At Pax, our mission is to inspire and equip the next generation through slow, beautiful, Jesus-centered content led by Christians of color. We are grateful for the Native American voices of Pax that have guided us to a greater understanding and embodiment of peace, justice, and wholeness as followers of Christ.

For Native American Heritage Month, we want to highlight the artists and writers who have contributed a wide array of theologically-rich resources on pursuing the peace of Jesus in the 21st century. From our StoryArcs to Marketplace resources and social media, allow these incredible voices of Native American men and women to guide you through a collection of multi-sensory discipleship materials to study and pursue shalom in your own life.

Cosmic Peace StoryArc:

Unsettling Truths by Mark Charles

Nonviolence StoryArc:

Violence, Nonviolence, and Anti-violence by Andrea Smith

Lessons on Nonviolence from Native America by Mariah Humphries

At Pax, our mission is to inspire and equip the next generation through slow, beautiful, Jesus-centered content led by Christians of color. We are grateful for the Latino voices of Pax that have guided us to a greater understanding and embodiment of peace, justice, and wholeness as followers of Christ.

For Hispanic Heritage Month, we want to highlight the artists and writers who have contributed a wide array of theologically-rich resources on pursuing the peace of Jesus in the 21st century. From our StoryArcs to Marketplace resources and social media, allow these incredible voices of Latino men and women to guide you through a collection of multisensory discipleship materials to study and pursue shalom in your own life.

Artists:

Art by Danny Canales

Art by Mondo Scott

Art by Josue Carballo-Huertas

Art by Urias Abraham

Cultural Identity StoryArc:

“Forever Puerto Rican” by Carlos Rodriguez

“Voices of Pax: Hermanas” with guest Kristy Robinson

Cultural Identity as Resistance by Robert Chao Romero

Scripture StoryArc:

“The Bible and the Verb of God” by Kat Armas

“A Gen Z case study on Jesus and the Bible” with Mondo Scott and Amanda Souza

Eclectic: 6 Steps to Diversity Your Reading of Scripture by Kat Armas

Reading Scripture Together by Aizaiah G. Yong

Nonviolence StoryArc:

“Compassion, Solidarity, and Endurance in the Kingdom of God” by Dennae Pierre

Migration StoryArc:

“Immigrants as the Face of History and Globalization” by
Jules Martínez-Olivieri

“Welcome to my Vida!” by Frank Espinoza

“Thank God for DACA” by Karla Mendoza

“Leaving the Costa Rican Dream” by Josue Carballo-Huerta

Marketplace Resources:

Tethered: 21 Prayers of Pax with and for Gen Zers of Color with Daniela Láncara Espinoza, Estefanía Hernández, Frank Espinoz, Giselle Gaytán, Rachel Orellana, Quina Aragon, Laura Trevino, and Joshua Posada

IG Lives:

“The Callback”: Instagram Live Conversations with guests Jonatan Ayala, Mondo Scott, Karla Mendoza, Caleb Saenz, Frank Espinoza, Kat Armas, and Martha Codrescu

These digital illustrations/graphic designs, articles, poems, interviews, and resources first appeared on Pax’s website. To access these links, sign up for free at madeforpax.org.

When we are interacting with people of another culture, many of us correlate successful engagement with simply not being mean to them. And that’s a good start. But that really is the lowest standard you can have and still have a positive interaction. It requires almost nothing on our part, yet everything is on the other person. We tell ourselves, “I’m open to meeting new people,” but built into this approach is an expectation that people should come to us and do the heavy lifting in the relationship. If we’re serious about pursuing deep and meaningful cross-cultural relationships, we need to put in a bit more work.

We can’t just live in our own lane and interact when someone different from us happens to occasionally show up where we live. Instead, we need to step outside our cultural comfort zones and go to where people are at. We need to initiate.

Most of us don’t like doing this. Whether we’re Brown, Black, or white, we like staying in our bubble and doing things with other people like us. The whole point of a cultural comfort zone is the construction of mental security. By definition it is comfortable, a space where our activities and behaviors fit a routine and pattern that minimizes stress and risk. It’s our happy space, where we feel like we can be ourselves. And making friends with other people on our turf is always easier.

The problem is that most of the time our cultural comfort zones equate to monocultural communities. Think about your neighborhood, your favorite coffee shop, your school, your go to grocery store, your workplace, your church, or your local park. In these places, if everyone looks like you, talks like you, and is in the same socioeconomic bracket as you, it’s most likely a cultural comfort zone. If everyone enjoys the same activities, throws parties in the same way, and has the same views on friendships, politics, marriage, and punctuality, you are living in a cultural comfort zone. If everyone in your sphere listens to the same pastors and theologians, reads the same books, does the same Bible studies, and watches the same news channel, it’s definitely a cultural comfort zone.

I’m not here to bash cultural comfort zones or monocultural communities. There’s nothing inherently wrong with a white neighborhood or a Black neighborhood or a Brown neighborhood. I’m not trying to wholesale label the community you live in as good or bad. These kinds of spaces are simply part of our natural state — and there can be beauty in these cultural communities too. But as a follower of Jesus, you have a mandate to make friends with people of other cultures. It’s one the most important changes you can make in your life in pursuit of the vision Jesus has for this world. And if you want to do this, you’re going to have to step outside your cultural comfort zone intentionally.

