of racial hierarchy, fueled theologically, “scientifically,” politically, and economically, helped make Elmina Castle possible. It also shaped the United States of America. Codified in our country’s founding documents and reinforced through Supreme Court decisions, the ideology created unequal opportunities for people “raced” in this land. On the North Shore, forced removals, racial motivated violence, redlining, sun-down towns, KKK marches, exclusionary covenants, and general socialized attitudes about racial hierarchy, shaped its communities.Yet, resilience and resistance also shaped the area, including significant influence from racial minority congregations.

Though laws changed through the Civil Rights movement, the United States Monopoly board was largely set by the 1960s, with land and economic resources segregated racially. While there were certainly exceptions in Chicago, the church, as a whole, publicly denied the power of the gospel by conforming to its environment. To the watching world, we proclaimed that racial divides and

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ARTICLES | ART | VOICES FROM THE COMMUNITY | MOSAIC SPOTLIGHT

4. Later held by the Dutch, and economic interests are more powerful than God’s reconciling finally the British, before being work on the cross of Christ. Tragically, the ecclesial practices and owned by Ghana in 1957. theology that contributed to and/or passively allowed racial violence, 5. Example abound, but a few slavery, and segregation remain in many churches and seminaries will suffice: Cain’s mark, Curse of Ham, the Crusades, today.6 As a result, even with a gradually awakening conscience, Papal Bulls 1452-1493, the many Christians find themselves ill-equipped for the work and idea of “limpieza de sangre” or “purity of blood,” European witness toward biblical unity in diversity. scholars’ categorization of

Toward the end of our trip, Dr. Tiénou asked our team, “If races, Manifest Destiny, Social Darwinism. bad theology helped advance racial thinking, division, and violence, how might good theology challenge it?” In other words, while 6. The theological thrust of previous footnote is still acknowledging social and cultural complexities, we also have a felt (and sometimes taught!), theological problem. How might we recover a biblical sense of the compounded by individualism, soul/body dualism, image of God, the nature of the church, and Spirit-led priorities for colorblindness, ahistoricism, life on earth? intellectualized faith, and plausibility structures of

Perhaps it will begin with deep, sustained, corporate the Enlightenment. repentance. Repentance that spans centuries and continents.

Repentance that regains the purity of cruciform discipleship, and ultimately leads us back to God’s original design. Accordingly, we may become an alternative community that both condemns the world’s idols and also invites participation in a new (or old) way of life together. Our “If bad theology helped advance King is not the president or any other racial thinking, division, and earthly leader, but the Suffering Servant. violence, how might good The gospel of Jesus Christ informs theology challenge it?” our way forward. So, in suffering, with promised resurrection, we advance together.

Pastors, faculty, and administrators who participated in the 2012 reconciliation gathering and the 2014 pilgrimage are now at the forefront of imagining and enacting new possibilities through a seminary-church-community partnership for the gospel.

Whether leadership development through Trinity’s Mosaic cohort and Gathering, or missional engagement through the 12 church Mosaic Initiative partnerships, or holistic formation and witness through Mosaic House Ministries, we are experiencing signs of hope. As we move forward together, we have the opportunity to demonstrate the gospel’s power to a broken and divided world.

As the world sees a reconciled church, the gospel message will go forth as Jesus intended—in unity (John 17:20-23). To God be the To learn more, please visit mosaicministries.org and glory, now and forever! mosaichouseministries.org

SHIN MAENG, TREE OF LIFE

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17 African American Women Theologians You Should Know About

By Emmanuella Carter Series Editor: Juliany Gonzรกlez Nieves

I have studied at Christian schools my entire life. After graduating from high school, I went on to pursue a B.A. in Theology at a well-known evangelical institution. In all those years, I never had an African American woman as a professor of Bible or theology.

Moreover, I did not even have a required textbook written by an African American female author. Now, as a third-year M.Div. student, things haven’t changed.

My experience is not unique.

Emmanuella Carter holds a B.A. in However, I am frustrated by the effects.

Theology from Moody Bible Institute and Consider the issue of representation. It is currently completing her M.Div. at Trinity does not seem like a big deal until one day Evangelical Divinity School. She serves in the you realize that without representation, leadership team of Mosaic Ministries, and you are invisible. It does not happen all at as minister and women's ministry leader at once. It is a long process. It is a “Shhh” that Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago. is ever-increasing until, eventually, you are unable to hear yourself in the narrative.Your perspective, your experience, your voice will not be heard. There is just silence. And with that silence comes the invisibility, the erasure.

Consider the issue of representation.

However, the erasure It does not seem like a big deal until does not happen because one day you realize that without African American women are representation, you are invisible. not speaking or because they are not present. There are voices. Black women have been theologizing for a long time. But for a significant extent of our history, African American women had no official office in theology departments.

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Andrea C. White Rev. Dr. Andrea C. White serves as Associate Professor of Theology and Culture at Union Theological Seminary in New York.

She specializes in constructive Christian theology, particularly womanist theology, and postmodern religious thought. Dr. White also serves as the Executive Director of the Society for the Study of Black Religion, and as the co-chair of the Black Theology Group of the American Academy of Religion.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Philosophy from Oberlin College, a Master of Divinity with a concentration in philosophy of religion from Yale University Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Chicago Divinity School.

In 2018, she presented a keynote address titled “Political Apostasy, Black Nihilism, and Barth” at the Karl Barth Annual Conference in Princeton Theological Seminary. This year, she delivered a sermon titled “A Vocation of Agony” for the King and Faith Lecture Series for the Northern California Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Foundation in San Francisco.

Her forthcoming publications include The Back of God: A Theology of Otherness in Karl Barth and Paul Ricoeur,The Scandal of Flesh: Black Women’s Bodies and God Politics, and Feminist and Womanist Theologies.1

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1. https://utsnyc.edu/faculty/an drea-c-white/

ARTICLES | ART | VOICES FROM THE COMMUNITY | MOSAIC SPOTLIGHT

Although they were not acknowledged as theologians, you can hear their theology in the poetry of Phyllis Wheatley, the activism of Sojourner Truth, and the preaching of Jarena Lee. These women and many others refused to be quiet. Wherever there were ideologies that declared their invisibility, these women preached, marched, wrote, and spoke their way into existence.

Today, black women theologians are still speaking and teaching us about God. For this reason, we have decided to feature 16 African American women theologians and biblical scholars you should know.

Joanne Marie Terrell

Theology from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. She is the first African American woman to receive the Pontifical Doctorate of Sacred Theology Degree from this institution.

In 2004, she received the Elizabeth Seton Medal for Outstanding Woman Theologian from Mt. St. Joseph College in Cincinnati. She also received the U.S. Catholic Award for Furthering the Role of Women in the Church.

She is well-published, having written seven books and over 85 articles. Her publications include And Still We Rise: An Introduction to Black Liberation Theology (Paulist Press, 1996), Taking Down Our Harps: Black Catholics in the United States (1998), and Standing in the Shoes My Mother Made: A Womanist Theology (Fortress Press, 2010).3

Dr. Joanne Terrell is a native of Springfield, Massachusetts. She holds a dual B.A. in Philosophy and Religion and Behavioral Science from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida; and an M.Div., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary in New York. Currently, she serves as Associate Professor of Theology, Ethics & the Arts at Chicago Theological Seminary, where she specializes in black theology.

In 2018, she presented the Grawemeyer Religion Award lecture on behalf of Dr. James H. Cone, who could not make it to Louisville to discuss his book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree. Dr. Terrell is a former doctoral student of Dr. Cone.

An ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, she is the author of Power in the Blood?:The Cross in the African American Experience (Wipf and Stock, 2005).2

Eboni Marshall Turman Rev. Dr. Eboni Marshall Turman is the former director of Black Church Studies at Duke Divinity School. Now, she serves as Assistant Professor of Theology and African American Religion at Yale University Divinity School. Dr. Turman holds an M.Div., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in Christian Social Ethics from Union Theological Seminary. Additionally, Turman is the youngest woman to be named Assistant Minister of the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City (20022012), and the second woman to preside over the ordinances in its 210-year history.4

Her writings include Toward a Womanist Ethic of Incarnation: Black Bodies, The Black Church and the Council of Chalcedon

Diana L. Hayes Dr. Diana L. Hayes is a womanist theologian in the Roman Catholic tradition. She is Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology in the Department of Theology at Georgetown.

Her areas of expertise are Black Theology, U.S. Liberation Theologies, Contextual Theologies, Religion and Public Life, and African American and Womanist Spirituality.

