Facebook Publication Date: 12/5/22 10:12 AM
Lace on Race
Lace on Faith
I absolutely love that I am an amalgam of many different denominations.
The denomination to which I am humbly proud to be confirmed is Vista La Mesa Christian Church , part of the Disciples of Christ denomination, which is part of the Restorationist movement.
We have strong ties to the United Church of Christ, which is the video you see here, and I am also back in communion and communication with Mennonite Church USA, with whom I am studying and discerning for possible licensure.
I tell you all of this so that you can hopefully appreciate the faces you will see in this video.
I absolutely celebrate this video (the song is *everything*), I see myself in this video so deeply.
As confessions are uttered, as bread is broken and chalice is lifted.
I also see the reason why I have found myself in and around these particular denominations.
People have asked me why. And I have often wondered about it myself.
Why have I been called, and I do feel that I *have* been called, to denominations that were founded by dominant culture and are still largely populated by them, although in all three denominations there has been a concerted effort to invite and include people of color, not only in the pews, although that is vital, but also in pulpits and in decision making positions within the structures of the organizations themselves.
And yes, that is a very very big deal.
It is also a tricky deal.
As you will note in this video, you will see a preponderance of people of color. And I’m going to sound nitpicky when I say that while this is a loving misrepresentation of the denomination, it is indeed misrepresentation.
I absolutely understand that churches want to write the wrongs of their forebears, and want to present to the world a face that mirrors the world. (I talked about this a lot with people in the church of yet another historically white denomination where I visited this past weekend.)
But this needs to come with yet another confession. That what they are showing is *aspirational* rather than actual.
This is true for many reasons; not least because it implies, or even outright asserts, that the work of reconciliation and restoration, (and as a Disciple I am using that word–restoration– with intention), that the work of reconciliation, restoration, and ultimate renewal is pretty much already done.
Welp.
It is.
Sometimes.
In some congregations.
Definitely for the most part at the top, but by no means is it universal.
And even if it was, it does not always trickle down to parish pulpits and the people in the pews who take their instruction and their leadership from them.
This is incredibly important. This must be acknowledged.
What is also important to note is that we are talking about, today, about three denominations that some have derisively called dying denominations; in that their numbers have decreased, some precipitously, in the last 50 years.
Those that base legitimacy, efficacy, and effectiveness on how many thousands of people you can cram into a converted supermarket feel that they’ve hit a nerve and drawn some blood when they talk about that.
I have to disagree.
I have often wondered sometimes what I can say to 10,000 of you, and sometimes it is actually a comfort when I know that at any given moment I’m *not* talking to 10,000 of you.
I still can imagine that it’s a bunch of you sitting here in my living room and overflowing from the dining area and peeking in from the kitchen and front porch.
And that’s sometimes more than enough for me. What can I say to 10,000 people that would be both challenging and comforting; both exhorting and encouraging?
And so far as the work that is given to us to proclaim: it holds validity no matter how many cars, virtual or actual, are in concrete parking lots, no matter if one can use one’s unenhanced voice to speak what is on one’s heart, or if one needs a sound system worthy of the Grammys, none of this should matter.
In fact, the smaller the number sometimes the harder the message. The more specific the message. The more pointed. The more personal.
Those of us who are in social justice work will walk the same line that many clergy do; and we feel it hard.
I’ll speak to myself. I don’t want to lose any of you! But I can’t worship at the altar of numbers–or of fragile sensibilities.
Whether I’m talking to a five figure number, or two figure number, I hope that what I’m saying is both personalized and uncompromising.
But that can sound arrogant, yes?
It can sound arrogant when coming out of my mouth, and it can also sound arrogant, or clueless, or dismissive, coming from leaders of smaller denominations that seem, on their faces, to be declining.
Let’s pivot again to racial justice work. The numbers have indeed shrunk for people who say that they are committed to a racial justice ethic, but only if you look in the usual places with the usual suspects being queried by the usual pollsters.
Make no mistake, 5 years in, it could be argued that I myself and Lace on Race as a whole are one of those usual spaces.
But I would disagree.
We are now an *established* space, to be sure, and I hope to be serving you all for years to come, but are we ‘usual’?
The three denominations that I mentioned above, United Church of christ, Disciples of Christ, and Mennonite Church USA: none of them necessarily wanted to break off and disavow or disassociate from a larger body; rather they exist because they had something to say that nobody at the time was saying in the way that it needed to be said.
No one was modeling faith and practice in a way that they felt needed to be modeled and encouraged.
One could say the same about the so-called Jesus movement that started in the ’60s and arguably is around, in a very morphed and distorted kind of way, in the large independent megachurches.
And it could be argued that where one has seen decline in these congregations that refuse to dilute, that those numbers have moved toward places that on the face of it may *seem* uncompromising but but that often are saying the same things from 150 years ago but this time with electric guitar.
To be able to open one’s mind up to a greater vision, while holding to traditions and customs that are encompassing, but also enfolding of new traditions and customs is a challenge that not everyone can do.
If a pastor preaches uncompromising love with no caveats or carve outs, they’re going to touch some nerves and people who have long held that those caveats and carve outs were not anathema to their belief but rather central to it will soon find another concrete slab on which to park.
Pivoting back to 2020 on the rise of the so-called black spring (a restorationist movement in and of itself), one could argue that this is painfully similar to what we have now where people who now know all of the catch phrases but don’t want the communion or accountability or reliable praxis often find themselves.
This means that our metaphorical parking lot for the people who have dedicated their lives to continuing the movement is indeed smaller.
And, I would argue, that might be a good thing. Less concrete. More room for orchards.
A lot can be blamed on the times we live in. We were doing virtual before virtual was cool.
The black spring itself could only have happened to the extent that it did within virtual spaces affirming and sometimes even eclipsing work done on the ground.
So as I think about the aspirational rather than the actual, and as I think about the conundrum of the pointed message, I want to come to you clear-eyed.
I will say things you will not like and you may very well choose to park your Prius elsewhere, but the numbers that I hit regardless of the metric– be it eyeballs or financial–will not affect the message that I am called to give and the life that I am called to live out.
But what I don’t want is are misleading optics, no matter how benevolent or well-intentioned.
I want you.
But I want you based on truth.
To be ready to hear truth, and to be ready to live truth out.
Otherwise all this just becomes a short-lived hobby.
Let’s keep walking.
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