I want to add a caveat here, because a community can be multiethnic and still be monocultural. Multiethnic does not automatically translate to multicultural. You might live in a neighborhood or attend a church or be part of a workforce with multiple skin colors present, but if you are all middle class, the odds are that you share more cultural values than differences. Remember that culture, at its core, is a set of stories, and typically, people of similar socioeconomic brackets end up merging their narratives together. This is especially true for wealthy communities, which is where TV shows like Black-ish find their comedic edge. The family in this show, if you have never seen it, has lost some of its traditional African values precisely because they are middle class.

So when I suggest you need to step outside your monocultural community, I don’t mean finding someone of a different skin color who happens to live next door to you. I mean finding people with real cultural differences from you. This involves searching out people who hold different values, people who see the world differently than you. When these people do something, your first response will probably be: “Well, I wouldn’t have done it that way.”

Find those people and make friends with them.

Having friends of the same cultural background will always be easier. We don’t have to switch gears, and we can just be ourselves. There’s stability and reassurance in these relationships. But this same comfortability can lead to stagnancy when we get too comfortable. We lose the sense of urgency that drives us to meet new people. We become apathetic to the distance that lies between ourselves and other cultural groups. Or we let our imaginations get the best of us and start to fear people we don’t come into regular contact with.

Many white people feel like they’re in danger around Black or Brown-skinned people, and it’s this feeling of discomfort that leads them to label communities of color as dangerous. It’s not necessarily because the crime rate is high, but simply because the people look different. I once told a white woman that I lived on the east side of Austin, and she instantly said: “Oh my gosh. That’s the barrio. I would never go there.” Barrio is a Spanish word that simply means neighborhood, but when white people use this term, it comes with an implication that it’s a ghetto — a bad place that looks different from our own neighborhood with people of different skin colors and socio-economic backgrounds. If you feel this way, you need to own that and work on deconstructing your fear. As author and social work professor Brené Brown explains, one of the worst things we can do is pretend our fear and uncertainty do not exist. Just because we are nervous or scared doesn’t mean we should ignore those feelings. We should fight to deconstruct our racial prejudices and lean into the discomfort we feel. Increasing our contact with another culture creates a context in which our racial prejudices and false ideas of the other can be challenged and corrected.

If we want to begin the hard work of forming real cross-cultural friendships in which we don’t make everything about ourselves, we have to break out of our routines, comfort zones, and monocultural spaces to explore uncharted territory.

Michelle Ami Reyes, PhD, is Co-Executive Director of Pax and the Vice President of the Asian American Christian Collaborative. She is also Scholar in Residence at Hope Community Church and the author of Becoming All Things: How Small Changes Lead to Lasting Connections Across Cultures.

The Problem of Cultural Comfort Zones was originally published in ar-che-type on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

At Pax, our mission is to inspire and equip the next generation through slow, beautiful, Jesus-centered content led by Christians of color. We are grateful for the Asian American voices of Pax that have guided us this past year to a greater understanding and embodiment of peace, justice, and wholeness as followers of Christ.

For AAPI History Month, we want to highlight the artists and writers who have contributed a wide array of theologically-rich resources on pursuing the peace of Jesus in the 21st century. From our StoryArcs to Marketplace resources and social media, allow these incredible voices of Asian American men and women to guide you through a collection of multi-sensory discipleship materials to study and pursue shalom in your own life.

Cosmic Peace StoryArc:

Myth Path Point Artwork by Anson Chan

“Washed” by Alia Joy

“Restored” by Sandhya Oaks

“3 Postures of Everyday Peacemakers” by Michelle Ami Reyes

“Voices of Pax” Interview Intro by Michelle Ami Reyes

“Gates of Justice” Interview by Raymond Chang

Cultural Identity StoryArc:

StoryArc Illustrations and Graphic Design Work by Phung Banh

“Kimchi Jar Baptism” Illustration by Sophia Park

“Kimchi Jar Baptism” Poem by Tasha Jun

“Cultural Identity: 5 Myths” Interview with Kathy Khang

“Unpacking My Tiffin” by Sherrene DeLong

“Liberation From White Supremacy” by Jai Patel

“Jesus’ Genealogy: Observations from Matthew” Infographic by Sophia Park

“Jesus Brings Transformative Healing to Our Cultural Stories” by Sarah Shin

Multiracial Experience(s) & Embracing the Many Tongues Within” by Aizaiah Yong

“Mixed Identity in the Church and Society” by Chandra Crane

Scripture StoryArc:

StoryArc Graphic Design Work by Edward Sun

“Receiving the Transforming Gift of God’s Word” by Jeff Liou

“Shalom” Illustration by Emily Fernando

“Path to Wholeness Visio Divina” by Michelle Ami Reyes

“‘The Bible Says It, I Believe It, That Settles it’? Jesus and the Myth of Plan Sense” by Sameer Yadav

“Silencing Women Who Tell the Truth” Interview with Michelle Ami Reyes and Tiffany Bluhm

“Abuse of Power From Prey Tell” by Tiffany Bluhm

“Accompany” Illustration by Emily Fernando

“Jesus is the Key to Understanding Scripture” Illustration by Emily Fernando

“Four Colors of Jesus” Gen Z Interview with Caleb Betts, Jocelyn Chung, and more

Marketplace Resources:

“Tethered: 21 Prayers of Pax for and by Gen Zers of Color” by Esther Kim, Hannh Chao, Hannah Sy, Jessica Chang, Jocelyn Chung, Leah Abraham, Sarah Lam, Timothy Isaiah Cho, Michelle Ami Reyes, and more

“Reading Scripture Together” Guide by Aizaiah Yong

Pax Medium and Archetype Articles:

