Developing a Philosophy of Ministry of Racial Reconciliation IVCF at UCLA as a Case Study Doug Schaupp and Tracey Shyr (Draft #2: 12/98) We have created three specific structures in order to make Racial Reconciliation an unavoidable priority in our chapter. Here is a quick overview: 1) Race Matters: About 80% of our students (1/3 of our chap.) gather together once a quarter for this all important "family time". Here our goal is to bring to the surface the under- lying tensions and frustrations that naturally occur in a multi-ethnic community. It is very scary to create such an open and honest forum because no one knows what will act- ually come to the surface. First, we break down into our 6 ethnic specific groups (black, Latino, Asian, White, Multi- Racial, and Middle Eastern) where we share honesty who we are feeling about being a part of a multi-ethnic community. Then we all come back together, and anything that was said in our ethnic specific time, we have to bring out into the open for each Race Matters. 2) Targeted Outreach: Obviously, we can't have Race Matters unless all kinds of students are in our chapter. This necessitates ethnic specific outreach. In our situation, we naturally draw Asian and White students, but Black and Latino students do not tend to feel comfortable with us unless we really go out of our way for them. Therefore, we have set aside 1/3 of our student leaders to focus on reaching out to Blake and Latino students. (Another 1/3 of our leaders focus on non-Christian outreach, and the last third focus on our "bread and butter" New Student Outreach which tends to draw church background students.) Without intentional targeted outreach, Racial Reconciliation is just a dream. 3) Ethnic Specific Events: Once or twice a quarter we hold events for Black students, Latino students, and Asian students. These times are for the students to grow in their ethnic identity and for them to have a sense of "home". These events help with bonding and a sense of encouragement. Our goal is to make InterVarsity the place on campus where people will want to come in order to hear the best input on what it means to be a person of their specific ethnic group. OUR PHILOSOPHY Upon reflection, we have identified six thresholds that our students go through on their process of growing in Racial Reconciliation. We have put these thresholds in order of how they tend to happen for people, but of course we also have some students who are exceptions to the rule. But even if they gain these values and experiences "out of order", it is essential to us that they get all six before they graduate, graduate, especially thresholds #4 and #6. Also, we find that we can be in different thresholds with different rela- tionships, depending upon the trust there. The bottom line is that although this is a very dynamic process, we have found these 6 categories to be very helpful in that they help us discern where our students are at personally and corporately. Then we can pastor them and train them effec- tively in each area that they need to grow in. Here are the 6 thresholds of Racial Reconciliation through which we hope to lead our students: I.) Closed and apathetic towards race issues II.) Awareness of racial tensions, and taking personal responsibility III.) Dealing with racial issues IV.) Committed to an intentional relationship where race is specifically part of the friendship V.) Sharing in another's pain and take a stand VI.) Grace/Freedom/Hope/Conviction I. CLOSED The Politically Correct Movement has shoved tolerance down our throats, and therefore Gen X tends to have a naive and apathetic stance toward racism. People in my (Tracy's) generation have grown up learning to call people by the appropriate titles. (I'm not Oriental, I'm Asian American) They have learned all the appropriate PC tolerant language and behaviors. The PC shield allows them to have an attitude about themselves that says: I'm not a KKK member, I don't burn crosses on people's lawns, I don't even make racists jokes. Those are the bad guys. I'm one of the good guys. I'm okay." This illusion of guiltlessness in race makes people ignore both racial issues and even people of different races while still feeling good about themselves. People that are in this Closed stage form friendships almost solely within their own ethnic group. The majority (about 80%) of frosh who join our chapter speak the PC jargon ("We should all be able to get along here at UCLA"), but are inwardly closed and apathetic to growing in cross-racial relationships. They just want to keep things safe and comfortable. In the past, we assumed that if we teach in our Large Group meeting Fall Quarter on Racial Reconciliation, the value will sink in and our students will start to reach out to people different than themselves. Unfortunately, we were sorely mistaken. When we teach on Racial Reconciliation, the frosh's pre-existing frustration with the PC agenda can often cause them to knee-jerk react against our calling them to love those different from themselves. We can no longer afford to naively assume that students will easily grow out of being closed to real Racial Reconciliation. II. AWARENESS How does someone go from being closed to gaining awareness of racial issues? There are several influences on our side. Since students are more naturally open to having their world- view challenged once they come to college, they are more open to coming to a new event like Race Matters and seeing that they have seen the world through a very narrow lens. Also, taking classes in ethnic studies departments can help people see the reality of the racial tension in America. But real people sharing real stories are more effective than books at snapping us out of our Apathy. Therefore, our Race Matters discussions are by far our single most effective ministry tool to ease students into awareness, Hearing people's stories makes us look at the world through a very different lens. Once they have had this kind of jolting experience, the student will begin to sense pain surrounding race either their own or that of others. The blinders they had when they were in the closed phase fall off. The shift from the first threshold to this one can be quite dramatic because one evening, one class, or one discussion can be the catalyst to bring them to awareness. They begin to feel the racial tension and it registers - usually for the first time in