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Dear Makers Church,
Over the past few months, we have witnessed one tragic event after another; these events have shaken our nation and our church to its core. The ongoing challenges of living through a global pandemic have been compounded by the unjust and tragic deaths of our black brothers and sisters at the hands of those sworn to protect us, and have newly awakened many to the longstanding inequity, injustice and systemic racism that exists in our country and communities. There are no words to adequately describe the personal and collective grief that we feel as a church and as a community. We must do better.
Makers Church has always believed in liberty and equality for all and that each and every person is created in the image of God and deserving of love. We see this as an essential cornerstone of the Gospel: “for Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all“ (2 Corinthians 5:14). This love of Christ and love for all compels us to look critically at the choices we have made at Makers Church. While we have always been a community that strives for diversity that truly reflects the kingdom of heaven, we recognize that we still have a long road ahead of us. We are committed to making progress and always moving forward.
Our mission is: to make on earth as it is in heaven. While we have not always lived out this value to its fullest extent, we have made significant steps in this direction most recently in our merge with North Park Baptist, a historically diverse church. This merge has allowed us to make changes in our Board, Elder team, and staff to include more folks of color. We have also invited a team of diverse congregants together to look closely at all layers of our church to help identify changes we can make to better live out our mission. We have always longed to be a diverse community and are more committed now than ever before to live this out at every level at Makers Church.
As a leadership team, we are dedicating our time to listening, learning, and educating ourselves, not only for our own growth and development but also to ensure that the structures and systems at Makers church reflect our commitment to diversity and racial healing. While the process of understanding our own privilege and biases, as well as inviting everyone to the table with us, is not a quick or easy one, we are committed to doing the hard work. This will be our primary focus for the Fall of 2020. We will be evaluating the current systems at Makers Church and restructuring where advised and needed. In addition to this restructuring, we are dedicating time to strategically reimagine what the future of Makers Church would look like in order to better reflect our mission. We invite you to join us on this journey.
We have provided additional resources to support further education and awareness of this movement. Please visit our website and Instagram page to review the various resources available. We are humbled and honored to lead this church into what we believe will be one of the most powerful and culturally shifting moments in our history. On behalf of the elders, board of directors and ministry team leaders at Makers Church, we want to thank you for trusting us to lead you in this work, as we diligently seek to follow the lead of Jesus by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. We look forward to making important, meaningful and transformational progress with all of you.
Sincerely,
Makers Church Pastoral Team
[/vc_column_text][vc_separator css=”.vc_custom_1596842164178{padding-top: 24px !important;padding-bottom: 24px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1596842179687{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Additionally…We’d love to hear from you on how you’re growing in this area. Please tell us by participating in this survey. It will help our team to navigate our church more effectively. By providing your insight, perspectives, questions and concerns on race, justice and related topics, we’ll be better equipped to live out this mission together.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”24px”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][mk_button dimension=”outline” size=”large” letter_spacing=”2″ url=”https://assessments.gloo.us/a/RGVwbG95bWVudENvbmZpZ3wxNzE4ODA4Mzc1NzE2NzQzMTIx/details” target=”_blank” align=”center”]TAKE FAITH & RACE SURVEY[/mk_button][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]