Conversing and Converging

By Allen Allnoch
Communications Director,
Christ Community Church
 
“Never discuss religion or politics in polite company,” goes the old saying. Whoever came up with that maxim could have added race to the list of taboos. All three topics are fertile ground for harsh words and hurt feelings.
 
But facing, rather than ignoring, the difficult issues can result in much good. Such was the case at Christ Community Church, where a small but diverse group of members had the courage to launch an extended discussion about race relations.
 
Indeed, there were painful moments. But those conversations ultimately produced deeper, richer relationships, as well as the groundwork for Converge 2:14, an event that promises to impact not just one church body, but also the city and region that surround it.
 
Throughout its nearly 20-year history, one of CCC’s core values has been “Unity in Diversity.” Lead Pastor Keith Cowart and Executive Pastor Derrick Shields have preached sermon series on racial unity, and Shields, on several occasions, has led a class called “In Loving Color.”
 
One of those occasions was in fall of 2014, with the class reading and discussing a book edited by the younger Loritts, “Letters to a Birmingham Jail: A Response to the Words and Dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” ​

About 20 participants had “some great conversations, and some hard conversations,” Shields recalls. “As we continued to work through that book together, we got past the hard conversations and got to be good friends.”
 
During that process, the group learned of a conference on multi-ethnic churches, Kainos, that would take place in Memphis, Tennessee the following spring. Sixteen people from CCC attended and were encouraged by what they heard – so much that, Shields says, “we just couldn’t get away from the idea of creating something similar in Columbus. So the first call we made was to Bryan Loritts [who had spoken at Kainos], to see if he would even be able to come, and he said yes. We started contacting other speakers and they said yes, and it’s just continued on from there.”
 
Just as Converge 2:14 was born out of a series of conversations within CCC, Shields hopes it generates further dialogue on a larger scale.
 
“We want to get people talking to one another,” he says, “to get some practical ideas on how we, His church, can start to remove this dividing wall of hostility and minister to our communities.
 
“Since the Free Methodist Church is growing and making some headway in the South, I think this conference is timely for our denomination as well,” Shields adds. “The Free Methodist Church was born out of a belief that slavery wasn’t right, so it’s in our heritage as Free Methodists, this whole social issue of racial equality and unity.”