Our nation has been experiencing great unrest in the last few weeks that’s been precipitated by the unjust killing of African-Americans by police officers. This has resulted in a large number of peaceful protests and also, in certain places, riots and looting. While we pray for an immediate end to violence and destruction of property, we don’t want to slip back into a comfortable complacency once order seems to be restored.  As is true of many other predominately white evangelical churches, we’ve been deeply moved and disturbed by the persistence of racial injustice, by the deep-seated and widespread consequences of racialization that are still experienced by so many in our society, and by our own lack of awareness of the very real and ongoing suffering of fellow Americans and Christians. We’ve been asking, “What can we do?” And the answer we’re hearing from many is that we first need to truly understand the nature of the problem. So we’re beginning here. As an EFCA statement from 2017 calls us to do, we’re taking a humble posture of listening. We seek to initiate with a spirit of humility and to listen with a posture of love. [The Evangelical Free Church of America is the church association to which our congregation belongs.]

Our Sunday Forum is where we study and discuss a variety of topics and issues that are relevant to us as followers of Jesus. Beginning August 2, we’ll begin a 10-week series utilizing the book Be the Bridge: Pursuing God’s Heart for Racial Reconciliation by Latasha Morrison. We will humbly and lovingly listen to our sister, and then discuss together how we should respond in a way that is Christ-like, biblically-informed and that manifests kingdom values and principles. We’ll fairly discuss any views, but we won’t allow anyone to become aggressively argumentative or adversarial. We’ll discuss these issues frankly, gently and respectfully as spiritually mature brothers and sisters in Christ.

Be the Bridge will begin August 2, and will meet online Sundays at 10 am. We’ll be reading one chapter each week, so you’ll need to purchase a copy of Be the Bridge by Latasha Morrison. The book is available for iBooks, Kindle or as an audiobook, and it can be purchased in paperback from Amazon or Christianbook. If you can’t afford to purchase the book, please let us know. If you’d like to be part of our Be the Bridge group, you’ll need to contact us for the online meeting information. You can reach us at info@orchardefc.org. Please join us as we explore how we can be part of pursuing real change that is long overdue and desperately needed.