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

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.

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

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 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/

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 diverse ways. As we shared reflections around the dinner table, I remember being appalled at the human capacity for evil and for the church’s capacity for complicity and/or silence. When our team pondered how Christians could not only allow such evil, but participate in it, Dr. 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 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!

4. Later held by the Dutch, and finally the British, before being owned by Ghana in 1957. 5. Example abound, but a few

will suffice: Cain’s mark, Curse of Ham, the Crusades, Papal Bulls 1452-1493, the idea of “limpieza de sangre” or “purity of blood,” European scholars’ categorization of races, Manifest Destiny, Social Darwinism. 6. The theological thrust

of previous footnote is still felt (and sometimes taught!), compounded by individualism, soul/body dualism, colorblindness, ahistoricism, intellectualized faith, and plausibility structures of the Enlightenment. economic interests are more powerful than God’s reconciling work on the cross of Christ. Tragically, the ecclesial practices and theology that contributed to and/or passively allowed racial violence, slavery, and segregation remain in many churches and seminaries today. 6 As a result, even with a gradually awakening conscience, many Christians find themselves ill-equipped for the work and witness toward biblical unity in diversity.

Toward the end of our trip, Dr. Tiénou asked our team, “If bad theology helped advance racial thinking, division, and violence, how might good theology challenge it?” In other words, while acknowledging social and cultural complexities, we also have a theological problem. How might we recover a biblical sense of the image of God, the nature of the church, and Spirit-led priorities for life on earth?

Perhaps it will begin with deep, sustained, corporate 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 King is not the president or any other earthly leader, but the Suffering Servant. The gospel of Jesus Christ informs

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 glory, now and forever! “If bad theology helped advance racial thinking, division, and violence, how might good theology challenge it?”

To learn more, please visit mosaicministries.org and mosaichouseministries.org

SHIN MAENG, TREE OF LIFE