“Cultural Identity and Justice During Christmas” by Biral Patel, Camille Geri, and more

“How Does Our Faith & Culture Intersect During the Holidays” by Chandra Crane, Rachel Varkey, Amanda Mae Steele, and more

“Rejecting ‘Anxious Toil’ in Law School” by Caleb Betts

“Reclaiming Diwali” by Jai Patel

“A Gujarati Christmas” by Jai Patel

“Tired” by Breanna Chov

“Tired, Tired, Tired” Poem by Breanna Chov

“His Hand” Poem by Michael Stalcup

“The Way of Pax” by Jai Patel

IG Lives:

“The Callback”: Weekly Instagram Lives with Jai Patel (Thursday’s at 8:30 PM CST)

These digital illustrations/graphic designs, articles, poems, interviews, and resources first appeared on Pax’s website. To access these links, sign up for free at madeforpax.org.

Our hearts have been designed for the kind of kinship and connection that can only come from being in a community and together with other people. God knew from the very beginning that this type of existence would be the best one: an existence that helps to sustain, empower, and encourage others to live their best lives while simultaneously giving meaning to and enriching our lives. This is the miraculous gift of community; without it, we’re missing out on one of the biggest, most significant graces of being human.

In his now-famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (April 16, 1963), the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of our basic need to care for each other and to ensure one another’s wellbeing. He asserted that the ability to safeguard each of our human rights is contingent on the human rights of another individual being upheld, regardless of their place on the map. In a defense of his efforts to seek civil rights as an “outsider” in Birmingham, King said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

King understood that we, as individuals, cannot even live a waking day without engaging in what he described as the “global village” or the “world house.” He spoke of how connected we truly are — of how connected we ought to be — in his 1967 “Christmas Sermon on Peace” at Ebenezer Baptist Church:

Did you ever stop to think that you can’t leave for your job in the morning without being dependent upon most of the world? You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom and reach over for the sponge, and that’s handed to you by a Pacific Islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that’s given to you at the hands of a Frenchman. And then you go into the kitchen to drink your coffee for the morning and that is poured into your cup by a South American. And maybe you want tea: that’s poured into your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you desire to have cocoa for breakfast, and that’s poured into your cup by a West African. And then you reach over for your toast, and that’s given to you at the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. And before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half the world. This is the way our universe is structured. It is its interrelated quality. We aren’t going to have peace on Earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.

Today, the same remains true. Pause for a moment in your reading and examine the labels on your clothing. Find out where your favorite shirt or dress was made. And while you’re up, find out where the candle you burn to help you relax was produced. Look much closer than the label and ask yourself who made the textiles? Where’s the wax from? Recognizing that our lives are interconnected is the first necessary step in seeking to understand just how much we need each other, and our call to stand together. Community is necessary for us personally; but it is also a prerequisite of our considerations about how we might respond to — and try to solve — the issues and the injustices that we witness in the world. We need to understand this before we can take a stand and make any significant strides towards serving one another well. This is the main message we must all realize and come to recognize. I believe that this was Paul the Apostle’s main message when he wrote to the church in Corinth: “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it,” Cor. 12:12–27 (NRSV).

When we start to see the world through a lens of we, we will fully grasp what Father Boyle means when he says: “There is no ‘them’ and ‘us.’ There is only us.” By understanding our need for one another, and decreasing our levels of isolation, we can actually begin to enter into a spirit of community wholeheartedly, becoming proximate to our brothers and sisters who are in need: our neighbors.

One thing that I’ve discovered during my time working with communities is just how important the idea of — and the reality of embracing — proximity is. Embracing proximity is not only the means by which we get closer to real-life issues but also how we enter into and develop deep relationships that could be beneficial to our own lives as we seek to achieve justice in the world. Accepting the need to live in proximity to others is how you become seen as an individual — as well as being, in turn, the way in which you have a chance to see and to affirm the dignity of others. Being in proximity to people is how we connect with others to seek justice and change the world. Jesus connected with people that He was proximate to so why would it be any different for us? Scripture highlights Jesus’ nearness to humanity in His ability to empathize and sympathize with our earthly sufferings in Heb. 4:15–16 (NRSV):

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested[d] as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Our lack of proximity to one another not only causes us to “otherize” people but it creates more division. No real solutions are developed when we are distanced from each other.

Jesus made a lifestyle of connecting with those who were not like Him. He ate with the misfits, the tax collectors, and the sinners. When was the last occasion on which we made time to truly connect with someone whose worldview or status was vastly different from ours over a meal? When was the last time that you engaged in a meaningful conversation without trying to politicize a Messiah that came to give all for all?

Adapted from the forthcoming book When We Stand by Terence Lester. Copyright © 2021 by Terence Brandon Lester. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com

Terence Lester is a minister, speaker, community activist, author, and founder of Love Beyond Walls, a not-for-profit organization focused on poverty awareness and community mobilization. His campaigns on behalf of the poor, including #LoveSinksIn (which provides handwashing stations for the poor) have been featured in USA Today, Black Enterprise, Essence, and Reader’s Digest. They have been viewed by millions of people globally on The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS News, NBC, Upworthy, and “The Bright Side” with Katie Couric. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @imterencelester.

Seeking Justice Through Community, Togetherness, and Proximity was originally published in ar-che-type on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Prayer is a spiritual discipline that causes our ear to be attentive to the voice of our almighty, all-knowing, and all-powerful God as he speaks his words of wisdom and direction. Prayer is the dynamite discipline that fueled the civil rights movement — a movement that God used to change a nation. Through the practice of prayer, God imparted revelation and knowledge into the mind of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which empowered him to move forward by faith in his Lord.