Dr. Hayes holds several doctoral degrees, including a Juris Doctor from the George Washington University, a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and a doctorate in Sacred

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Jacquelyn Winston Rev. Dr. Jacquelyn E. Winston is a patristics scholar, with an emphasis on the history of the first five centuries of the Christian Church. Her areas of interest include the uses of religious rhetoric to marginalize “the other,” cultural and religious constructions of identity, martyrdom and a theology of suffering, Jewish Christian relations, and material cultural analysis.

As an ordained minister with the Foursquare denomination, her approach to the academic setting is to make theology relevant and living. She states, "Theology is not a dry set of theories devoid of their social and cultural context. It is the living Body of Christ attempting to come to grips with the way that Jesus reveals Himself in our current settings." In 2007, Dr. Winston became Associate Professor in Church History at Azusa Pacific University, and in 2010, she became the director of the Theology Program.

She earned both her M.A. in Pastoral Studies with an emphasis in Urban Ministries and her M.Div. from Azusa Pacific and received her Ph.D. in History of Christianity from Claremont Graduate University.5

Her publications include The Assassin of a Prophetic Imagination: Imperialistic Rhetoric in Ancient Rome and Contemporary America (2012), and Listening to the African Witness (2013).

Stephanie Crumpton In 2017, Rev. Dr. Stephanie M. Crumpton joined the faculty at McCormick Theological Seminary as Assistant Professor of Practical Theology. Currently, she serves there as Associate Professor of Practical Theology. Dr. Crumpton holds a Doctor of Theology, Pastoral Care & Counseling from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA; an M.Div. from Johnson C. Smith Presbyterian Seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta; and a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism

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2. https://www.ctschicago.edu/ people/joanne-marie-terrell/ 3. https://gufaculty360.georgetown. edu/s/contact/00336000014Tl 9NAAS/diana-hayes 4. https://divinity.yale.edu/fac ulty-and-research/yds-faculty/ eboni-marshall-turman 5. https://www.apu.edu/theology/ faculty/jwinston/

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(Palgrave, 2013), and her forthcoming monograph Black Women’s Burden: Sexism,Violence, and the Black Church.

Art by ALEXANDRIA MCCRORY

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from Oklahoma’s Langston University.

She is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. Dr. Crumpton specializes in pastoral theological methodology, theories of personality development, historical and social dimensions of pastoral counseling, pastoral counseling as a specialized form of the church’s ministries, and family systems theory.6

Her major publications include A Womanist Pastoral Theology Against Intimate and Cultural Violence (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and After the 911 Call: A Pastoral Theologian Reflects on Family Violence Advocacy. (2013)

Feminist Theology in Third World Perspective (Westminster John Knox Press, 1988), Womanist Theological Ethics: A Reader (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), and The Oxford Handbook of African American Theology (Oxford University Press, 2014).

Keri L. Day Dr. Keri L. Day is an Associate Professor of Constructive Theology and African American Religion at Princeton Theological Seminary. Her research interests include womanist/feminist theologies, social critical theory, cultural studies, economics, and Afro-Pentecostalism. She holds a Ph.D. in Religion from Vanderbilt University, an M.A. in Religion and Ethics from Yale University Divinity School, and a Bachelor of Science from Tennessee State University.8

Dr. Day has authored two books: Unfinished Business: Black Women, the Black Church, and the Struggle to Thrive in America (Orbis Books, 2012); and Religious Resistance to Neoliberalism:Womanist and Black Feminist Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).

Katie Geneva Cannon On August 9, 2018, the Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon went home to be with the Lord. Dr. Cannon was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina. At a very young age, she became a member of the United Presbyterian Church. On April 24, 1974, she became the first African American woman to be ordained by the denomination.

Cannon earned a Master of Divinity from Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary.

In 1983, she became the first African American woman to receive the Doctor of Philosophy degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York.

Dr. Cannon became the Professor of Christian Ethics at Union Presbyterian Seminary in 2001. Her outstanding work merited her many awards, including the 2018 Excellence in Theological Education Award.7

Her co-edited publications include Inheriting Our Mothers’ Gardens:

Kelly Brown Douglas In 2017, Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas was named Dean of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary. Within the same year, she became the Canon Theologian for the Washington National Cathedral in Washington DC.

Dr. Douglas was the first black woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest

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Delores S. Williams Delores S. Williams is the Paul Tillich Professor Emerita of Theology and Culture at Union Theological Seminary. She is considered the founding foremother of Womanist theology, and is best known for her 1993 book Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk.10

Emilie M. Townes The Rev. Dr. Emilie M.Townes, a native of Durham, NC, is a womanist theologian, distinguished scholar, and leader in theological education.

She is the Dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society.

Formerly, she was the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Yale Divinity School.

Townes is an ordained American Baptist minister, and she earned her master's and bachelor's degrees at the University of Chicago. She also holds two doctoral degrees: a D.Min. from the University of Chicago Divinity School, and a Ph.D. from the Joint Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary/ Northwestern University Program in Religious and Theological

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6. https://mccormick.edu/content/ crumpton-stephanie 7. https://www.upsem.edu/news room/professor-katie-cannon- first-black-woman-ordained-in- pcusa-dies-at-68/ 8. https://www.ptsem.edu/peo ple/keri-day 9. https://cathedral.org/staff/kel ly-brown-douglas/ 10. https://utsnyc.edu/event/trail blazer-2018-5/

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in the Southern Ohio Diocese and among the first ten to be ordained nationwide. She is one of the leading voices in the development of womanist theology, racial reconciliation, and sexuality and the black church. As a result, she is widely published in national and international journals and other publications.

Her publications include The Black Christ (Orbis Books, 1994), Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective (Orbis Books, 1999), Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God (Orbis Books, 2015), and What’s Faith Got to Do With It?: Black Bodies/Christian Souls (Orbis Books, 2005).

Dr. Douglas holds a Bachelor of Science summa cum laude in Psychology from Denison University, and an M.Div. and Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Union Theological Seminary.9

Studies. Furthermore, Dr. Townes is also the recipient of honorary doctorates from Washington and Jefferson College and Franklin College.

In 2015, she was awarded the Pacesetter Award from the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education.

She has authored multiple publications, including Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil (2006), Breaking the Fine Rain of Death: African American Health Care and A Womanist Ethic of Care (Wipf & Stock, 2006), In a Blaze of Glory:Womanist Spirituality as Social Witness (Abingdon Press, 1995) and Womanist Justice,Womanist Hope (1993).

She co-edited Womanist Theological Ethics: A Reader (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), and Faith, Health, and Healing in African American Life (Praeger, 2008).11

Dr. Grant holds a B.A. from Bennett College and an M.Div. from Turner Theological Seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center.

She went on to receive an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Union Theological Seminary, becoming the first African American woman to earned the latter. Dr. Grant also holds several honorary doctorate degrees from Turner Theological Seminary, ITC; Payne Theological Seminary; Bennett College and Chicago Theological Seminary.12

Her publications include White Women’s Christ and Black Women’s Jesus: Feminist Christology and Womanist Response ( Scholars Press, 1989), Perspectives on Womanist Theology (ITC Press, 1995), and the book chapter "The challenge of the darker sister," in Feminism and Theology (Oxford University Press, 2003).

Jacquelyn Grant

Cheryl A Kirk-Duggan

Dr. Jacquelyn Grant is one of the three founders of Womanist Theology and Ethics, along with Katie Cannon and Delores Williams. Currently, she serves as the Fuller E. Callaway Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, GA.

Originally, from Georgetown, SC, she was ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1974. Additionally, she is the founder of The Black Women in Church and Society (BWCS) program, The Womanist Scholars Program (WSP) and Black Women in Ministerial Leadership Program (BWML).

Rev. Dr. Cheryl A Kirk-Duggan is currently Professor of Theology and Women’s Studies at Shaw University Divinity School in Raleigh, NC. She earned a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and was the recipient of the Excellence in Academic Research Award from Shaw University in 2009.

