The Justice Conference: Arriving justly

So you may have heard that we were part of a Justice Conference recently.

You may have even invested some of your time in browsing and wrestling with some of the Quotes that i shared from different sessions. If you haven’t, i seriously suggest that you do, because whether you were there or not, some of those one liners and longer pieces are really worth chewing on further and examining a little deeper through the lens of your personal and communal context. Much good food for thought and i would hate it to go to waste.

But even before we got to the start of the Justice Conference 2017, if it had been cancelled the midnight before, it still would have been a successful venture in my understanding, and let me tell you why.

LET’S GET THERE JUSTLY

Micah 6 vs 8 says, ‘He has shown you, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? 

To act Justly and to Love Mercy and to Walk Humbly with your God.’

i imagine if we could get everyone in South Africa to embrace those three we would be completely good. To be honest, if we could even get those who call themselves ‘christian’ to embrace that as a lifestyle we would be well on our way to rainbows…

But we’re not so good with those. Especially the last one. Humility is not something that gets too much air time both outside of and inside the church. Sadly too often it’s the man with the mic on the stage… or the man with the guitar and the mic on the stage…

One of the things that stood out for me with this particular conference was the lack of rock stars in the crew. From Val who organised the whole thing [yes, she’s my wife but i can still see that in her] to the team who brought the whole thing together to pastors who were on parking and cleanup duty [specifically white pastors, it was an intentionally significant act] and to the contributors and worship leaders and spoken word and movement specialists. Not a single personality clamouring to be heard…

And technically some of them could have… we had some big name speakers in Lisa Sharon Harper, Mickey Scottbey Jones, Sivuyile Kotela and others and yet more often than not in the breaks you would find them vibing with the conferencegoers, sitting on couches or around tables in deep conversations and when the conference was done, partying it down with the best of them.

THE PROCESS WAS AS IMPORTANT AS THE PRODUCT

But let’s take a step back and head a couple of months back into the past. A typical conference like this in South Africa, both church and business world, is likely to look white middle-aged man heavy. So the organisers set out intentionally to break that.

From the early stages of putting a team together to build this thing [with the “and they will come” more a nervous hope than a guaranteed reality] Val and Craig Stewart from The Warehouse who were instrumental in leading the way, put together a team intentionally diverse in its make up. Fifty percent women, about thirty percent under the age of thirty-five, huge mix of race and culture backgrounds.

Acting Justly to the Justice Conference in South Africa meant making sure that the people who got us there were a mixed and diverse group. Not just colour or age or gender, but also faith tradition – how do you hold the Pentecostals alongside the Conservatives? The Charismatics with the Liturgists? And so on. That made it harder and longer and more frustrating i am sure… but the conference would never have been as successful as it was, without this having been a major intentional step [and steps] along the way.

Having to turn volunteers away because we have “too many white women” or “too many men” at a time when volunteers are hard to come by and deadlines are looming. Decisions made along the way were often not easy, but they all contributed to an incredible mix where voices that are often not heard or are pushed to the outskirts were invited to lead us from center stage.

Funny how that all sounds a little like Jesus… you know, reaching out to the marginalised, calling the children, the women, the sick, the untouchable to the front of the crowd and giving them His full attention.

LET YOUR EYES LEAD YOU

In a country where we make up something like 9% of the population, my wife Val and i do our best to be aware of the spaces we visit and inhabit. We try to avoid as much as possible, places where everyone is white. As well as places where everyone is white except for those serving us.

What blows my mind in a country like ours [and while this definitely is something Cape Town is guilty of, i’m not convinced other areas are not affected as well] is that there are people who by their life choices can live lives where the only people of colour they come into contact with are people who are in some kind of service relationship to them – fill their car with petrol/look after their house, garden, children/take their money at a supermarket.

Where you choose to live – where you choose to shop – who you choose to build friendships with – where you go to church gatherings and who is there and how much you connect with people there that don’t look like you – how you choose to be entertained – how you live. 

This is an area that i think The Justice Conference got very right. Having white pastors sitting under the leadership and teaching and worship leading of black people, of coloured people, of indian people, of women, of younger people, of other ways and theologies of following Jesus, and so on. That in itself was so super huge before a single word was spoken or sung. There definitely were a lot of people who could have been there and who this particular aspect could have been so redemptive for, but we are super grateful for all those who were there.

IN THE BACKGROUND

Lastly a share from my friend Jacqui which highlights one of the things that happened at the conference which i have referred to and which should not be a big deal and yet in the way too much of the church is run these days [looking at you church-that-will-not-be-named-in-this-post-that-has-a-separate-lift-only-for-pastors]

I have been reflecting on my time at the Justice Conference 2017. Many are sharing about the important, challenging, hard and much needed conversations that took place about injustice and how the church can respond. As I sit and think back over the two days there is a small thread that I wish to highlight.

It is about one local, predominantly white church that I have recently come to know. Throughout the conference, I would see various members of this church, led by the senior pastor and his wife, ushering people to the correct venues, making sure everyone had meal vouchers, mopping floors, running the children’s programme and generally being behind the scenes to support the organisation of the conference. Unseen and not demanding to be seen.

I know this church has an awesome worship band, has run a few excellent teaching series on restitution and generosity, and is exploring how a church can do mercy and justice. They could easily have expected to serve at the conference in the upfront ways, but they chose the path of unnoticed helping. In a historical context where the white church has monopolised the setting of the agenda, choosing to serve in this way is a small act of restitution. This created a platform for black voices of the broader South African church to be heard in the teaching and preaching, in the prophetic voices and in worship. These voices are indeed crucial to the church in South Africa and in creating a vision for all that the church can be in fighting injustice.