The nonviolent protests Dr. King led were instrumental in transforming America. God used him and the movement to change the face of racial interactions in America.

Dr. King’s godly assignment was to be a conduit bringing equality to all people. To reach this goal, he utilized nonviolent methods. To better prepare himself for the journey, God called him to study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. While there, his learning was enriched by the philosophical teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, who was instrumental during the declaration of independence for India.

As a student of Gandhi, Dr. King found what he had been seeking: a nonviolent philosophy and a method of achieving social reform. Clayborne Carson described Dr. King’s philosophy as a synthesis of the teachings of Jesus Christ and Gandhi. Jesus’ sermons on love and Gandhi’s teachings on nonviolence provided Dr. King with philosophical and theological insights. The two combined resulted in philosophical theology.

According to philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas’s Thomistic model, philosophy focuses on the five senses of humanity: seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling. Thus philosophy relies on the natural state of a person’s being, while theology starts with the authority of the written Word. Because he was a servant leader, Dr. King’s ministry combined both effectively. He incorporated philosophy and theology to accomplish his spiritual assignment for the kingdom and the people who God called him to serve.

Carson wrote, “One of the main tenets of this philosophy was the conviction that nonviolent resistance was one of the most potent weapons available to oppressed people in their quest for social justice.” From slavery to the days of Dr. King and beyond, persons of African descent have experienced and continue to experience injustices. Dr. King’s laborious work has been instrumental in shaping the unique theological and contextual definition of prayer and spiritual direction for persons of African descent. It is practically impossible to write about these disciplines without noting the spiritual journey of this impactful leader. God used his strategy of nonviolence as a spiritual weapon as he and others stood for justice for people of color.

Dr. King’s approach to ministry is vital in our quest for freedom. Ministry was his call from God, which he answered despite tremendous obstacles. His philosophical and theological methodology was instrumental in the emancipation of people physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Because Dr. King realized his kingdom assignment was beyond him, he prayerfully sought God for direction. I would imagine, given the intensity of his assignment, that his prayer life was intense, with pleas to God for favor, direction, and wisdom. Such prayers empowered him to accomplish his task. I believe that he left a prayer legacy engrafted on this earth. Even though his prayers cannot be seen with the natural eye, in our nation and in our world we see the benefits of his tenacity. How much more do we still need such prayers and leadership today!

In carrying out his mandate, it is evident that, in addition to being a man of prayer, Dr. King was a contemplative. Dr. Ruth Haley Barton, founder of the Transforming Center, affirmed the inclusion of contemplation and prayerfulness in his life when, in honor of Martin Luther King Day in January 2010, she wrote that Dr. King’s “life was characterized by a powerful integration of prayer and contemplation with a profound commitment to decisive and loving action in the world.” Barton’s insight is extremely valuable in the discussion of the power of prayer and spiritual direction from an African American perspective. In identifying Dr. King as a man of contemplative action, she included a clear definition of that term:

Contemplative action is action that emerges from our real encounters with God. It is doing what God calls us to do when he calls us to do it — no matter how afraid we are or how ill-equipped we feel. Contemplative action is the willingness to go beyond being primarily concerned for our own safety and survival to the place where we know that our real life is hidden with Christ in God no matter what happens to our physical life. Contemplative action is doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right Spirit, completely given over to a Power that is beyond our own — even, and perhaps most especially, when the risks are very great.

This kind of action is impossible without being radically in touch with the Source of our life through prayer and contemplation.

With the mandate from God to be an intercessor, spiritual leader, and activist for a marginalized people, Dr. King had an enormous task. Undertaking the mission for freedom and civil rights required a contemplative and reflective life immersed in the mind of God. Only God could give Dr. King the necessary spiritual directives to lead and minister to an oppressed people. I am sure that Dr. King experienced times of uncertainty; however, his assurance from God, which came through contemplative prayer, empowered him to move forward.

Dr. King’s life of contemplative prayer made him an effective spiritual leader. Barton wrote, “Were it not for his full engagement in the fight for justice and his grounded-ness in the life of prayer, he might never have had the kind of encounter with God that transformed him in the deepest level of his being.” Because of his faithful obedience, the trajectory of our nation and the world looks a lot different than it would have without his contributions.

It would have been impossible for Dr. King to fulfill the mandate on his life without the assurance of God’s unconditional love for himself and all humanity. The Greek term for this kind of love is agapē, the kind of love that “aims to preserve and create community.” Dr. King’s focus was toward the development and advancement of a healthy community in every way. Thus, as a leader, he was called by God to lead in a movement for freedom that was centered in love — that is, Christ-centered love. Such love is the kind Dr. King allowed the Spirit to form in him amid racial discord. With such love, he loved God and his people to the extent he was willing to die for what he believed.

In Dr. King we had a kind of leader who was divinely inspired and would not be turned back by multiple threats or numerous forms of violence. This kind of courage and conviction is truly contagious. Dr. King’s powerful leadership inspires us to continue to carry the justice torch through the difficult days of our journey ahead.

Adapted from Soul Care in African American Practice by Barbara L. Peacock. Copyright © 2020 by Barabara L. Peacock. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com

Barbara L. Peacock (DMin, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) is a spiritual director, author, teacher, and preacher. She is the founder of Barbara L. Peacock Ministries, a ministry committed to developing disciples through prayer, spiritual direction, soul care, mentoring, and teaching. Visit her website at barbaralpeacock.com. Follow her on Twitter @BarbaraLPeacock.