An ordained elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church, Dr. Kirk-Duggan is the author of over 20 books including Exorcizing Evil: A Womanist Perspective on the Spirituals (Orbis Books, 1994), Misbegotten Anguish: A Theology and Ethics of Violence (Chalice Press, 2001), and Violence and Theology (Abingdon Press, 2006).13

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11. https://divinity.vanderbilt.edu/ people/bio/emiliem-townes

Dr. Monica Coleman is a theologian, scholar, activist, and Professor of Constructive Theology and African American Religions at Claremont School of Theology. Formerly, she served as Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

Dr. Coleman became an ordained elder in the Michigan Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church at age 19. She went on to receive her B.A. in African American Studies from Harvard University, and her M.Div. from Vanderbilt University School. She also holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Religion and Theology from Claremont Graduate University.14

Dr. Coleman's publications include Bipolar Faith: A Black Woman’s Journey with Depression and Faith (Fortress Press, 2016), Not Alone: Reflections on Faith and Depression (Inner Prizes Inc., 2012), and Making a Way Out of No Way: a Womanist Theology (Fortress Press, 2008). Additionally, she is the co-editor of Creating Women’s Theologies: A Movement Engaging Process Thought (Wipf & Stock, 2011) and the editor of Ain’t I a Womanist Too?:Third Wave Womanist Religious Thought (Fortress Press, 2013).

12. https://www.itc.edu/directory/ dr-jacquelyn-grant/

M. Shawn Copeland Dr. M. Shawn Copeland is Professor Emeritus of Theology at Boston College, the institution from where she graduated with her Ph.D. in Systematic Theology. Before being appointed to that position,she served as Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Marquette University. From 1994 to 2016, Copeland worked for The Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana.

In 2018, she was awarded the American John Courtney Murray Award, becoming the first African American woman theologian to receive such honor. She is also the first African American president of the Catholic Theological Society.15

Her publications include Knowing Christ Crucified:The Witness of African American Religious Experience (Orbis Books, 2018); Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being (Fortress Press, 2009); and Uncommon Faithfulness:The Black Catholic Experience (Orbis Books, 2009).

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13. http://www.shawu.edu/Facul ty_Staff/kirk-duggan/bio.htm 14. https://cst.edu/academics/ faculty/monica-a-coleman/ 15. https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/ schools/mcas/departments/ theology/people/faculty- directory/m-shawn-copeland. html

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Monica Coleman

Mitzi J. Smith

Traci C. West

Dr. Mitzi J. Smith is the J. Davison Philips Professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA. Previous to this position, Dr. Smith served as the Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Studies at Ashland Theological Seminary in Detroit, MI. She holds a B.A. in Theology from Columbia Union College in Maryland; an M.A. in Black Studies from The Ohio State University; and an M.Div. from Howard University School of Divinity.

Additionally, Dr. Smith is the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in New Testament from Harvard. Her edited book I Found God in Me: A Womanist Biblical Hermeneutics Reader (Cascade Books) was chosen as one of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles in 2015.16

Her other publications include Womanist Sass and Talk Back: Social (In)Justice, Intersectionality, and Biblical Interpretation (Cascade Books, 2018); Insights from African American Interpretation (Fortress Press, 2017); and Teaching All Nations: Interrogating the Matthean Great Commission (Fortress Press, 2014), co-edited with Jayachitra Lalitha.

Rev. Dr. Traci C. West is Professor of Christian Ethics and African American Studies at Drew University Theological School. She holds a B.A. from Yale University, an M.Div. from Pacific School of Religion, and a Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary. West is an ordained elder in the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.17

Her publications include Solidarity and Defiant Spirituality: Africana Lessons on Religion, Racism, and Ending Gender Violence (New York University Press, 2019); and Disruptive Christian Ethics:When Racism and Women’s Lives Matter (Westminster John Knox Press, 2006).

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16. https://www.ctsnet.edu/mitzi- smith-appointed-davison- philips-professor-new- testament/

Can you imagine our Western theology without the German voice 17. https://www.tracicwest.com/bio of Martin Luther or the Swiss voice of Ulrich Zwingli? What if we did not have the French voice of John Calvin, the German voice of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, or the Canadian voice of Don Carson? If we cannot imagine our theology without their voices, we must ask ourselves, "Why can we imagine our theology without the voices of Asian women, USA Latinas and Latin American women, Indigenous women, White women, Black women?" They, too, are a part of our Christian history. They also give shape to our theology. They, too, are the voice of the Church. The Church "Why can we imagine our is speaking. Can you hear her? Will you theology without the voices listen to her? of Asian women, USA Latinas

and Latin American women, Indigenous women, White women, Black women?"

They, too, are a part of our Christian history.

Art Attribution: Alexandria McCrory is a freelance graphic designer based in Lake County, IL. She earned her Bachelor of Social Science in Graphic Design from Trinity International University. She loves to fuse her passion for art and faith through the designs she creates. You can follow her on IG @agmalley95 and visit her website zamccror.myportfolio.com.

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The Challenge: The Church Must Listen to Itself

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A Message from the Persecuted Church to the Western Church

By Meron Araya

Most Christians in the West understand that Christians around the world are persecuted for their faith. But often, the western church does not have any framework to understand the reality on the ground for oppressed Christians. What kind of challenges do they face? What is dayto-day life like in the persecuted church?

And how can the western church stand in solidarity with the persecuted church?

In the top 50 World Watch List Meron Araya is graduate of Trinity (WWL) countries alone, 254 million Evangelical Divinity School with a Master of Christians experience high levels of Divinity. She came to TEDS with a background in persecution for their faith in Christ. In Civil Engineering and a few years of experience perspective, 1 in 9 Christians worldwide in the industry and also teaching at community experience high levels of persecution. In colleges. She splits her time between writing, the year 2018 alone, 4136 Christians were serving the church, and researching global issues killed for faith related reasons in the top focused on North and East Africa.

50 WWL countries. In 2018, on average every month 105 churches were attacked, burned, or vandalized, in the top 50 WWL countries. Everyday 11 Christians are killed for their faith within these countries.1 The statistics against the persecuted church "Tragically, American Christians are is staggering and is deserving typically unaware of the violence of attention. our international brothers and sisters

Persecution takes face for following Jesus Christ." many forms and expressions - Jonathan Falwell in various parts of the world. The main sources of persecution are Communist and Post-

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1. Open Doors USA. communist oppression, extreme Islamic oppression, dictatorial (2019). Christian Persecution government leadership, ethnic antagonism, and religious by the Numbers - Open Doors USA. [online] Available nationalism. In some parts of the world, persecution is martyrdom. at: https://www.opendoorsusa.

In other parts, it is forced conversion. It is threats to one’s family. org/christian-persecution/ stories/christian-persecution-by- It is church distraction. It is personal violence against Christian the-numbers/ [Accessed 14 individuals. It is church attacks. Persecution is a humanitarian crisis May 2019]. and it is an assault against the dignity and the humanity of people of faith.

The everyday life of the persecuted church is full of taking risky decisions for the sake of the gospel. For many of our Christian friends in different parts of the world, a very simple decision to attend a small group gathering is a matter of life and death. Their safety, their future plans, their families are at risk every time they decide to attend a small group gathering.

My journey of faith began in my home country Eritrea, which is number 7 in the top 50 World Watch List, alongside North Korea at number 1, Somalia at number 3, and Nigeria at number 12. I came to faith in Christ a year before a massive persecution began In many ways, injustice in the Western in Eritrea. The early years of context is primarily understood in premy discipleship were deeply defined categories of race, gender, and shaped by the trials and the sexuality. However, many global issues struggles of sustaining faith in of oppression and injustice do not fit Christ under the enormous pressure of persecution. At the into these pre-existing categories based on race, gender, or sexuality. time, as a young believer, I was just beginning to grow roots in my faith and had no clue of what it would require of me to follow Jesus. By the grace of God, surrounded by the faithful witness of both men and women who persevered at a tremendous cost to their own lives and their family’s lives, my faith was strengthened.

The biggest challenge for many of my persecuted friends in Eritrea and in many other parts of the world is invisibility and silencing. Eritrea being a fairly new nation in the horn of Africa, with a population of about 5 million, the issue of persecuted Christians does not get enough coverage nor visibility in the global justice discourse. And this lack of accountability further empowers the government to continue to impose its communist

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"The world never burned a casual Christian at the stake."

- John R. Rice For those us who live in the West, we have to resist the urge to tell halfsided stories about the persecuted church.Yes, the persecuted church have gone through and still is going through immense trials that comes at such a tremendous cost. However, the persecuted church is neither weak nor a victim.

It is neither a hero nor powerless. It is a church that embodies deep abiding faith and an immense amount of resilience in Christ. It is a church that indwells the enduring presence of the Holy Spirit. It is a church that has learned to lament and bleed together, but it is also a church that hopes in the redemptive grace of Christ in unison.

