Dear White Middle Class Christians...
Dear White Middle Class Christians,
I hate you and I hate everything about you. I've spent the last 3 months really frustrated by you. Maybe even angry at you. I am annoyed by the God you supposedly believe in - its not the God I know, the God who cares for all people. The God who sent His Son to walk among the broken and the sinners.
I feel like you just don't understand the privilege you actually sitting in. You talk about going out into the world and serving others, but you really just mean the people that are like you and people who would be willing and have the resources to contribute in your circles. You talk about brokenness and hardship and reference war and poverty in Africa, you don't understand that in the streets around you there are people faced with the same everyday. You talk about your own hardships as if something really awful has happened, but the reality of the situation is that you just had a bad day and need a nap because you are grumpy. You talk about community engagement as a church as some program which will attract people to your church building.
You talk about doing church differently and doing evangelism. But you use 'us' and 'them' when you speak of people outside of the church. And when 'they' come in you don't welcome them and talk with them more than a simple hello.
White middle classes Christians, I'm on the edge of really disliking you. I'm just so sick of you. I don't want to be with you.
But white middle classes Christians, do you know what I've come to realise?
I am one of you.
And my judgment of you isn't edifying to you.
It's not helping to build a bridge between the gap that exists between you and the marginalised.
My attitude isn't very Jesus like at all.
You see just recently I've come to realise that hating and being frustrated and angry at you isn't going to fix the problem. It isn't going to stop you from behaving the way you do. I feel a sense of angst or unsettling in relation to faith and ministry. But maybe my frustration and angry is just making me bitter and unhelpful.
My heart beats for people. God has given me that heart. I love hearing people's stories. I love sitting with people in struggles and in joy.
However I sit in this tension, because I love all people. I believe that people matter and because of that I try to act in a way which reflects that.
But.
There are some people in our society who don't have people to cheer them on, there are some people in society who don't know where to begin to look to find something to fill the spiritual hole in their life. There are people struggling with their mental health who find being alive a struggle everyday. And these are the people God has given me a soul stirring for. many of these people aren't your typical or 'acceptable' middle class people. They live life a little rough, they have experienced severe heartache and trauma.
It's just that when I pray for young people to know Jesus and be empowered, the people who come to my mind aren't the pastors kids and their Christian friends from their christian school. My mind turns to the students at my school. The ones who swear, kick, fight and basically have an assigned desk to them in detention. It's the young people who have been teaching themselves to survive since they were young, the ones who bail their parents out of trouble. The ones who haven't been to school in a while. The ones who have music passions because they express their pain in song and wanna share it with the world. The ones that look after the younger kids at the skate park by teaching them sick tricks and flips. It's the young people who have visible scars from the battles they have fought, physically and mentally. It's the young people who have attempted to end their life but for some reason are still here. It's those young people I think of when I think yes let's raise a generation of young people empowered to know Jesus.
The thing is white middle class Christians, some stuff has to change for these people to truly encounter Jesus.. We need to be more inclusive when the 'them' of this world step into our churches, more than a polite hello and a free coffee. We need to be willing to hear the stories of other people, and walk with people in their pain and in their joy, to build authentic and deep friendship. We need to be willing to embrace the messy and give it space to be expressed in our churches. And all that needs to be done not from a place of knowing all and being better but from a place of being equal. White middle class Christians, perhaps we need to change our expectations for what a good Christian looks like. Perhaps we need to change our perceptions on what it means to follow Jesus. Perhaps we need to be less judgmental and less expectant of perfection and more understanding of the realities around us. Perhaps we need to notice the culture we live in better.
I'm sorry white middle class Christians. I'm sorry for the hate. I'm sorry that my ideas and passion doesn't sit perfectly with what you want from me and I'm sorry that i may never sit in the pews of a church and be satisfied in faith and ministry. I'm sorry my heart is in places which might be beyond where you go and places beyond where the light shines. I'm kinda sorry if I've offended you - but not completely sorry, because sometimes things just need to be said.
White middle class Christians can I ask a few things from you? Can you please support me as I work out how to balance this tension of what i know theologically and where my heart stirs? Can you work with me in ministry as I go into these dark and broken places? Can you engage with all people if they come into your space no matter how difficult the conversation is to have? Can you be slower to judge the people I meet, and slower to criticize the effectiveness of the ministry I do with these people? Can you please stop assuming I have a certain theological view point or am a certain type of christian based on the people I interact with or the things I do?
White middle Class Christians, I don't need your approval, but I'd love your support. White middle class Christians, be courageous, make a stand, don't just follow the status quo. Try new things, experience culture and hear stories. live with eyes wide open. White middle class Christians, please pray. White middle class Christians, please talk to me and express your feelings with me. Please enter a discussion with me. But white middle class Christians please understand if I disagree.
Yours together in Christ,
Nicole.