Prayer and Contemplative Action in the Life of Dr. MLK was originally published in ar-che-type on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I love the statement “In certain respects, every person behaves like all others: in other respects, like some others . . . and in some cases, like no others.” We are “like all others” speaks to me about our humanity. We can travel throughout the world and find people wrestling with pain and suffering or enjoying the birth of a baby. When I see the tragedy of a plane crash in another part of the world and the images on television of people weeping and grieving over their loss, my heart is moved. And as I have traveled to the slums of Ethiopia, served in AIDS clinics, and witnessed extreme poverty firsthand, my heart has connected with people beyond words. Similarly, I have experienced universal joy and fun dancing to Latin music at a Vietnamese university with people from Singapore, Vietnam, Australia, and other countries. Building relationships is about learning how to do life with people who have similar interests and sharing stories along the way.

We are “like some others” reflects the vital component of our learned culture and why there are some people who we will automatically gravitate to because of shared cultural behaviors. I admittedly find intentional ways to stay connected to my black culture because there are some things that another black person may understand that a nonblack person might not. For example, there are black songs and musical artists I like and that I want someone else to know as well. Or I might want to talk with someone who will understand why the customs of eating banana pudding, black-eyed peas, fried chicken, and cornbread on New Year’s Day is important to me. I’m not saying these things are necessarily healthy by a medical standard; they’re just important to who I am and where I have been in life, and were a real part of shaping me in what I like versus don’t like. Similarly, some friends understand me and I know will not reprimand me when I say honestly that, while I do love organic food and healthy food, being poor is a journey, and when you are limited in finances, you look up to heaven and thank God even for food from a dollar store. I want to sometimes merely rest and not have to explain my hair or my dialect or be the representative for all actions in the black community.

We are “like no others” helps us embrace the important fact that we are wonderfully and fearfully formed by the hands of God. If no snowflake is the same, surely we can celebrate even more our individual uniqueness. This phrase also reflects the fact that there are times when we may feel very different from anyone else present in a particular place or situation we find ourselves. For me, this happens when the integrity of my spiritual culture and what I believe as a Christian are being violated; in those instances I keep my values and beliefs close to my heart. As both Christians who are called to be different from the world — people of love and true disciples of Jesus — and as ones made uniquely and purposefully by God, we have to be comfortable with the spiritual transformation that takes place as Jesus continues to shape and fashion us each as individuals.

Moving Forward in Diverse Friendships

I want to leave you with some next steps as you intentionally pursue diverse cultural relationships.

■ Ask God to give you the wisdom you need to reach diverse people.

■ Study and model the life of Jesus and his relational style with others for the sake of the gospel.

■ Be intentional about connecting with diverse people, and forge beyond discomforts for the benefit and beauty of the friendship.

■ Develop a go-to versus a come-to attitude about diverse experiences. Don’t wait for people to come to you; go to them.

■ Desire to become a cultural champion in your community, place of worship, and everyday living.

■ Remember that our walk as followers of Christ will draw others to us.

■ Be willing to stand courageously against any type of racial injustice directed toward your friends and close acquaintances.

■ Develop listening skills as you connect with different cultures, not just for the sake of listening but in order to demonstrate the value, worth, and dignity of people from different backgrounds.

■ Suspend judgments about people, and don’t allow stereotypes of different people groups to be reinforced. Develop skills to connect in relevant and empathetic ways with people.

■ Walk in humility as a learner, and be willing to also teach others about your culture.

■ Don’t allow yourself to be color blind. Enjoy the beauty that each person brings into a relationship.

■ Remember that people are more alike than they are different.

■ Move out of your comfort zone and stay out of it. Don’t let anxiety, misinformation, or biases prevent you from reaching someone God has been putting on your heart.

■ Take the initiative to love and befriend people. (Yes, you!)

■ Be careful about letting past negative attempts and experiences with someone from another culture mark or affect your present experiences. Don’t feel that you have to walk on eggshells with people from different cultures. Allow mistakes to be a catalyst for learning new things about others.

■ Ask Jesus to show you things you may be unconsciously doing that communicate dishonor to others who are different from you.

■ Think about the times when you have felt unwanted in an environment. Then look at patterns, acts of rejection, or apathy that you have held or practiced toward other cultures.

Embrace an Ubuntu philosophy of compassion, empathy, and dignity, and not just with the people you like.

■ Learn to engage by taking seriously the need to learn. Ubuntu “is the essence of being human. It speaks of the fact that my humanity is caught up and is inextricably bound up in yours.

I am human because I belong. It speaks about wholeness, it speaks about compassion. . . . “[People with Ubuntu] know that they are diminished when others are humiliated, diminished when others are oppressed, diminished when others are treated as if they were less than who they are.” Ubuntu represent the value, worth, and dignity of every human being. May Jesus go with you as you build relationships and continually learn and embrace the beauty of diverse friendships.

Adapted from The Colors of Culture by MelindaJoy Mingo. Copyright © 2020 by MelindaJoy Mingo. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com

MelindaJoy Mingo is an ordained minister, professor, cultural capacity expert, and entrepreneur based in Colorado Springs. She is the founder of Je-Nai International Ministry and Significant Life Change, Inc., and has developed multicultural initiatives both at home and abroad. She holds a PhD in global leadership and an honorary doctorate in urban transformative leadership and has been widely recognized for her teaching and training in crosscultural competency. Follow her on Twitter @MingoMelinda.