We, the persecuted church – we are not our struggles. We are not the trials that we have gone through. We are not victims of the enemy’s schemes. We are part of the family of God that have persevered through the fiery furnace of persecution. The suffering of the persecuted church cannot be separated from the blazing passion for Christ. It is the passion and the love of Jesus that enables the persecuted church to endure and to persevere.

I would be amiss if I did not mention my persecuted friend’s utter distaste towards heroism. When we think about the boldness of their faith and their great courage, our temptation here in the West is to make heroes out them. We want to consume their stories and idolize their courage or emasculate the resilience of their faith. The persecuted church always detract focus from themselves and points to the pioneer and perfecter of their faith who endured the cross for the

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ideologies infused by dictatorial leadership on Eritrean Christians. As the global body of Christ, we have a biblical mandate to raise our voices on behalf of our persecuted brothers and sisters who feel isolated, abandoned and silenced.

In many ways, injustice in the Western context is primarily understood in pre-defined categories of race, gender, and sexuality. However, many global issues of oppression and injustice do Western Christianity will need to not fit into these pre-existing categories re-imagine a broader theological based on race, gender, or sexuality. and sociological category to Persecution is a good case in point. It understand global injustice. is a global phenomenon that affects people from various continents cutting across many layers of race, ethnicity, and gender. Western Christianity will need to re-imagine a broader theological and sociological category to understand global injustice.

joy that was set before him. They rejoice in simple unrecognized, uncelebrated, and unacknowledged obedience. Their lives are a manifestation of godly greatness at its finest lived out in silent worship. For the global church, the persecuted church upholds an image of deep faithfulness and utter satisfaction in Christ alone in season and out of season.

The persecuted church is neither weak We do not idolize the nor a victim. It is neither a hero nor persecuted church but we powerless. It is a church that embodies participate in their suffering deep abiding faith and an immense by honoring their stories. The amount of resilience in Christ. hundreds and thousands of men and women believers all across the globe who are nameless and faceless to us but their stories are held in affection among their communities. But importantly, they are known and esteemed by the ONE that they love so much. He holds their stories and their rewards awaits them in heaven. On that day, you and I will stand in the side lines of heaven and we cheer them as they receive their rewards from our King and our Lord. *This essay is adapted from Meron’s talk given at Rev 7 – a yearly international students gathering at TEDS in the Spring of 2019.

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The Advantage of Being a Minority: An Immigrant’s Missional Narrative

By Daniel Yang

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Daniel Yang is the Director of the Send Institute, leading and overseeing all of its initiatives. Daniel has served on various church staffs including Northwood Church, led by Bob Roberts Jr., where he was trained as a church planter and was involved in global and multi-faith engagement. He earned an M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Michigan, and is currently a Ph.D. Intercultural Studies student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

– Jeremiah 29:4-7 (ESV)

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4.Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon God is placing Israel in a place of weakness as a minority in a foreign country. He does this because there’s something refining about being a minority. Anthropologists call this liminality. It’s the detoxification of things that aren’t useful. Here is the early beginning of the Gospel message:

In God’s Kingdom, a person becomes weak in order for their life to help others.

If you feel like you were born with a disadvantage and you looked at it as a reason to pity yourself, you may have forgotten that God can transform your disadvantage into an advantage. God is for the underdogs. That’s why he likes to humble people, to make them the underdogs.

In the economy of God, your weakness (minority, disadvantaged, lack of resources, etc.) is often a place of strength.

There are graces and mercies from God so deep that can only be experienced in exile.

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EVERY MINORITY HAS A BABYLON

In 1975, the Americans pulled out of Southeast Asia and left many of the Hmong people stranded. My family was among the tens of thousands stranded in their home country of Laos. Those who fought alongside the Americans, like my dad, were hunted down and killed by the communist regime. So, they fled to the mountains and lived incognito for years before swimming across the Mekong Delta to find refuge in Thailand. My family survived for years in the refugee camps before immigrating to Illinois in 1979.

Over the last 15 years of my life, I’ve been trying to understand the bigger narrative we belong to besides the refugee narrative that brought our family to North America. If God is as sovereign as the Bible says, then I have to wonder if God brought us here to North America for more than just the “American-Asian Dream.”

Those of us who are minorities often ask ourselves, “Why am I in North America? Why am I more American than I am Latinx/Asian/African/Mediterranean/ whatever-an?”

Those are the questions the Israelites are asking themselves in this Jeremiah passage. They found themselves in a strange country where they didn’t know if they were supposed to settle in or separate out.

If you’re a minority, you’ll have a unique perspective on this passage.

EMBRACE LIVING IN BABYLON 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.

What is God saying to the Israelite diaspora? He’s saying, “Go ahead and settle in. Babylon is the long-haul for you. This isn’t a short vacation, it’s a lifestyle change!”

At this point, other prophets were telling the political leaders of Israel, “Don’t worry, this won’t be long.You’ll be back in Jerusalem where you’ll be back to calling the shots, expanding your Kingdom, and ruling over Palestine.” The prophets were preaching a Prosperity Gospel and Jeremiah was saying, “Nope. This is going to be a long rehab for you!”

But more than that, God was also saying to Israel as the minority in a foreign country, “Have a dream for your family here. Have children here.

Grow your roots here. Love being here. Love this season of your life.” Because the only way we truly change is that in our weakness and in our transition, we accept where we are. We embrace living in Babylon.

This passage is a foreshadowing of the Gospel for minorities and anyone else who feels weak and unsettled in a foreign place.

You don’t have to assimilate.

You don’t have to segregate.

You have to incarnate.

Incarnation is different from assimilation because a person who incarnates doesn’t lose their identity—

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they add to an already existing one.You take on something.You are clothed with someONE. And incarnation is different from multiculturalism because it’s not a pretentious diversity campaign. When you live incarnationally, you choose to live among those who are different from you. Therefore, when you live incarnationally, you’re always a minority.

Know yourself so well that you can comfortably deny yourself in any situation in order to win people over—to benefit them—to save them. That’s the fluidity of being a minority.

IN CHRIST YOU LOSE YOURSELF TO FIND YOURSELF 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

You know how Western missionaries went into Majority World countries to share the Gospel? They did that because God knew eventually these Western countries would desperately need missionaries from the majority world! Western missionaries were used by God to share the Gospel to war-torn countries. And now God wants to use people from war-torn countries to preserve the faith and the mission in the West. That is a fuller understanding of Matthew 28:18-20. That is the pain and the pleasure of being a minority in the Western world.You are not here for the American Dream.You are here for the Kingdom Dream.

As minorities in North America, you are charged by God to pray on behalf of your cities.Your status keeps you humble and meek, so God can use you. Communities like yours are essentially rewriting the missional narrative of the West. Where some of you used to be victims of war, in Christ, you are now a part of the saving agency that God is using to preserve Western Christianity.

But be humble.You are a part of the fulfillment of God’s plan in the Western Church. This is your responsibility.You are no longer refugees or immigrants.You aret owners of God’s church here in North America.You are no longer the mission field.You are the missionary.You are now called to lead alongside those who used to lead you.

The Good News is foreshadowed in verse 7, “for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” You never ultimately lose yourself when your identity is found in Christ.

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pleasure of being a minority in the Western world. You are not here for the American Dream. You are here for the Kingdom Dream.

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When you know that in Christ you are truly forgiven of your sins— especially the sin of making your ethnicity or sexual orientation or gender or social status your primary identity—then you can truly forgive those who are considered your oppressors. When, like Christ, you seek the welfare of the other, then God will be faithful to look after your welfare.

What do you pity as a disadvantage in your life? Could it be the thing God is using to keep you humble? If it is, then pity it no more. Because what makes you a minority can become your advantage in the Kingdom of God. That is the pain and the

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Building a Longer Table:

Decentering Whiteness in Our (Re)Conciliation Conversations

By Juliany Gonzรกlez Nieves

I am an outsider, a Spanish-speaking Caribbean woman whose people have historically being described by the U.S. Supreme Court as “foreign in a domestic sense.”1 I am an island girl raised in a barrio in the northeast of Puerto Rico by the hands of her abuela, tías, mami, and those people we call familia without sharing a bloodline. Throughout my life, I have been described as a trigueña, taína, india, and criolla with Afro features. I seemed to successfully retell in my skin, hair, lips, and big eyes the complicated history of our island. But when you cross the ocean in this direction and get off the plane, with every step you take, you are stripped of your identity.You are “deformed and reformed” by the social narratives and often dehumanizing stereotypes disseminated by those in power in the metropolis.2 Narratives that inevitably spill into Christian spaces. I no longer embody the richness of my Puerto Rican island culture. I am now thrown into a one-size-better-fits-all box that homogenizes the multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, and multi-racial realities of Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. I am given the label of Latina and asked to enter Christian spaces of dialogue about racial and gender (re)conciliation.