their lives. Race goes from an abstract concept that other people have problems with to something that impacts their own life. Multi- ethnicity becomes a desirable thing at this stage. They may even see being multi-ethnic as the being multi-ethnic as the panacea. Also, the student comes to realization that they actually are not guilt-free as they previously thought. It dawns on them "I'm not 100% clean in this" A profound paradigm shift occurs as they grapple. However, if we are not careful, many students can become struck at this stage. The PC agenda says that awareness is everything. In other words, if I can articulate the racial problems on campus and in our country, then I have reached the goal of sensitivity. It is a tragedy to let our stridence merely become aware of the dynamics. Articulation does not change any of the problems, and the Kingdom is not comprised of words. We have to be sure to help our students live out the power of love. III. DEALING The world is able to reach awareness (i.e. they have plenty of their own sensitivity seminars)., but in order to actually deal with racial issues, the Holy Spirit needs to come in and help move people beyond that. Those who have been hurt by the sins of racism need to bring those hurts to Jesus and let Him heal them. Also, in this threshold, everyone needs to come to terms with the fact that we all exercise preferential treatment toward some ethic groups and against others. We need to ask God to change us and root out our sin. The pro- cess of going from Awareness to Repentance and Healing is varied and messy. But this is where the PC approach behind. When students are at the place where they are dealing, they learn to respond to the issues that were raised in the aware- ness phase. So, they can see their own pain surrounding race and not only know that it's there but also know how to move ahead and embrace healing. They can see their own ethnic biases and prejudices but then they learn how to move through them and change. If awareness brings the problems to the surface, dealing allows God room to bring in solutions as well. How do we help students deal? 1) Modeling: We deal with our own racial junk ourselves in front of them. It is essential that we share the stories how we have been hurt by other people's racism and then how we have forgiven them and sought to love them. Also, it is very powerful when we tell the stories of how we have avoided people of other ethnicities or thought biased things about them. Again, we show them what repentance looks like. If we staff are going to lead the students ahead in the Kingdom, we must take Jesus' medicine first. 2) The Power of the cross: We hold up the cross as much as we can because this is what the world lacks. Only under the grace of the cross can we honesty look at our lives, our pain and our mistakes and not be crushed. 3) Race Matters" Our structure is geared around this value of not merely discussion of racial issues, but actually taking the next step together of dealing. When someone sins against another in the event, we pause and all work toward resolution together. We dig deeper to look at the roots of sin in our own hearts. We stop blaming and we take respon- sibility for our own problems. God is faithful because He always leads the group to this stage. 4) Summer Missions/Compassion for the Poor: Most of the students that join our fellowship have come from environments that permit and even encourage them to ignore race as a factor. As you know, going on a summer mission and being in an environment where race is inescapable is a great tool to help people deal with race as they live in a community were one cannot help but see its effects everyday. Also, having this kind of experience opens up the students' hearts to be more receptive to dealing because they have invested them- selves in people who think about it all the time. IV. INTENTIONAL RELATIONSHIP This is by far the most difficult threshold for us to help our students to cross. People can get to a point where they are dealing but it becomes much harder to translate that to an intentional friendship that crosses ethnic barriers. This makes sense because it is always easier to be faithful in abstraction than in concrete reality. Real, honest, trusting relationships are the most concrete way to confront our racism and learn how to replace our fears and biases with love. Racial Reconciliation needs to go from an unobtainable ideal to very achievable reality. (For example, for us pray- ing is not only a command in scripture but something we help our students into step by step. Similarly, we need to do the same for our students with the Matt. 5:46-48 command to love those who are ethnically different from us.) We are very indebted to two pairs of leaders who have paved the way for us in our understanding of the centrality of committed friendships in Racial Reconciliation. (Glen Kehrein and Pastor Raleigh Washington in Breaking Down Walls, and Chris Rice and the late Spencer Perkiness in More Than Equals) We rely heavily on Breaking Down Walls for the components that we use in training our students in the practical of what goes into trusting relationships, which include commitment, intentionality, sincerity, sensitivity, interdependence, sacrifice, and empowerment. How do we help students make that difficult but all-important jump? * First, they need to realize that this sort of relationship is not only attainable but needful. Once they realize that they actually need this, they can enter into this threshold. * Second, modeling helps motivate and move people along. seeing other people in deep, committed friendships where race is an intentional part gives students a glimpse of not only the how's but the why's. When people realize it is about being in an intentional relationship and they see it actually lived out, they see the tremendous hope and beauty of a God-given friendship that breaks down racism and racial isolation. * Third, students need to make a very conscious and inten- tional decision to enter into and maintain such a relation- ship. Sometimes people can make this decision on their own. However, more often our students need to be encouraged, pastored and even exhorted into it. The reluctant 80% of our students need to be led into choosing this, and we need to explain to them why they need it for their sanctification. here our job is to look for those students