Grace-filled Accountability: Holding Our Communities Together
Pastors are trained to build community across many different demographics, but this year has challenged even the most experienced leader. How do we hold space for multiple viewpoints without holding space for harm? How do we hold each other accountable without becoming enemies?
We are in the midst of a great reckoning, and pastors are called to lead with honesty, faithfulness, and grace around racial equality, immigration, individual rights, poverty, and creation care. After a year as divisive and combative as this one, how do we discern where the line is between opinion and injustice? How do we move our communities forward into repentance and healing?
In this episode, our panel of pastors and activists will share their experiences of leading people through accountability to growth.
LINKS & RESOURCES
HOSTED BY
Rev. Lisa Yebuah
Rev. Lisa Yebuah currently serves as the Lead Pastor of the Southeast Raleigh Table, an United Methodist worshipping community in Raleigh, North Carolina. She’s a ’99 graduate of Wofford College and an ’04 graduate of Duke University Divinity School.
What fuels her life in ministry is seeing people become their best selves, and in turn, seeing the world become a better and more just place. Most would describe Lisa as a glutton for joy and a lover of people. She’s a self-professed party-starter, people-watcher, biscuit-eating CrossFitter, and admits to having a slight obsession with 90’s R&B and the television show, “The Office.”
PANELISTS
Rev. Dr. Jennifer Harvey
PROFESSOR AND FACULTY DIRECTOR FOR THE CREW SCHOLARS PROGRAM
DRAKE UNIVERSITY, DES MOINES, IOWA
Jennifer Harvey is an award-winning author, educator, and public speaker. Harvey’s work focuses primarily on racial justice and white anti-racism. Her most recent book Raising White Kids: Bringing up Children in a Racially Unjust America brings her longtime experience in multi-racial activism to her journey as a parent and was a 2018 Foreword INDIE GOLD Winner. She is widely published and has written for The New York Times and CNN. She is frequently heard on the radio (including as a guest on her favorite show, NPR’s “It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders”).
Widely sought after as a public speaker and known for her commitment to growing our collective capacity for justice, Harvey is a professor of religion and serves as Faculty Director for the Crew Scholars Program at Drake University. She is ordained in the American Baptist Churches (USA).
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis
SENIOR MINISTER-IN-CHARGE
MIDDLE COLLEGIATE CHURCH, NEW YORK, NEW YORK
The Rev. Jacqueline J. Lewis, Ph.D., is Senior Minister at Middle Collegiate Church, a 1,300-member multiracial, welcoming, and inclusive congregation in New York City. She is an activist, preacher, and fierce advocate for racial equality, economic justice, and LGBTQIA equality. Middle Church and her activism for these issues has been featured in media such as The Today Show, MSNBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The New Yorker, Essence, and The Huffington Post.
Lewis is the Co-Founder and President of The Middle Project, which, along with Middle Church, hosts an annual conference to train faith leaders to combat racism by growing multiracial congregations. She also created and hosts Just Faith, a television program available on demand from Shift by MSNBC.com. Just Faith gathers diverse voices in a conversation about justice, healing, and faith. Lewis earned her Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and a M.Phil. and a Ph.D. in Psychology and Religion from Drew University. Her doctoral studies focused on racial and gender identity development. She has been adjunct professor at seminaries across the country, including Princeton Theological Seminary, Union Theological Seminary, and the Drew Theological School, where she is currently co-teaching a Doctor of Ministry program in Public Theology with her best friend and spouse, The Rev. John Janka.
Ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Lewis is the first African American and first woman to serve as senior minister in the Collegiate Church, which was founded in New York City in 1628. She is the author of multiple books and is currently at work on a new book on how to heal souls and our world.
Rev. Greg Moore
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
NEW FAITH COMMUNITIES, RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA
Greg Moore is the Executive Director of New Faith Communities for the North Carolina Annual Conference and the founding pastor of All Saints’ UMC, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Before starting All Saints’, Greg served as the Associate Director for Congregational Development for the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church; as an Associate Pastor at Christ United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and as the pastor of several churches in rural England within the British Methodist Church.
OTHER WEBINARS IN THIS SERIES
How Did We Get Here? Exploring the Roots of Our Division
Americans have long had a team mentality when it comes to politics, and the additional stressors in 2020 of a global pandemic, racial injustices, and cultural differences have brought the country to a crisis point. Pastors are on the frontlines of these debates and looked to for insight and hope. In this episode we untangle what brought us to this point and discuss how to move forward.
Courage and Compassion:
Preaching a Prophetic Message
This year’s headlines and election season have been more divisive than most can remember. But like the ancient prophets, we must defend the powerless: “Hate evil, love good, and establish justice at the city gate” (Amos 5:15 CEB). Our panel of preachers will inspire your courage as you deliver hope during this unequaled year.
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