A Letter to CrossView Church & the Snohomish Community:
As followers of Jesus, we cannot avoid the difficult realities of our society. In fact, we are called to do the opposite. In a book called “Gentle and Lowly,” the author writes,
“The cumulative testimony of the four gospels is that when Jesus Christ sees the fallenness of the world around him, his deepest impulse, his most natural instinct is to move toward that sin and suffering not away from it.
As followers of Jesus, we cannot avoid asking hard questions that reveal to us the brokenness of our world and our worldview. Perspective matters. We must have the courage to reflect and ask, “am I truly reflecting the heart of Jesus in how I think and act.” We must be honest with ourselves when we fail at representing the heart of God - we all do at some point in our life.
Racism exists in our world and our country. This reality should break our hearts. We grieve with our black sisters and brothers and we stand with them. Racism represents an egregious affront to the dignity and worth of all persons. The murder of George Floyd has, again, lit a spark in our country that shines a light on the fact that this evil exists on a deep level. Racial oppression in all its forms continues to cause significant harm throughout the world, distorting the dignity of persons and God’s love for all people. Racism also distorts God’s intention for the nature of unity within His church (Galatians 3:26-28). This, too, should break our hearts.
The followers of Jesus are called to radical love that breaks down barriers of any kind and leads to the thriving of human dignity through that LOVE. We need continued change. Transformation starts with a willingness to change our perspective. Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil says that “We tend to stay in our own silos unless something shakes us out of them.” It seems clear from the events of the past weeks that we are in a season of being shaken out of our silos.
Often changing our perspective starts with recognizing where we went wrong. What we do when we recognize where we went wrong is repent, listen, learn, and lean into reconciliation and the hope offered in Jesus. We must take action.
Here is what we commit to at CrossView Church:
We commit to lament and repent for the ways that we have been complicit in or failed to recognize acts of racial oppression.
We commit to an attitude of humility, self-examination, and learning, recognizing the ease with which our own limitations can make us blind to the experiences and interests of others.
We commit to seek, identify, confess and redeem thoughts, attitudes, or behaviors that manifest discrimination against any persons on the basis of race, ethnicity, or any other distinction between social groups that we create or enforce.
We commit ourselves to model the racial redemption and reconciliation we hope to see in the world, proclaiming the transformative victory in Jesus to places of brokenness, looking forward to the day when all people gather before the throne of God (2019 Book of Discipline Free Methodist Church USA ¶3221.B).
Join us in the coming weeks as we create space for prayer, learning, and discussion as we take action to be changed and to help change the community to which we are called. We encourage you to watch this clip from Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil.
Blessings,
Pastor Kyle