But when I sit at the table, my “hair [is] too kinky for [the whites], too wavy for

Juliany Gonzáles Nieves is an evangélica Puerto Rican born and raised on the island. In 2019, she graduated with a Master of Divinity -so presumptuous!- from TEDS. She is a founding editor of the Mosaic Bulletin. You can follow her on social media and read her blog at glocaltheology.com.

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built upon the church’s confession of its catholicity – the acknowledgement that the church is universal and global.

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1. https://history.house. dreadlocks.”3 So, I am then left in a taxing limbo where solidarity gov/Exhibitions-and- is rarely reciprocated. The table is not long enough to welcome Publications/HAIC/ Historical-Essays/Foreign- this liminality, this in-betweenness. So, I walk around and stay long Domestic/ enough to realize that there is a difference between cheap and 2. The phrase in quotes is from true (re)conciliation. Too often, the former looks like people of Elizabeth Acevedo’s poem color being invited to “share their stories” at tables controlled by “Afro-Latina.” the interests and under the terms of Christian majority culture 3. Elizabeth Acevedo, “Afro-Latina.” so that some can appease their consciences and give each other 4. Ibid, 63 a pat in the back. There is no true hospitality, no standing in solidarity, and no mutuality. With luck –or should I say providence?there might be a commitment to an individual of a particular community, who often happens to be somewhat palatable to the white Christian institution, ministry or organization.

Nonetheless, that rarely But no longer table will be built until translates into a commitment we are honest about the ways in which to the communities the whiteness and maleness often seem to individual represents. For, lord over even the most well-intentioned as pastor Sandra Maria Van (re)conciliation dialogue spaces.

Opstal writes, there is a difference between controlling one’s table and building a more inclusive one – a longer one.4 But no longer table will be built until we are honest about the ways in which whiteness and maleness often seem to lord over even the most well-intentioned (re) conciliation dialogue spaces. And the latter is true not only for primarily white Christian circles but also minority ones. Because there are tables and then, there are tables. So, what I am arguing is true (re)conciliation requires the decentering of whiteness and maleness as the epitome of Christian godliness, and with it the creation of a longer True (re)conciliation requires the table, built upon the church’s decentering of whiteness and maleness confession of its catholicity – as the epitome of Christian godliness, the acknowledgement that the church is universal and global. and with it the creation of a longer table,

Of Tables and Tables

Decentering Whiteness: Defining Terms

Some communities and individuals operate under the assumption that there is only one table of dialogue within USian Christianity.

That is, the expensive and exclusive one owned by white middle-class Christian men and a number of white women in both the conservative and progressive aisles. Some might claim these are two different tables but I disagree. Paternalism is the menu served by both. While white conservatives are often suspicious about our “orthodoxy” –right belief-, white progressives are excited to “center” our voices until we dare to disagree with them. However, not often we hear about the tables we own, those created at our local churches, neighborhoods, community centers, barrios, stoops, cookouts, and abuelas houses. We know about the official ones, often dominated by the men. But then, there are the “unofficial” tables, those sustained by our women and always in session while cooking together, drinking café con leche, and doing our hair. So, when I call for the creation of a longer table, I am not just challenging that expensive and elitist table owned by the gatekeepers of white USian Christianity. I am also challenging and encouraging minority communities to extend our tables, welcome the global church to them, and renounce the discourses that elevate whiteness as the standard for Christian holiness. So, no.

This is not just an essay for white Christians.

Hopefully, it is an essay for all of us.

Whiteness is a sociological construct, and it is at the core of what Dr. Christina Edmondson calls the mythology of race, which “assigns some a value of inferiority and others a heresy of the divine.”

Whiteness preaches in word and deed the presumed (g)od-given superiority of EuroAmerican aesthetics, theologies, cultures, and ways of life and thinking, locating everything and everyone in a spectrum that grants degrees of privilege based upon their proximity to the baptized idol of the white man. The mythology of race with its heresies of white supremacy and patriarchy (the belief that men are intrinsically superior to women) have become the cornerstone upon which many nations and institutions –including Christian ones- have been built.

And that is a heritage that shapes the way (re)conciliation initiatives and dialogues are designed and approached. Hence, I call for a decentering of whiteness. That is, to move away from ideas and practices that prioritize Euro-American cultures and their concerns, while moving towards a truly catholic approach, which is multi-sectorial, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-lingual, and inevitably intersectional (i. e. considers the intersections between socioeconomic class, gender, race/ethnicity, etc.).

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White-Centered Tables

result of majority culture people’s passivelearning. That is, the posture of repeatedly It is important to remind ourselves coming to the table without having invested that whiteness is not an abstraction. It any time and energy in doing any work, such is embodied in the words and deeds of as reading books, doing research (meaning individuals and entire communities. It shapes using actual Google instead of treating policies at national and local levels that minorities as Google), cultivating a historical directly affect the lives of millions of people. conscience from the underside of history, It is a life or death matter for entire people and consulting several trusted national and groups, and when Christian spaces center international news outlets and sources, it, they sacrifice the bodies of brothers and among other things. sisters in the altar of political parties, racism,

A second indicator of the centering and misogyny. When whiteness is centered of whiteness is what topics are and are in our (re)conciliation conversations, there not discussed, and who gets a seat at the are key indicators of its lordship over the table. It is no secret that (re)conciliation table. For instance, consider the expectation conversations in the U.S.A. mainland are often put on minorities to continually mostly structured around the white-black educate majority culture people on demand binary. A structure that is occasionally and at no cost but at the expense of the disrupted by organizers when that one their spiritual, mental, and physical health. white Latino is invited to speak on the A reality that for women of color has a apparently sole Latinx issue: immigration, higher cost in a society where misogyny or when Asian Americans make it to the guests list. And although this binary has a historical It is important to remind ourselves that reason of being, the need whiteness is not an abstraction. It is to move beyond it has embodied in the words and deeds of theological, historical, individuals and entire communities. It and sociological reasons. shapes policies at national and local levels For instance, historically, that directly affect the lives of millions this need emerges of people. It is a life or death matter for from remembering that entire people groups, and when Christian present day California, spaces center it, they sacrifice the bodies Texas, and the land in of brothers and sisters in the altar of between was originally political parties, racism, and misogyny.

Mexico.5 It originates from acknowledging and xenophobia are rampant. This dynamic the histories and presence of indigenous of positioning people of color in noncommunities. It arises from not forgetting respected teaching roles is the inevitable that in 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act

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Practical Ways to Decenter Whiteness & Build a Longer Table To confess the catholicity of the church is to also understand ourselves as members of a larger global family. This confession and understanding requires us to embody a certain kind of ecclesiology, missiology, and ethic. One that doesn’t allow us to sacrifice our brothers and sisters in the altar of racism, misogyny, and political parties. One that is in alignment with the kingdom of the God of life, and which reveals and destroys the heresies and idols we make for ourselves, including white and male supremacy.

5. https://www.history.com/topics/ mexican-american-war/treaty- of-guadalupe-hidalgo

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was passed by Congress, and that during World War II, Japanese internment camps were established. Sadly, rarely would you see a Native American, a Palestinian, or even a dark skin black Latin American present at the table. The reason for the latter might be a combination of historical forgetfulness or ignorance, and an intentional reductionism of the issues. The white-black binary leads our dialogues on justice to focus on just one aspect of the murderous history of this country. This results in the appeasing of the white conscience while avoiding to call individuals and communities to confess and repent for the whole empire of death unleashed on the land and all its residents. Hence, when whiteness is centered, there are no conversations about the doctrine of discovery; the legacy of boarding schools; femicide of indigenous and Latin American immigrant women; Afro-Latinidad and those who live at the intersection of being black, women, Hispanic, and undocumented; immigration as an international reality; and colorism, anti-blackness, and anti-indigenous sentiments within minority communities. The binary with its occasional Latinx guest doesn’t only center whiteness and perpetuate the exclusion of sisters and brothers from the tables, but it also renders our efforts at reconciliation infructuous. True (re)conciliation requires the decentering of whiteness and maleness as the epitome of Christian godliness. It is only then that a longer table will be authentically created, built upon the church’s confession of its catholicity – the acknowledgement that the church is universal and global.

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6. Comment addressed to the author on the fall semester of 2016 by a pastor and seminarian.