Adapted from Colors of Culture by MelindaJoy Mingo was originally published in ar-che-type on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

At Pax, our mission is to inspire and equip the next generation through slow, beautiful, Jesus-centered content led by Christians of color. We are grateful for the Black voices of Pax that have guided us this past year to a greater understanding and embodiment of peace, justice, and wholeness as followers of Christ.

For Black History Month, we want to highlight the artists and writers who have contributed a wide array of theologically-rich resources on pursuing the peace of Jesus in the 21st century. From our StoryArcs to Marketplace resources and social media, allow these incredible voices of Black men and women to guide you through a collection of multisensory discipleship materials to study and pursue shalom in your own life.

Cosmic Peace StoryArc:

“Pax — A Spoken Word” by Tinasha LaRaye featuring Original Music by Alton Eugene

“Cosmic Shalom” by Drew Jackson

“Made for Pax” by Drew Jackson

“Where Peace Lives” by Lisa Sharon Harper

“The Listening Peacemaker” by Osheta Moore

“Pax Conversations with Osheta Moore”

Cultural Identity StoryArc:

“Journeys of Becoming” by Brandi Miller

“Decolonized Cultural Identity” — an Interview with Brandon Wrencher

“A Cultural Identity Benediction” by Drew Jackson

Scripture StoryArc:

Manifesto Welcome Video by Travia Forte

Marketplace Resources:

Food & Rhythm for the Soul: A Guide For Celebrating Cultural Identity by Lucretia Berry

Tethered: 21 Prayers of Pax with and for Gen Zers of Color with Osheta Moore, Chase Williamson, Everette Bradford, Isaac Rowry, and Joshua Igwe

IG Lives:

“Center Down”: Weekly Spiritual Check-In with Osheta Moore (Sundays at 8:30 PM CST)

These articles, spoken words, interviews, and resources first appeared on Pax’s website.

“God just seems really immature!” I could feel my face turning red as my body responded to my classmate’s comment. It was my first-year, college English class and I was all excited to study the Bible as literature. I can’t remember the passage we were studying or the classmate who said it. I can only remember feeling somehow responsible to defend God’s reputation in front of my skeptical classmates and the frustration of not knowing how to respond. In that moment, my body’s response was based on the offense I took at the challenge to my own presumptions about religion and academic conversation. Bottom line: I was used to being in the majority. I think young Christians know much better now than I did then . . . that we are not.

Fast forward to late 2020. A young TikTok creator and self-described “non-religious 20-something” gives her daily take on her first time reading through the Bible (only Genesis, so far). My face turned red, again! This time, however, it was because of how cringey some of the comments from Christians (also GenZ, and of many different ethnoracial backgrounds) have been, prompting this creator to repeatedly ask people to stop trying to convert her. She’s exhibited a lot of grace under the pressure. At their best, these well-intended, over-enthusiastic commenters are excited at the possibility that God’s love would break through to a first-time reader of the Bible. Unfortunately, the Bible-thumping is failing to demonstrate the love of God to someone going at her own pace.

When we receive God’s Word as a gift of love, we are able to better see and understand Scripture as a divine instrument that molds and sanctifies us to become more like Jesus.

Christians have used the Bible in some really damaging ways. I’m sure you can think of at least a few examples of catastrophic uses of the Bible in Christian history, and maybe even in your own experience. It seems apt to call them “uses” because doing so places the user’s own priorities in the foreground. In the first snapshot, I was using the Bible as a territory to defend. In the second, some tried to use the Bible like a jackhammer to crack open hearts. To be clear, the Bible itself describes God’s Word as a “good deposit” that should be stewarded carefully (2 Timothy 1:14), AND as a sharp sword that can separate things that are not easily pulled apart (Hebrews 4:12). Both of these descriptions place God in the foreground, as well as the effects of the Bible upon us.

When we receive God’s Word as a gift of love, we are able to better see and understand Scripture as a divine instrument that molds and sanctifies us to become more like Jesus. ‍

Receiving Jesus in all of Scripture

‍I have had the privilege of walking alongside young adults and congregation members who have endured horrors none of us ever should. I am inspired by the way they have made it through. I give God the praise when these people credit God’s sustaining Spirit for their survival and eventual flourishing. But nothing stops me in my tracks like the Spirit’s gift of the kind of forgiveness that releases us from anger — especially justified anger — that traps us emotionally, spiritually, and physically in a spiral of anguish. To hear someone find the freedom of forgiveness never ceases to remind me of the Jesus we read about in the Scripture. There, we read about a liberator who could not have been more free to love, and a lover who could have not been more powerful to liberate.

This Jesus — lover, liberator, Lord of the universe, and second person of the Trinity — is the center of it all. The four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the texts that give us accounts of Jesus’ birth, life, teaching, healing, crucifixion, and resurrection. Reading and meditating on just the four gospels would probably give us a lifetime of contemplation, but it would also be a grave oversight! When I say that Jesus is the center of it all, I mean that even the texts that come before the gospels — the Old Testament — eagerly anticipate a Messiah who would usher in God’s righteous reign and rule over all the earth. The four gospel-writers tap directly into that hope so that every detail of Jesus’ time on earth can be read as a fulfillment of the deepest desire of God’s people. The texts that come after the Gospels grapple with the status-quo-shattering revelation that the one we’ve been waiting for is a carpenter-rabbi who almost no one correctly identified as the King of Creation.

