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| By Rev. Dr. Tom Salsgiver Director of Connectional Ministries |
I’m writing this article after a most interesting day. The day was interesting because it gave me a glimpse into exactly what Dr. Willis Johnson talked about. Dr. Johnson was the leader for the Clergy Day Apart on September 11-12.
Dr. Johnson is a United Methodist pastor serving in Ferguson, Mo. He serves a predominately African American, intergenerational UM church plant. He also was the pastor in Ferguson in August 2014 when Michael J. Brown was shot. His ministry in those turbulent times helped Dr. Johnson to write a very important book, “Holding Up Your Corner: Talking about Race in Your Community.”
Willis spent the day Monday and Tuesday talking with pastors about how do we hold up our corner as we talk about race and confront the racism that exists in our churches and in our communities.
Willis was prophetic, was pastoral, and shared from his heart. And he pushed us to think about our communities.
I had to leave the event early because I had an appointment with an ophthalmologist who specializes in glaucoma. Yep, I’m now one of the thousands of people who must be treated for glaucoma – but that’s not really the interesting part of the day.
When I arrived for my appointment, I waited to be checked in. The woman at the registration desk was talking on the phone, speaking Spanish. When she was finished, she greeted me and checked me in. If I would have guessed, English was not her native language.
I was escorted to another waiting room, and when it was time to be seen, an African-American woman took me into the exam room and did my eye test and checked my pressure. She led me to another waiting room until the technician could give me my field of vision test.
While sitting in the waiting room, a man and woman were speaking to each other. They were not speaking English. In another part of the room was a little girl in a wheel chair, with oxygen to breath. Her caregiver was speaking quietly and comforting her.
Next to her there was a little girl using sign language to talk with her caregiver.
When it was time for my test, the technician was not Caucasian, and he had a heavy accent. As he explained the test, he took care to make sure that I knew how to work the machine and when to press the button, etc.
Here is the interesting part. I spent the morning with other colleagues talking about racism. The doctor’s office, employees, and waiting room was very multi-cultural, with different languages being heard. This office wasn’t in a big city – it was in central Pa.
How often have we said, “Oh, we only have people like us in our communities?” The reality is that in some places that may be true, but in the majority of our annual conference we are not all Caucasian.
We think our communities look just like our congregations, but in reality that isn’t really true. We think that just because there are no children, youth, and young people in our churches, they aren’t in our communities.
Just because there are no persons of differing ethnic and racial backgrounds than us in our congregations, they must not be in our community.
The reality is that is not true.
My interesting day proved that, at least in the doctor’s office, we are a diverse community.
The work that we are called to do is to change the make-up of our congregation so that we reflect our community. That’s what Willis Johnson talked about. That is what each of us must be about – changing the culture and the color of our churches so we look and sound like an Acts 2 church with different hues and different accents.
Blessings. Tom
