Sharing on Race (2)
Second part of two-part sermon by Harold Vines and Dawn Longernecker. Click here for first part.
February 10, 2013
Shared sermon with Dawn Longenecker
Thank you for this invitation to join you today. I’m feeling a lot of joy being here, among you. When I first came to the Church of the Saviour community I was a broken person, with a lot of pain I was carrying from my past experiences with Racism. I took classes at the Servant Leadership School and was encouraged by individuals here to consider what my ‘call’ was. At first I had a hard time understanding what that even meant. As I prayed about it and talked with people, I realized my call was to work on the issue of Racism that has affected me so strongly in my life. This has been my focus these many years, here within this church community.
I learned here that church doesn’t just have to meet on Sunday morning and can be held in a coffee shop! You have gatherings on weeknights as well. I’ve been a member of Friends of Jesus Church since arriving here, most recently becoming a Covenant Member and now am Co-Pastor at this church. I shared my spiritual autobiography with them during this process recently. This was difficult to do, as I wrote about the pains and struggles in my life. Here within the Church of the Saviour, I’ve faced other challenges as well. There have been times when I haven’t felt comfortable in this community. But I was sustained by some of you here individually (I won’t mention names; you know who you are), and by my spiritual support group. In our group, we have a discipline of no cross talk. I shared my struggles and pain and people listened. This was what I needed. It helped me face the pain and move on.