Much more than organizing our weekly rituals, receiving the Good News of Jesus Christ re-orders our everything. That word, “receiving” is mainly where I want to focus. Jesus repeatedly refers to the way in which he, his Gospel, and his disciples were received (Matthew 10:14, 40; Mark 6:11; 10:15; Luke 8:13, 9:48; John 1:11, 12:48; etc.). I think this is what is meant when I use the word, “Scripture.” These are the writings we receive as authoritative regarding this Jesus whom we follow, about his unity with the Father and the Spirit, about his liberating Way in the world, and his sacrificial love for us.

In the sense that I describe above, all of Scripture is about Jesus. In order to know who Jesus is — his character, his humor, his earthly and spiritual family, his love for and unity with God and the Spirit, his power, his heavenly reign, his future personal return — we meditate on all of Scripture. In fact, to forsake the hope of the people of Israel has led to dangerous anti-Judaistic and even anti-Semitic attitudes in Christian history. Reading the Old Testament in order to know how Jesus fulfills the hopes of God’s people is crucial. Jesus is brown (in our modern parlance), but first, he was Israel’s Messiah. That makes him the key to understanding everything we read.

While there are many words in the Christian Scripture through which we get to know Jesus, the Gospel of John teaches that Jesus is the Word (John 1:1–4). John taps into the Jewish imagination, recalling from the very beginning of the Bible in Genesis 1 that God created the cosmos by speaking. And every time God speaks in the Bible, that same creative power rushes forth to accomplish good and gracious purposes. So, for Jesus to be the Word of God makes him Wisdom incarnate in whose body “the whole fullness of deity dwells” (Colossians 2:9). This incarnate Word turned water into wine, restored the sick to their families and communities, and taught with a kind of authority that “comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable.”

The loving wholeness and goodness that flowed from him then is what compels me to love and follow him now. In fact, the night before Jesus gave his life on the cross, he dined with his disciples one last time. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” he says. Jesus’ teaching and example flow directly from who he is as the Word, united with God and the Spirit. When we shape our lives after the self-sacrificial, enemy-loving, justice-pursuing, God-worshipping life of Jesus, we truly live.‍

Receiving Jesus in and through Others

Indeed, in some Christian spiritual traditions (e.g. Ignatian spirituality), directors talk about spiritual progress or journey toward, or away from intimacy with Jesus and Christlikeness. Yet, the very basic question, “Who is Jesus?” is not answered as easily as reading the red letters in your Bible. This is perhaps nowhere more the case than when it comes to our endless political strife. Competing depictions of Jesus and selective hearing of the words of Scripture lead people who call themselves Christians to very different ways of life.

All of these people, including you and I, are people in the process of becoming. To the extent that we give ourselves over to this Jesus we meet in the Gospels, to his way, to his family described throughout the whole Bible, the Spirit of God is remaking all this mess into God’s people by God’s Word. Apart from giving ourselves over to God’s Word, we would not know the shape of this people, its character, its composition, its songs, its loves, or its future hope in Christ’s return. To give ourselves over to God by meditating together on the same words Jesus loved, and the testimonies about Jesus, our Lord, is to open ourselves up to wrestle with those who are trying to do the same. This is perhaps most apropos of this fractured and painful age in which we live. Many of us feel like Elijah did in 1 Kings 18. We feel alone, like we’re the only ones in our communities trying to find a faithful way in the wilderness.

This is how I feel most days.

Yet our process of becoming is not about purifying our friendship groups, our ideologies, or our strategies. If it were about purity and gate-keeping, Jesus would not have joined himself by baptism to such faithless, faltering, fallible, finite people as we see in the disciples, nor would he have joined himself to us who call on him by faith. Instead, we shape our lives to be like Jesus who is gracious and graceful while “giving no quarter to injustice.” I can’t recall anything more difficult in my time in ministry.

We continue to fracture and divide. Strident voices please crowds that applaud them as “prophets.” What if the raucous audiences we’re a part of are making the mistake of asking for a new kind of oppressive regent (1 Sam. 8:6), or what if our ears are merely itching for what we want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3). What makes us less susceptible to these pitfalls than the people we deem to be dupes? What if our characterization of Jesus is shaped more by our own againstness and less by the Scripture. How would we know if we’re becoming more like a concocted messiah of our imagination instead of like the Jesus who came to redeem God’s people?

I’m not sure I can answer all those questions fully in this short article. But I want to be clear about this: We give up on becoming like Jesus when we give up on the people he came to love. That’s easy to say, of course, so let me be honest about how I feel about that. Jesus inspires me and I feel dismay at how much this requires of me. There’s a reason why Jesus’ nonviolent love for enemies has largely been left untried and found wanting. Becoming like Jesus is the exception, not the rule for human beings.

So, I joined two small groups after a long drought of Christian community. The first small group is a refreshing drink of sameness. We are mostly highly educated BIPOC, and lean progressive. The second small group is a spoonful of nourishing difference. With the exception of me and one other, the group of men is comprised of evangelicals over the age of 65. The first group of my peers fills my lungs with laughter and my heart with comfort. The second group of my elders fills my mind with new-to-me stories of God’s faithfulness, and tugs my ears to listen better. The two groups speak of Jesus in very different ways, and are making me more like Him.

To be in the process of becoming is to persist in relationships across differences. Otherwise, we cease becoming when we behave as if the transforming, disrupting, Spirit of New Creation is not, in fact, everywhere present or for all people.

