When it comes to loving others, we sometimes have to stretch ourselves to honor the commands that Jesus has about love. How can I love someone who is so different from me, we might ask ourselves? How can I love someone who I don’t understand and who doesn’t understand me? In our daily lives, it’s natural for us to make bonds with people who are like us, who have our same values, who believe like us. It can be tempting to live in that bubble and *think* that we are practicing love. But Jesus calls us to do more. He asks that “all we do be done in love.” If we can remember that before each conversation we have, before each decision we make in regards to others, as we measure the words and actions that we speak and do each day, we’ll find that a life lived in love will bring healing, reconciliation and benefits to us that we could have never imagined. Our guests this week are deliberate about taking a posture of love toward what they do in the world. Tauren Wells is a musician, songwriter and speaker who encourages us to recognize God’s love in all that we do and say, and pastor and writers John Siebeling and Wayne Francis have purposefully made unconditional love a part of how they welcome people of all kinds into their churches, and now they’re building off of that to bring people together to have conversations about love, acceptance, and race.
Links, Products, and Resources Mentioned:
Past interview: Cynthia Garrett
Upcoming interview: Chris Janson and Kelly Janson
“Known”
God and Race: A Guide for Moving Beyond Black Fists and White Knuckles
Association of Related Churches—ARC
Black Fists, White Knuckles sermon
Interview Quotes:
“I love performing, I love having fun. And I don't think that the presence of God is a fun-free zone.” - Tauren Wells
“If we're really trying to make our churches diverse and multicultural, it's not just having people in the room that look like the culture we want. It's creating the pieces of fabric that make up those cultures and weaving them into the faith community that we're building.” - Tauren Wells
“The key to moving forward beyond some of the racial tension that we've seen is just super open-handed, open-hearted conversations. And when you have an open heart and you have an open hand, you sit down with somebody that's different from you and you get the opportunity to see and hear their heart and their perspective. You grow and you learn.” - John Siebeling
“We're not just trying to empower white people to have these conversations. We're empowering black people, people of color, how to have these conversations in a way that's life giving. And it blends us, moves us closer together toward the vision that we see in scripture, which is one nation, one people, one tribe.” - Wayne Francis
“We have to keep the condition of the soul right so that even when we're angry, we can communicate in ways that don't blow everything up…canceling people is not the way that we move the conversation forward.” - Wayne Francis
“The Bible says, ‘Pray without ceasing.’ That means somehow, even in the midst of work and working out and cooking and doing all that we're doing, we are communing with God.” - John Siebeling
“Diversity isn't reserved for heaven.” - Wayne Francis
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Enjoy watching these additional videos from Jesus Calling YouTube channel:
Audio Playlist: https://bit.ly/2PrbuwH
Video Playlist: https://bit.ly/2PsmEkJ
What’s Good? Playlist: https://bit.ly/3i7VUlZ
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