How can I respectfully step into the racial dialogue? | Shades of Red

An invitation to step into the difficult conversations with humility and boldness

Episode 141 - Stephanie is joined by 3 friends to explore a cross-cultural conversation around racial dialogue. Around a cup of virtual coffee, Angel, Beth, Lindsay and Stephanie answer some key questions and invite YOU to step up to initiate your own conversations towards racial reconciliation:

- What has been your personal experience, or a meaningful encounter, with the idea of racial difference?

- What does it take for conversations about differences to even be possible or be considered?

- What is your reaction to how you are seeing the church in general handle this conversation? How about the idea of hoping the system can change?

- If the church and the system are not stepping up to the task, then it is even more obvious that it is our role, on a personal level, to role-model these conversations. So, how do we develop trust and safety to create the context for them to happen?

We hope this conversation will invite church-going believers to engage meaningfully with others who are different from them. We want to communicate that creating an atmosphere and foundation of trust is necessary for any meaningful conversation to start happening, and then for ever-deeper conversations to keep happening.

This episode is a joint gift by the Gospel Spice team as a whole. It is an integral element of our Shades of Red series because we hope this conversation is an example of mature conversation between deep friends. We hope to stress that it is not the starting point of a relationship, nor the listener’s goal as a starting point. It is more like an end goal to keep in sight: the goal to get to a place where you too can have those conversations, and feel ok if they still feel awkward. Because they will!

Communication is a dance that helps us find out how far you can take the conversation. Some key tips from this episode:

-        A commitment to racial dialogue is a series of small steps, a long obedience in the same direction.

-        Gauge the relationship at every step to decide if it is time to take it deeper, or best to let it cruise a bit.

-      As with dancing, we want to be ok to say you stepped on my toes, be ok to acknowledge and apologize, be ok to keep dancing and creating beauty together, even of not perfectly.

-        The importance of the music when you dance: being in tune together

Jesus role-models hard conversations and sets the tone for us: He is singing reconciliation over us, and invites us to dance to His music. How will YOU respond to His calling today?