“Diversity is not the end, it’s the means”: Follow-Up from 2018 Better Together Conference
It’s hard to believe that #VineyardBetterTogether2018 was just a couple of weeks ago! Nearly 400 people gathered in Evanston for the second Vineyard USA conference on race, diversity, and reconciliation. Geno Olison, conference organizer and pastor of South Suburban Vineyard in Chicago, set the tone for our time together, declaring the Kingdom truth that “diversity is not the end, it’s the means.” The means to expressing the hope of the Gospel breaking in today. One way this hope infects our communities through an authentic witness of striving for racial justice, ethnic reconciliation, and developing multi-ethnic churches.
Other memorable soundbites from plenary speakers include Dr. Gabriel Salguero, who spoke to the hearts of many in the room who have prayer, fought, and spoken up and spoken out for racial justice and multi-ethnic churches. He compared the Kingdom tension of hoping towards a different tomorrow while living within the brokenness of today: “when the people are in exile and the season is winter, God calls his people to DREAM BIG.”
Josh Williams, pastor of Elm City Vineyard helps us to remember that ultimately, our “wokeness” won’t get us out if this mess, the only way out is Jesus, and the path is forgiveness.
Our VJN pre-conference immersion gathered 40 Vineyard pastors and leaders from around the country to build new friendships and consider different ways local community organizations and leaders have encountered and addressed unconscious bias, racism, and systemic injustice in their local context.
VJN advisory member, Pastor Donnell Wyche, Ann Arbor Vineyard, shared how his church has gotten involved with eliminating racialized policing in their community.
Pastor Daniel Ruen, of Grace Lutheran Church in Evanston, shared why he’s gotten involved with the national Poor People’s Campaign, “We’re re-igniting Martin Luther King Jr.’s last campaign to end poverty, uniting across color lines.” He shared how learning from MLK’s work and the recent work of Rev. William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis have challenged him to make connections between systemic racism, systemic poverty, the war economy, and ecological devastation.
Christina Calderon, the new director of Evanston Vineyard’s Care Center, led the group in an envisioning tour of their new space, where they have set up everything from a clothing closet, ESL classes, temporary shelter and assistance for families experiencing homelessness, and immigrant “know your rights” workshops.
We ended our time with a trip down to Hyde Park Vineyard Church, where Brenda Myers-Powell, co-founder of the Dreamcather Foundation, brought it all home with her story of pain and redemption. Brenda grew up in the Southside of Chicago, where family members and neighbors systematically sexually abused her from the age of 4. This led her to embracing the idea that her best option for financial stability revolved around her selling her body, starting at the age of 14.
She talked about the next 25 years of her life, in “The Life,”as a war zone: getting beat up, shot at, stabbed multiple times. Brenda finally ran out of options and decided to cry out to God to help her the day she ended up in an emergency room because a customer threw her out of his moving car. The nurses and doctors joked about how she was “just a hooker”and didn’t deserve medical care. Her simple prayer was “God, no one else cares about me. Can youhelp?”For many women who have a story like Brenda, they want to start a NEW LIFE and never talk about the old, so they can just be normal. But Brenda realized that there wasn’t anyone who looked LIKE her, who had her kind of story, doing outreach to girls like here. Brenda chose to MOVE BACK to the very neighborhood she grew up in to intervene in the lives of girls who continue to be vulnerable in the same ways she was. “You can change too. You can heal too.”
“Five years ago, Brenda became the first woman in the state of Illinois to have her convictions for prostitution wiped from her record. It was after a new law was brought in, following lobbying from the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, a group that seeks to shift the criminal burden away from the victims of sexual trafficking. Women who have been tortured, manipulated and brainwashed should be treated as survivors, not criminals.” (Source: BBC Magazine)
Brenda shared her latest dream for her organization, the Dreamcatcher Foundation, to one day have its own office space and house where she can expand her ministry of hospitality: the ministry that tears down the wall between Us and Them, because in God’s house, in Brenda’s house, there’s only US.
So, what’s next? How do we bring this home to our churches, our families, and our neighbors?
RESOURCES
Dreamcatcher Documentary
You can watch the Showtime documentary about Brenda’s organization, directed by British documentary filmmaker Kim Longinotto.
VJN Workshops
VJN also offered two workshops: “Race 101” and “our Gentrified Gospel.” We’ve shared some of the resources from each, that you are welcome to use in a teaching, small group, or class!
Race 101: Is this your first conference on race and ethnicity? Feel like a newbie to the racial reconciliation conversation? We’ll define key terms, discuss a bit of U.S. history, and make space for questions and reflections.
Bio: Ramon Mayo is the student ministry coordinator for the South Suburban Vineyard Church. You can check out his blog ramonlmayo.com where he writes about faith, creativity, and diversity.
Cheryl Pittluck functioned as Pastor of Social Justice at Vineyard Anaheim until recently, when her husband, Lance, retired as Senior Pastor. She continues to participate in ministries relating to poverty and homelessness, immigration reform, children at risk and human trafficking.
nurturing reconciliation: key terms handout
Our Gentrified Gospel: Let’s talk about the intersection of faith, race and economics. What will ittake for our churches to be “decolonized”?
Bio: The Reverend Donnell Wyche currently serves as Senior Pastor and Head of Staff at the Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor where he has been on staff for 19 years. Passionate about the intersections of race, faith, politics, and technology, Pastor Donnell is the president of the board of the InterFaith Council for Peace and Justice (ICPJ) and has pursued issues of affordable, fair, and accessible housing as a board member of the Religious Action of Affordable Housing(RAAH).