that are on the cusp of this threshold and call them into this next stage. * Forth, once they have embraced this call into intentional cross-cultural friendships, then we invite them onto our Black and Latino outreach teams, providing a formal avenue for accountability and training. As we said, this is our "make-it-or-brake-it" area. We see in scripture that having at least one cross-ethnic friendship is a non-negotiable for Jesus. Therefore, if one of our students graduates without having intentionally invested in a cross- ethnic relationship while they were in college, we are sadden- ed. We feel we have graduated an incomplete or partial dis- ciple. Because of this, we do all we can to keep this call to real relationships in front of our chapter a often as we can. V. SHARE PAIN AND TAKE A STAND In context of a committed and intentional relationship, our students realize the high costs of going against the grain of our campus' subtle ethos of "stick to your own". There comes a time in every cross-ethnic friendship where it is no longer "fun and games". Real struggles and real pain arise, and this is the point in which everyone has to "count the cost" that come along with Racial Reconciliation friendships. Am I (Doug) willing to take on the pain and suffering which my non-white friends regularly experience as my own? Or am I going to play it safe and keep my distance when they go through things I can't relate to? How far am I willing to go in being a friend? The Bible gives us a great definition of friendship and com- mitment in Ruth 1 in which she says "your people are my people". Once I have committed my life in this way, I take on their causes and their burdens as my own. In this threshold, as a white leader, my checkbook, my voting, where I choose to live with my family, my tithing, my discipling and hiring decisions need to line up with my Racial Reconciliation convic- tions. This, too, I must teach my students. (We put this value as threshold #5 and not earlier in the process because if it is not done out of friendship, it is often done out of guilt, burden, or a power-play.) One positive example came two years ago in our chapter. There was a Black woman in one of our Racial Reconciliation small group bible studies. During the course of the year, her mom hit a massive financial crisis. (Her mom lived alone in Watts and had been unemployed for several years.) Since the students in her small group had grown in friendship with this woman, her needs became their needs. In on over-pouring of generosity, the small group came up with several thousand dollars to give to her mom. which more than covered the need. She was very overwhelmed that their love was not just for her personally, but also included her struggling family. IV. GRACE/FREEDOM/HOPE.CONVICTION This last threshold is very essential to the Racial Reconcilia- tion process, but it is very hard to put into a concise title (as you can see from the four different words above). At this stage, both people know that that they can: 1) be themselves fully and 2) allow the other person to be themselves fully. They know that they do not need to hide their worst because they have already let each other in to their dark side, they have dealt with it, and now they find loving acceptance instead of condemnation. Also, they know that they do not need to avoid conflict because they have been through it and have seen the friendship grow stronger for it. This grace destroys the need for facades and terminates fear. In our Race Matters discussions, we always strive for this kind of grace and free- dom which leads to hope and conviction. That is part of what is so powerful about these times because our students come in at whatever threshold they may be at and they get to see this kind of grace lived out as a reality. Non-Christians that have participated in Race Matters remark that it is one of the most real experiences of the gospel that they have encountered and are attracted to it. The student at this threshold has a deep, abiding conviction about God's heart for Racial Recon- ciliation and the urgency of it. People that reach this phase cannot ever see race, themselves, or God the same again. How do you know when you have gotten to this phase? I (Doug) discovered a time in which I could be fully myself as a white man and no longer feel guilty not apologetic for it. That didn't mean that I "had arrived" or that now I was off the hook and no longer needed to grow in Racial Reconciliation. Quite the contrary. But it did mean that I stopped feeling bad about being white, and I got to the place where I could now joke with my Black, Latino, and Asian friends about the very ethnic issues which before had been so taboo to discuss. For example, two years ago I was ordained in a Black Baptist Church. There were five of us on the pulpit team each Sunday. After about a year of serving with my four Black brothers, they began to joke freely with me about the parts of me that were White and the parts of me that had become Black. At this point, I had been accepted. I was living with my friends in a state of grace and freedom. Though I still make cultural mistakes on a regular basis, I found that correction came with grace, not severity. To make this threshold a reality, we teach our students two key values: * Honesty: Deciding to bring one's full self into a relation- ship fosters a high level of honesty which combats people's fears, racism, and sin. Once a student knows that they can be totally up front with how they are racist and full of sin in this area within the loving context of a deep friendship, there can come freedom. No longer do they feel compelled to try and become perfect in order to experience grace from their friend, but they know they can let the other person see their worst and allow the grace of God to cover them. * Real issue raising: Within the friendship, each needs to raise issues with the other concerning race or other personal issues, and then being able to work through it in hope. Once two people have been through the tension, struggle, and con- flict, with one another and they see God working to bring good out of it, they experience a profound hope. In reality, probably only about 10% of our students having reached this 6th threshold of grace and freedom. We are cur- rently grappling with how to make this level of comfortability and growth, more of the norm in our chapter. END