A White middle Class Christian with a heart stirring for something more.
I hate you and I hate everything about you. I've spent the last 3 months really frustrated by you. Maybe even angry at you. I am annoyed by the God you supposedly believe in - its not the God I know, the God who cares for all people. The God who sent His Son to walk among the broken and the sinners.
I feel like you just don't understand the privilege you actually sitting in. You talk about going out into the world and serving others, but you really just mean the people that are like you and people who would be willing and have the resources to contribute in your circles. You talk about brokenness and hardship and reference war and poverty in Africa, you don't understand that in the streets around you there are people faced with the same everyday. You talk about your own hardships as if something really awful has happened, but the reality of the situation is that you just had a bad day and need a nap because you are grumpy. You talk about community engagement as a church as some program which will attract people to your church building.
You talk about doing church differently and doing evangelism. But you use 'us' and 'them' when you speak of people outside of the church. And when 'they' come in you don't welcome them and talk with them more than a simple hello.
White middle classes Christians, I'm on the edge of really disliking you. I'm just so sick of you. I don't want to be with you.
But white middle classes Christians, do you know what I've come to realise?
I am one of you.
And my judgment of you isn't edifying to you.
It's not helping to build a bridge between the gap that exists between you and the marginalised.
My attitude isn't very Jesus like at all.
You see just recently I've come to realise that hating and being frustrated and angry at you isn't going to fix the problem. It isn't going to stop you from behaving the way you do. I feel a sense of angst or unsettling in relation to faith and ministry. But maybe my frustration and angry is just making me bitter and unhelpful.
My heart beats for people. God has given me that heart. I love hearing people's stories. I love sitting with people in struggles and in joy.
However I sit in this tension, because I love all people. I believe that people matter and because of that I try to act in a way which reflects that.
But.
There are some people in our society who don't have people to cheer them on, there are some people in society who don't know where to begin to look to find something to fill the spiritual hole in their life. There are people struggling with their mental health who find being alive a struggle everyday. And these are the people God has given me a soul stirring for. many of these people aren't your typical or 'acceptable' middle class people. They live life a little rough, they have experienced severe heartache and trauma.
It's just that when I pray for young people to know Jesus and be empowered, the people who come to my mind aren't the pastors kids and their Christian friends from their christian school. My mind turns to the students at my school. The ones who swear, kick, fight and basically have an assigned desk to them in detention. It's the young people who have been teaching themselves to survive since they were young, the ones who bail their parents out of trouble. The ones who haven't been to school in a while. The ones who have music passions because they express their pain in song and wanna share it with the world. The ones that look after the younger kids at the skate park by teaching them sick tricks and flips. It's the young people who have visible scars from the battles they have fought, physically and mentally. It's the young people who have attempted to end their life but for some reason are still here. It's those young people I think of when I think yes let's raise a generation of young people empowered to know Jesus.
The thing is white middle class Christians, some stuff has to change for these people to truly encounter Jesus.. We need to be more inclusive when the 'them' of this world step into our churches, more than a polite hello and a free coffee. We need to be willing to hear the stories of other people, and walk with people in their pain and in their joy, to build authentic and deep friendship. We need to be willing to embrace the messy and give it space to be expressed in our churches. And all that needs to be done not from a place of knowing all and being better but from a place of being equal. White middle class Christians, perhaps we need to change our expectations for what a good Christian looks like. Perhaps we need to change our perceptions on what it means to follow Jesus. Perhaps we need to be less judgmental and less expectant of perfection and more understanding of the realities around us. Perhaps we need to notice the culture we live in better.
I'm sorry white middle class Christians. I'm sorry for the hate. I'm sorry that my ideas and passion doesn't sit perfectly with what you want from me and I'm sorry that i may never sit in the pews of a church and be satisfied in faith and ministry. I'm sorry my heart is in places which might be beyond where you go and places beyond where the light shines. I'm kinda sorry if I've offended you - but not completely sorry, because sometimes things just need to be said.
White middle class Christians can I ask a few things from you? Can you please support me as I work out how to balance this tension of what i know theologically and where my heart stirs? Can you work with me in ministry as I go into these dark and broken places? Can you engage with all people if they come into your space no matter how difficult the conversation is to have? Can you be slower to judge the people I meet, and slower to criticize the effectiveness of the ministry I do with these people? Can you please stop assuming I have a certain theological view point or am a certain type of christian based on the people I interact with or the things I do?
White middle Class Christians, I don't need your approval, but I'd love your support. White middle class Christians, be courageous, make a stand, don't just follow the status quo. Try new things, experience culture and hear stories. live with eyes wide open. White middle class Christians, please pray. White middle class Christians, please talk to me and express your feelings with me. Please enter a discussion with me. But white middle class Christians please understand if I disagree.
Yours together in Christ,
Nicole.
A White middle Class Christian with a heart stirring for something more.
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