Towards a Catholic Theologizing The first thing we need to do is to identify the kind of theological discourses that govern our tables. For a long time, there have been misogynous and racist Christian narratives, baptized as orthodoxy, leading the way. That is the kind of “orthodoxy” that keeps women and minorities at a distance and make comments such as, “We (as in white Europeans and Americans) are the heirs of the Reformation.Your country hasn’t even been well evangelized.”6 That is the orthodoxy that deems our theologizing as “contextual” and treats us with suspicion. And that is the very orthodoxy that has even socialized us as minorities to regard Euro-American theology as superior and more biblical. Until our tables are characterized by the understanding that To confess the catholicity of the church “all cultures [are] capable is to also understand ourselves as of reflecting biblical faith” members of a larger global family.This and that women, especially confession and understanding requires us women of color, are not to embody a certain kind of ecclesiology, second-class theologians, missiology, and ethic: one that doesn’t we will not progress. allow us to sacrifice our brothers and

sisters in the altar of racism, misogyny, and political parties.

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For that reason, I believe embracing the catholicity of the church is the first step towards decentering whiteness and maleness from our (re)conciliation initiatives. It is the first step towards building a longer table where we are ultimately able to stand in solidarity with one another, especially as minorities.

But you might ask, “What are some practical ways in which we can embrace the catholicity of the church and decenter the idol of the white man from our (re)conciliation dialogue tables?”

Well, I am so glad you asked.

Centering Minorities: Adding Chairs Can someone explain to me how we are having (re)conciliation conversations without listening and learning from our Native American brothers and sisters at the table? How is it that the voices of Palestinian Christians are ignored? Why aren’t black Latin Americans being included in the conversation? Are we inviting immigrant churches into the dialogue? There is no true embrace of catholicity and no inclusive table without adding more chairs. And this is not an indictment solely to White USian Christianity. It is an indictment to the tables within our communities of color, which often neglect inter-minority community solidarity.

Centering Dialogues between and within Minority Communities Lastly, in order to decenter whiteness from our (re)conciliation dialogues, we need to start centering dialogues between and within minority communities. Too often these (re)conciliation initiatives revolve around Majority culture and their interests, at the expense of Christian people of color. Whiteness is not the center.

Hence, it is important that we start to have conversations about colorism, antiblackness, anti-indigenous sentiments, and embodied solidarity among minority communities. We need to welcome each other to the table and stand in solidarity with one another because we need one another.

Conclusion: The Decentering and Re-Centering Nature of the Gospel At this point, anyone could ask “But what about the gospel?” Well, the gospel is good news to whom? Good news for when? Good news for where? When the gospel is the gospel, it is good news –and bad news too- for everybody. When the gospel is the gospel, it is good news not only for life after death but also for life in this life. When the gospel is the gospel, there is a reconfiguration of the values we live by in society as fellow image bearers. There is a reversal, a decentering and rejection of ideas and practices that “half-affirm” the dignity of people based on racial constructs, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, etc. In The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), Mary sings about the God who “has scattered the proud because of the thoughts of their hearts;” the God who “has toppled the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly;” the God who has “satisfied

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Our (re)conciliation dialogue tables should be shaped by the eschatological vision of Revelation: all the nations gathering together at the table of the Lamb.

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the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.� There is a reversal, a decentering and a re-centering. The gospel liberates, dignifies, and challenges us as followers of Christ to embody the values of the Kingdom of God in the presence of the Anti-kingdom. Our (re)conciliation dialogue tables should be shaped by the eschatological vision of Revelation: all the nations gathering together at the table of the Lamb.

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On Being Asked to Give “The Women’s Perspective”

By Melody Schwarting

I have the eyes of a woman, The hands, the lips, the hair.

I speak a woman’s words About a woman’s thoughts.

I live a woman’s life, Wearing “Woman” as my hood.

I’m only one: One woman, voice, and mind.

I do not speak for womankind, For those whose hands are chapped with charity, Brows beaten by labor, Bodies stolen and tied, Arms strong in justice.

I am a woman, But I am not women.

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Melody Schwarting is currently completing an MA in Church History at TEDS. Her study focuses on women in the story of the Kingdom.

An avid reader, Melody loves poetry, history, religious literature, theology, cross-stitching, knitting, bird watching, and natural history.

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I will speak for myself, That others may do the same.

One day, may you hear us all: The choir of women, Half of all humanity.

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Racist

By Mo Williams

When I first felt the sting racism, it was rough. That white lady hit me deep, made the young man toughen up, cuz I wasn’t tough enough. See, I wasn’t used to getting my feathers ruffled up, so when she put that rage in me, boy, I was ready to knuckle up. See, I keep some knowledge tucked. Because I like my facts with no sugar on top. Tonight on Fox, you might see a man like me get put in a box with a white man calling the shots.

Just know, I don’t blame the fox for attacking the hen. I just connect the dots so you can see the bigger picture in the end. No more pretend, like we’ve always been friends while me and my kin spend time thinking about the position that we’re in. I still know that we can win, so I don’t cry like woe is me. These white people don’t even notice me unless I sing like Jodecy or perform

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this poetry. All eyes when I’m buying groceries, steady focusing like they got both degrees. When they see Maurese walking down the street, they call police like I’m a Tom that peeps. No more hide and seek because I’m standing in plain sight ready to receive my blessings.

Never stressing or guessing who I am because I was destined to rise above discrimination and keep pressing to spread the love of God until the day I’m permanently resting. Many lessons learned and bridges burned before I discovered my true purpose. The seat was getting hot like the furnace, which is why I resist being a burden because at the surface the waters are calm, but when I pulled back the curtain, I was certain that they were showing me love when I didn’t deserve it. Heart racing and I’m nervous as I kneel before the Most High. We can never be perfect, although most try. They said I would be dead or in jail but they both lies. So, I look into both eyes and tell that white man that we’ll see what God says when we both die. Help my brother out until we both rise. And I prayed for a breakthrough and God told me it’s show time. Does this brown skin make

you uncomfortable ma’am? Maybe I can wash it off. My white friend used to call me his nigga until I said knock it off. I used to hate cops and all, but I got a little respect because my momma used to beat my booty naked; I’m talking socks and all. And if I knew my pops at all, I would hope he’s proud of the man I am today. It wasn’t in my plan, but in his hands and whereI stand, is in his grace. So, as I walk along this earth with this melanin on my face, I pray for acceptance with no exceptions because sin doesn’t have a race.

Mo Williams is a spoken-word/ hip hop artist, and former Trinity student.

This poem won the Black Student Union’s MLK Jr. contest at Trinity International University in 2018.

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Torture

By Christian Meyer

Torture, Torture, Torture It is torture to me to see People of minorities and majority be Tortured by misconceptions Without exceptions.

Why don't we learn our lesson?

We should all be confessing That at times we allow these Dangerous conceptions to Teach us what we know About those we don't know.

Sometimes we forget That people are people.

That in order to know someone We must experience their culture,

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Not prey on it like a vulture.

We need to think Of King's dream by Uniting as a Team To make it a reality Of all being truly free.

Mutual understanding As a team is the key.

I may like being me, Yet sometimes it is Of more benefit to In the shoes of another be.

So, I can have empathy For those who deserve To be just as free as me.

When will the day come, When all can really say "Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last."

We must raise the mast And move forward from our past.

I long for that day to come, Regardless of the thoughts of some.

Jesus has already won, Thus, he is the stone on which To build King's dream Of a world where Instead of getting a scare From those we aren't fully aware They will be judged by The "content of their character" Not the color of their skin we refuse to see our sin And by it we destroy our kin This is the “Home of the brave,” But nothing is brave About treating someone like a slave.

Why don’t we act like we are saved?

And not be enslaved By thoughts of hate.

Of which we should berate Brothers and sisters in Christ

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Who are enticed By these sinful temptations Instead of His dispensations.

To truly be one nation We must erase This hate To set the pace For those to come.

We can no longer be numb to race Or succumb to those who hate.

The church should be a place For all to go, don't you know?

We have to start thinking with our dome And not like those of early Rome.

To him we owe the glory, He cares about each and every story.

Why don't we do likewise, So that we can move clockwise?

No person is illegal, no person is useless, no person is unloved.

Dr.King spoke of freedom, justice, and peace

In the Kingdom...

There should be freedom.

In this country...

There should be freedom.

There should be justice From us who succeed him.

There should be peace From us who succeed him.

