opening plenary

Summary of tonight's opening at ccda:

1. Started with the Cincinnati youth symphany orchestra. Beautiful.

2. Barbara Williams-Skinner, chairperson of the ccda Board, talked about how we are standing between the old and new. She used Deuteronomy 1:6 where Moses is speaking to Joshua and passing on the baton of leadership. She talked about how the church of old is steeped in a culture of racial alienation and there's a new generation that wants to break free. God is calling us as a whole people, collectively as His followers to:


-Break camp. We've settled into white spaces and black spaces and Latino spaces, rich and poor spaces...we're separate and disconnected from one another. We do not know one another. We do not understand one another. We need to break camp. Get up and move from this separation and begin to spend time together. Begin to know one another. Own our fear and move toward freedom. We have to mentor people in freedom not in fear. We have to model the way.

- Advance into hill country. Move up. Not even so much physically as mentally. We have to pray like never before. This land cannot be possessed by our own power. It will be God's power. We have to change our language about one another. If our associations and relationships don't look like a piece of the Kingdom of God, then we should move ourselves until they do.

- Possess the land. The land of racism and poverty will be possessed by the Kingdom when we surrender and come broken-hearted and humbled to the foot of the cross to be reconciled first to God and then to one another.

3. John Perkins had a few words of vision for us about the Church not accomodating to apartheid but being a living testimony of the Gospel of reconciliation.

4. Soong Chan-Rah gave a compelling talk about our changing world. How by 2023, the majority of children in America will be non-white. By 2042, the majority of Americans will be non-white. And the American Church is changing as well. The growing segments in Christianity in America are multi-ethnic and non-white churches . By 2050, about 85% of the Christian world will be a non-white population. His question was "why are we then captive to white, western culture's paradigm of Christianity?"

Chan-Rah used Haggai text to talk about the 3 R's of Christian Community Development:

Relocation- He spoke about how relocation is less about the white wealthy moving into the inner city to help change the community and more about how it is the willingness to give up power and privilege to learn from the poor. That God's power most often manifests in weakness and struggle.

Reconciliation- God's power, God's Spirit is essential for reconciliation. It's about God's covenant of Grace, not about earning points for God or works.

Redistribution- Haggai 2:9 and 2:6. "This temple will be greater than the glory of the former house." At the current time in Haggai, the beautiful temple that Solomon had built was a pile of rubble. But 2:6 talks about "the desired one of nations" coming...Jesus... which will make this pile of rubble even more glorious than before. We are that pile of rubble. And there is nothing more glorious than the moment Jesus steps in. What should we be redistributing? We should be sharing and spreading the presence of Jesus in our lives.

The night closed with a joyful, passionate worship set by a gospel choir from this area. And then several folks went to an ice cream social down the block. I can hear music from it and imagine lots of folks networking. This is the kind of conference that you can almost never sleep at...always something going. I, however, am getting old and need to find a little sleep tonight. I want to be up early to run with Noel Castellanos, the ceo of ccda, and other interested runners. I can go because I am a runner now! :)