Racial Equity Initiative: 2022 Goals

Racial Equity Initiative Team • March 18, 2022

Mission

As a Matthew 25 congregation we commit to recognizing and dismantling racism and unconscious bias in our own hearts and minds, in the institution of the church, and in the broader culture. We will provide a space to process what we are seeing and learning and to discern our call as a community of faith to take action toward these goals. Our shared set of values and mission calls us to “transform lives for Christ:” that now calls us to transform our own lives to be less complicit in racist aspects of our culture, to transform the lives of those who have historically faced oppression by helping eradicate systemic racism disproportionately affecting them, and to be the hands and feet of Christ by opposing institutions and practices everywhere that deny the full humanity of all God’s children.

Vision

To be a faith community committed to anti-racist principles and practices, actively engaged in dismantling and repairing the harm caused by white supremacy and racial inequities.

2022 Goals

  • Improve and increase communications and publicity about REI and community events

 

  • Continue to learn and educate the community about the history of systemic racism and the skills to dismantle its effects in our church and society, and within ourselves.


An engraved imaged of the angel sparing Abraham from sacrificing his son Isaac. Germany, 1860.
By Rev. Joann Lee September 14, 2025
The horrifying story of the binding of Isaac by his father Abraham is rightfully troubling to modern readers. Perhaps back then and still today, it challenges us to ask: "What have we sacrificed on the altar of religion, believing it was the 'right thing to do?'" Join us on Sunday as we grapple with one of the most cha
A cloudy sky during a sunset with the text ‘and it was good’
By Rev. Marci Glass September 7, 2025
As we begin a new program year, we'll start at the very beginning. In the Book of Genesis, God creates the world. Humanity one of God's many and marvelous creations. How does our createdness inform our life together in community, with each other, with the other acts of God's creation?
A colorful night sky with the text 'wisdom on stage'
By Rev. Victor Floyd August 31, 2025
A sermon full of showtimes showing the 'truth' in other's gospels
Geese in a V Formation
By Rev. Marci Glass August 24, 2025
Song of Songs is a book of erotic poetry, neatly tucked into the middle of our Old Testament. How'd it get there? What might it have to say to us today? Join us for worship as we talk about this adult book, in a way that is appropriate for all ages.
Geese in a V-formation flying in the sk
By Rev. Joann Lee August 17, 2025
Through ancient rhythms of growing and dying, giving and receiving, losing and saving, holding and letting go, God created a pattern and a season for the world. Times for work and times for rest were included in that first creation story. We live, however, in a time when the lines between work and play, busy...
A bunch of geese in the sky flying in formation, text reads
By Rev. Marci Glass August 10, 2025
Our scripture passage from the Book of Proverbs talks about the place of Wisdom in God's creation, and in God's creating. Wisdom is often a gift we receive later in life, and can feel somber to us, because of how long it took us to learn her lessons. But Wisdom is a joyful character in scripture, delighting in the worl
A beautiful sky that has the text
August 3, 2025
God's word continues to guide and instruct us still today. The Proverbs talk about wisdom and its importance. How can we be wise and faithful people of God?
Rainbow stained glass that says
By Rev. Victor Floyd July 27, 2025
In its final chapters, Revelation gives us a vision of a world healed, restored, and bursting with light. The New Jerusalem is not as an escape plan but a divine promise for this world—where there are no temples of exclusion, no gates shut to the outsider, and no more night for the weary. God’s justice includes rivers
A rainbow stained glass image with the text 'putting the world together' on it
By Rev. Marci Glass July 20, 2025
In Revelation chapter 6, the seals on the scrolls start to be opened, unleashing the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse on the earth, and an earthquake happens, and the stars fall from the sky. The world is coming undone. This week, in chapter 7, we’ll consider what it takes to put the world back together after it comes undo
A rainbow stained glass image with the text
By Rev. Marci Glass July 13, 2025
In today's passage, Jesus is getting caught up on his correspondence, writing letters to the churches in Asia Minor, giving them both praise and correction. What do we think Jesus would say to Christians in the United States today, if he wrote us a letter?
More Posts