We can bring these By being brimmed with love By seeing all as people By sailing the seas of culture here By giving a listening ear without fear By lending a helping hand By taking a stand for those we should seek to understand By standing up to muck that infects Change won't come by luck It will only come by having intentionality In this principality We must come back to reality.

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Hi, my name is Christian Meyer! I am from a small town near Springfield, IL and have lived at Trinity for two years now. I am a sophomore psychology major with the goal of becoming a therapist and creating a nonprofit counseling organization. I enjoy stories of all kinds; historical, fiction, nonfiction, and personal stories, especially in the form of comic books and TV shows.

My favorite thing to do is spend time with people of all kinds and get to know them better.

This poem won the Black Student Union’s MLK Jr. contest at Trinity International University in 2018.

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Torture, torture, torture.

It is torture to me.

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My Journey

By Harry A. Stackhouse

I am an African American, the youngest of twelve children, born 1945 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in a section called Little Africa, to two wonderful Christian parents, Andrew Stackhouse Sr. and Bessie Thomas.

My parents were wonderful examples of Christlikeness. They were kind, respectful, honest, loving people who encouraged their children to live according to the Beatitudes and the 10 Commandments. Loving one another was always central to the Stackhouse family. We could talk about anything, but not argue about anything.

The racial climate in Mississippi was strongly pro-Caucasian… a nice way of saying “slave owner mentality”, and strongly anti-African American, a nice way of saying “prejudice”, but in Clarksdale my parents were greatly respected amongst Caucasians.

Being the youngest of 12 children produced a gap of 21, 20, and 19 years between my three oldest brothers and me.

All three were drafted to fight in WWII. They were stationed in Europe and saw a better life. Upon their discharge, they moved to Waukegan to live with my aunt and uncle. Many African Americans were migrating to the North for a better life.

Once they had financially established themselves, two of my brothers bought a house and brought my remaining family to

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heard the term used in Clarksdale…I guess it was understood.

She gave this little 3rd or 4th grader a lesson on how to live a successful life.

Let’s interpret her statement: “You are a smart little boy” means “you can achieve as well as your white peers;” “you are colored” means “the deck is stacked against you but still achieve;” and lastly, “it never hurts to be nice “ means “although things are not fair, be nice or kind.” I have never forgotten that lesson and it has carried me through tough times in my adolescence and adult life.

Church was an important part of my family’s life. We attended Shiloh Baptist Church and participated in EVERYTHING the church did. We attended Sunday School, worship service, BTU (Baptist Training Union), Boy Scouts, youth choir, and Sunshine Band youth group. Although I was often in church or doing things that were church related, including teaching some Sunday school classes at age 12, I still had not given my life to the Lord.

I went from McAlister Grade School to Thomas Jefferson Junior High and from there to Waukegan Township High School. At Waukegan Township High, I experienced no overt prejudice among my classmates. I was an athlete and in the popular circles where I mingled with all races. I played football and wrestled. Our wrestling team was a close-knit group composed of 6 whites and 6 blacks. We were Illinois State Champions 2 of my 4 years. Our wrestling coach wanted our team to wrestle the best high schools in the country. Once, we wrestled against the Indiana High School State champions

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Waukegan. Buying a house in the North for African Americans was very difficult. It was Jim Crow undercover. The banks would lend an African American money for a car, but not for a mortgage. They didn’t want to “let those Negros become property owners,” because land ownership signified equality.

Despite earning more than almost any single white factory worker, my brothers could not get a loan. They had to have a cosigner, who was a well establish black police officer/property owner, to purchase 674 Kennard St, Waukegan, Illinois, my new home.

The demographics of my new neighborhood began to change about 10 years prior to my arrival. At that time, the neighborhood was primarily Eastern Europeans, but with the influx of African Americans and Hispanics, the Europeans moved to the west side and the far north side of Waukegan. My four siblings and I entered school in Waukegan School district 60. All four of us attended McAlister Grade School. The schools in Waukegan were still predominantly Caucasian. I made friends quickly with African Americans, Caucasians and Hispanics. These were exciting times... new life, new friends, new culture, new future.

I remember getting my report card in 3rd or 4th grade. I brought it home to show my mother. Looking at my report card she said while hugging me, “Man you are a smart little boy.You can be anything you want to be, but remember you are Colored and you will have to work harder than your little white friends to get the same things in life, but it never hurts to be nice.” This is the first time I can remember race being mentioned in my life. I never

in Bloomington. Reservations were made weeks before we arrived, but upon check-in, the hotel manager refused lodging to our black wrestlers. Our team was livid. Our coach found us housing at the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. Prejudice stared me in the face and I had to draw on the words my mother had shared with me many years before...” You are colored, but It never hurts to be nice.” She would say, “Never repay evil, with evil, because God doesn’t like “UGLY.” After graduation from high school, I went to college. I did not take college seriously, so my grades suffered, making me eligible for the Vietnam Draft.

During the 1960’s, race tension in the country was at a feverish pitch. There were race riots in Harlem, Watts, Detroit, Newark, Chicago, and even Waukegan. In the summer of 1965, Waukegan rioted. The Southside of Waukegan, my neighborhood, is where the riot took place. The police enforced a curfew on the Southside. I was returning from a weekend trip unaware of the riot and there were roadblocks at every major cross street. At the first roadblock, I was asked to get out of the car and to put my hands on the roof and to spread my legs. This would have been okay, but the search was done by an officer who had coached me in baseball. He acted as if he did not know me. I had to remember, I was “colored” and that trumped everything.

When time came to enter the Army, my mother called me to her side and said, “I worried about your brothers going to war, but I am not worried about you, for GOD has His hands on you.” This statement would be evident throughout my

military service. While in the Army in 1967, I was trained as a personnel management specialist, a 71H30. I did very well in the training and chose to serve in Germany. I was assigned to the 24th Infantry Division.

Once in Augsburg, I was to be assigned to work in personnel. A noncommissioned personnel officer, however, instead gave my position to an untrained white male. That officer gave me orders to be retrained as a frontline infantry soldier. I stared injustice in the face and had to draw on my mother’s wisdom “you will have to work harder…you are colored…it never hurts to be nice.” I could have chosen to be bitter, but I chose to be nice.

I wept as we traveled from Augsburg to Munich. Injustice had been served, but God had a plan. As I was being processed at B Company, the Squadron Commander arrived from a battlefield training exercise.

He happened to walk by as my processing officer said… “Oh! a 71H30.” The Lt. Colonel stopped and asked, “What is a 71H30?” The officer replied, “Sir, it is a Personnel Management Specialist”. The Colonel addressed me and said, “PFC what do you know about personnel?” I responded, “Everything sir.” He assigned me to a personnel NCO position. Three times I was placed on orders for Viet Nam and three times the orders were revoked. God had His hands on me. I ended up seeing the NCO who had ordered my reassignment regularly. He and I eventually became friends.

“It never hurts to be nice.”

After being discharged, I returned to Waukegan and entered college while working full time at a clothing store I

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appointment. The mayor heard my voice and invited me into his office. I told him that I was not going to fight him because he and I wanted the same thing…that which is best for Waukegan. He reached into his desk and gave me the keys to our current building.

We later bought the building from the City.

I have always believed that the Church of Jesus Christ should be unified, so I have dedicated my life to bringing the body of Christ together…across racial, gender, age, economic, and theological divides. My family life taught me well about unity. As I stated early in this article…the 12 children of our family could, “talk about anything, but we could argue about nothing.” We were compelled to treat everyone nicely even when in disagreement.

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bought with a partner. I met the lady who would eventually become my wife. We married and had our first child. She gave her life to the Lord and a year later I did as well. Once our journey in Christ began, things were never the same. Five years later, I responded to God’s call and was licensed in 1979 and ordained in 1981 as a minister of the Gospel. Deborah and I worked as youth pastors. We started a youth group at our church and God blessed that group to grow to 135 youth.

My wife and I, with the help of the Lord, founded The Sign of the Dove Church in our basement in 1989. The Lord was clearly present. When the founding 6 members gathered at my house for prayer and the choosing of a name, we sought God’s confirmation. We chose three possible names and told each person to pray. Each person returned convicted of the same name. A week later, God confirmed the name by having 2 white doves rest upon my TV antenna.

We took the Gospel to the streets of Waukegan, to the homeless and disenfranchised. We witnessed, fed the hungry, and wrote resumes for jobs.

Eventually, the city of Waukegan forced us off the streets, because we were ministering on a main thoroughfare for the affluent to bring their boats to the marina. Waukegan was embarrassed. Immediately, we called the church to pray. Some wanted to fight the city and others were undecided, but the Lord quickened my heart, “…It never hurts to be nice.” After an early prayer, I went to meet with Mayor of Waukegan. I arrived at the Mayor’s office without an

Mosaic Spotlight: Leslie Rogers

By Meron Araya

After graduation, Leslie went back to her home church in Chicago and is currently serving as the Children’s pastor ministering to 1st grade through 8th grade. Leslie is passionate about wholistic discipleship in children’s ministry. Her philosophy of Children’s ministry is church connected and community focused. As Children’s ministry pastor, she believes in discipling and serving not just the children in the Sunday school program but also the volunteers and the parents. She said that her favorite part of her ministry is just listening to her Sunday school kids, the volunteers, and the parents as they share their stories and what is important to them. She said, “until people tell you their stories, it is hard to minister to them.” She oversees about 38 volunteers every Sunday and on average about 140 children attend Sunday school service.

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Leslie came to faith as a child and rededicated her life to Christ in college.

She graduated with a BA in Biblical Studies in 2013 from Trinity International University. She also earned a Masters of Divinity degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Fall of 2017. When she came to Trinity as an undergrad, Leslie reminisced being embraced in a community of young believers who were living out their faith in community. She shared with me that her experience living inside the undergrad halls was particularly impactful and transformative. Throughout her time at Trinity, Leslie said that most of her journey has been about transforming head knowledge to heart knowledge. In her own words, “I pushed knowledge aside and focused on the experiential relationship with Christ.”

Full Interview Mosaic Bulletin interviewed Leslie Rogers as our spotlight guest. Leslie is a graduate of both Trinity International University undergrad in 2013 and more recently from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. To those who know her, Leslie is a kind-hearted servant, thought-provoking leader, and a resilient woman who is fully engaged both in her church and her community. She graciously has shared her time, her story, and her wisdom with the Mosaic Bulletin. We present the interview to you our readers as a treasured gift to the Trinity community.

We invite you to get to know Leslie through her warm and story-telling style of communication.

Mosaic Bulletin: Tell us about your faith journey.

Leslie Rogers: I grew up in the church. I think for church kids, there are multiple points of conversion. I had such a child-like faith and I knew God as a father. However, in high school, I felt like I was so sheltered, and I wanted to experience the world. So, I rebelled against God. By my senior year, God began to remove everyone from my life. It was kind of like me and him and I was recommitting to him before I went to college. I had no desire to go to college. At that time, Charlie Dates1, was the young adult pastor at my church and asked me to check out Trinity.

It was a rainy day and the campus did not look attractive to me. But this was the only school I got accepted to. I decided to come to Trinity. I had an amazing Resident Assistant (RA). I lived on a floor that was mostly seniors and juniors, and I was welcomed. I didn’t feel ostracized because I was this black girl coming in as a freshman. To see Christian community in action had a transformational impact on my life at college. It was one of the turning points for me. Because I’m a church girl, my faith journey has been about transforming head knowledge to heart experience. Because we know so much about God, we feel like we know God. Knowledge is great but I have been putting knowledge aside and seeking experiential relationship with Christ.

Mosaic Bulletin: What program did you do at Trinity?

Leslie Rogers: I did my BA in biblical studies and I graduated in 2013.

And then, I did my MDiv on the seminary side and graduated in the fall of 2017.

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at my home church in Chicago. We have a children’s church service once a week. My job is to pastor children, volunteers, and I partner with the children’s parents. I do know that I have always had a passion for discipleship. I’m constantly thinking of how children, volunteers, and parents can be discipled. If it’s not holistic, then it doesn’t work. I need all three to work together. It’s an African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child. I really believe that.

It’s a huge responsibility to be chosen by God to reach this generation. Just because we have challenges that we have never had before in the previous generations. For instance, technology and what it has done to human connection is something I think about all the time. I knew a time before cell phones. I didn’t get a cell phone until I was in 8th grade. Today, two year olds have iPads.

So, we have to realize the impact that has on teaching. I have to make sure that I’m constantly providing new stimuli and multiple different facets of learning. So, the traditional teaching model does not work.

My favorite part of my job is just listening, from a child to a volunteer, to a parent. I think one of the honors that I have in this position is that I get to know people’s stories. And for me, that is like gold. Until people share their stories with you, it’s hard to minister to them. And so I’m privileged and excited when I get to just sit and listen to people’s stories; a parent telling me how their child was born, their stresses, and their lives because it makes my ministry more relevant. I’m single; I don’t have children. So, I’m constantly thinking about what is a mother thinking about or even a single mother and how to minister to their needs.

On the roster, our ministry has 63 volunteers, and about 38 show up every Sunday. On average, about 140 kids attend our children’s service every week. And, there are hundreds of kids who attend service with their parents and don’t come to children’s service. We serve their needs.

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1. At the time of this publication, Pastor Charlie Dates is the Senior Pastor of Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago.

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Mosaic Bulletin: What line of ministry are you in now?

Leslie Rogers: I’m the children’s pastor, 1st to 8th grade,

Mosaic Bulletin: To the women at Trinity,can you share some insight or wisdom gleaned from your time in ministry about being a woman in ministry?

Leslie Rogers: I would encourage students to find a space of rest after graduation. As women, we are conditioned to handle a lot. We are also conditioned to put others first. We almost always put others first, whether it’s our families, or our ministries, or our studies. I would encourage young women in ministry to really think about what you need in this season after your graduation.

The reality is that seminary can burn you out. And, I didn’t know that. I didn’t hear anyone talk about burn out. When I graduated, I had a vision that I would just kick start into ministry, and I found out that it’s difficult to do that right after graduation. I would encourage women to do an honest assessment of where they are and what that looks like. It might be not necessarily starting into ministry immediately after seminary. It might be spending time with family. Try to find space within work that is more restorative and not carry on the exhaustion that comes with the MDiv or other studies.

Mosaic Bulletin: What was your experience like as a woman of color at Trinity?

Leslie Rogers: I have to divide that question between my experience as an undergrad student from my experience as a graduate seminary student, because they were two polar extremes. My experience as a woman of color undergrad was amazing. The diversity, the leadership, I felt that I was seen. I felt like I had a place there through the Multicultural Development Office. I came in having Watson Jones III2, who was the director of Multicultural Development Office, as a mentor and I was automatically connected to people of color through that office. So, it just made my experience so much easier. I wasn’t this black girl from the Southside Chicago by myself. I was with a group of people to do life with. We would always have meetings which were more like hang outs, which is community.

We would do lunch or dinner together. We needed that place in a predominantly white institution. I just remember it being a light time and really a great time. I remember feeling very seen and very appreciated by all of my professors.

And then at TEDS on the seminary side, it was so disorienting and so disrupting to me because I could not understand how the same campus could have two different cultures. TEDS was overwhelmingly white, from the classroom to the community life. It took me a while to find my place within TEDS. I think I found my place when I worked in the Multicultural Development Office. It

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Mosaic Bulletin: What resources would you recommend for students at Trinity not just to survive but also to thrive and flourish both in life and in ministry?

Leslie Rogers: I definitely recommend to take advantage of counseling services. The reality is that this is the time you actually have to deal with your stuff.You know...you have time to process what it means to be a woman in ministry. I think counseling is such a redemptive space.

I would also say to take advantage of the people on campus and staff in general, student life, admissions, the dining hall staff, and the professors. I really wish I would have met with more professors, and met with more women who are not always visible but they have worked for a while and have seen a lot of life. I think a lot of times we just stay in our own little circles. We have a goldmine of diversity at our fingertips. We have to take advantage of that and not just be comfortable in our circles. I would also say to intentionally think about what holistic care looks like to you. It’s going to be hard to try to do it after graduation.

Mosaic Bulletin: How did Trinity prepare you to do what you’re doing now?

Leslie Rogers: My training at Trinity has humbled me in entering into ministry. My most impactful time for training was outside of the classroom. It was the talks with the guests after their “official talks” were done. It was the conversations with friends, with professors, and with staff. It was doing life with people who have been exposed to so many different things. That helped develop my own character in training me for ministry. To me, character and theological training have to be intertwined.

There has to be an intertwinement of relationships and living out our convictions. I could only have that at Trinity because Trinity provides the network for that.

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2. At the time of this publication, Watson Jones III is the Senior Pastor of Compassion Baptist Church in Chicago.

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was energizing to me. I was also part of Mosaic and that was redemptive to me. I was also a Resident Assistant (RA) and served in Student Res Life. Being involved in different spaces helped me navigate the reality at TEDS.

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