How We Receive

I don’t think I could ever be mistaken for a gym rat, and I know that exercise analogies exclude those of us who don’t even lift. But the letter to the Hebrews uses this phrase — “trained by practice” — that I just can’t get away from (5:14). This word for training is the one from which we derive our word, gymnasium. Becoming like Jesus, at least for Jewish minds in the first century, had something to do with training and discipline. Additionally, the word for practice (hexis) occurs only here in Hebrews and is the word that theologians working in Latin would have known as habitus, from which we get our notion of habits.

Habits are formed by those practices, people and values we love and lean into until it becomes second nature. If you’re at the beginning of the process of becoming like Jesus (and even if you’re not), here’s a few suggestions:.

• Audit your routine and observe Jesus’: What practices, people, and values do you love and lean into as a matter of course? When you read about Jesus, what do you observe about his loves?
• Check your nutrition: When you make a decision about how to live, who or what do you consult first? If it’s the words that Jesus loved, obeyed and fulfilled, read even more deeply and meditate on it with a community that will encourage you to do well.
• Increase resistance: Jesus came for the afflicted. Follow him to places where others are resisting oppressive powers and the appeal of comfort.
• Rest on purpose: Sunday isn’t just a fun day for the people of God. Jesus taught and healed on the Sabbath to show that people will be freed for the eternal rest of the people of God. Practicing the rhythms of bodily and spiritual rest shape us for that destiny.

Both Old and New Testaments have so much to say about all of this and more. In the final analysis, you can gauge your process of becoming like Christ by Jesus’ own words: “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27) If Jesus, the Word of God, is the one from whom you want to hear, the one who’s voice draws you in and sends you out, and you know this voice because of your habit formation from attending to the Scripture, “you will receive that your joy may be complete” (John 16:24, emphasis added).

This article first appeared in Pax’s Scripture StoryArc.

Jeff Liou loves ministry with and for young adults. Since 2001, Jeff has worked with college students and young adults in campus ministry, the local church, and as a university chaplain. He studied theology at Fuller Seminary (PhD, ’17) in order to better serve and reach both young people and the ideas and institutions that shape them. Jeff is a mediocre musician and woodworker. A child of Taiwanese immigrant parents, he’s a husband to Lisa, father to a high schooler and a middle schooler, and human to their dog, Shadow. Jeff is taken captive by Christ for ordained ministry in the Christian Reformed Church of North America. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter.

Last Christmas, my cousin @shivsters and I exchanged gifts in the morning and in the evening we attended her community Christmas party. The local Gujarati community gathered together to eat delicious Indian food, play musical chairs (to Bollywood songs) and dance to Hindi and Gujarati music.

I love how God created us all uniquely. I love how He made a way for people of all backgrounds to come to saving faith in Him. He makes it possible to celebrate my unique, beautiful culture in a way that’s honoring to Him.

While this Christmas looks very different, I still have hope because He’s still on the throne.

“And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭1:30–33‬ ‭

Biral Patel (B.S., MPH) is from Houston, Texas and works full time as a Wellness Consultant. Her passions include health promotion, disease prevention, and most importantly, her faith. She is a Christian from a Gujarati Hindu family background. As a first generation Indian American, she is thankful for the vibrant culture God has given her and desires to continue to carry on the language, food, celebrations and family values in ways that are glorifying to Him. In her free time, she enjoys reading, jigsaw puzzles and trying out coffee shops. Follow her on Instagram @biral93.

Our family is mixed. I am Filipinx and Black, my husband is Chicanx. We’re proud children of immigrants. He was raised in the Black church. I was raised in a Filipinx Catholic context. There are many details to how we celebrate Christmas. There is one uniting element of our cultural Christmas traditions that stays at the center: being together.

Our cultures are rooted in community. I like to call it the village: extended family, non-blood relatives, friends, newly immigrated who are homesick and looking for community, and strangers who become friends. The beauty of the village is how it cultivates resistance towards the racism and xenophobia we face daily. Our commitment to togetherness defies the harsh ways of American individualism. Together is how we overcome hatred, deepen our pride, and share love.

We can’t be together this Christmas because of the pandemic. I’m learning the joy is found in our commitment to be together: video calls, virtual gift exchanges, texts, and swapping recipes. We make parols to remind us of the Philippines and show off our finished products to each other. We live stream baile folklorico performances while our eldest dances around the house in her new china poblana dress. We deliver smoked brisket, mac and cheese, tamales, and suman to each other because food is a love language.

The nativity gives a blend of people and cultures coming together to worship the newborn King. They become a community and share this unique love experience centered on Christ. The diversity and openness of our cultures are a reflection of that first night. The uniqueness of our village is rooted in resilience. Our cultures are rooted in love, hospitality, and service. Our village is a reflection of the living gospel.

Camille Geri is a mom, writer, minister and community organizer. The mixed-race daughter of a Mississippi-bred civil rights activist and a Filipina immigrant, Camille offers a unique perspective on what it means to pursue justice. She believes that how we heal is how we liberate. She fuses her expertise as a pastoral minister, trauma-informed educator, and anti-racist activist to cultivate leaders. Follow Camille on Instagram @camille.geri and her website www.camillegeri.com.

This is my Mexican-American Christmas. Don’t be fooled. It probably doesn’t look much different than yours. But, it doesn’t mean that its beginnings had the same start as yours, either. As a child, my family would attend the Christmas Eve service at our church. During the service the children’s choir would perform, the Christmas play was held, and a beautiful sermon was given with candle lighting. There was so much love and warmth that we quickly forgot just how cold it was outside. Our church became our second family, even more so because my parents didn’t have immediate family nearby. But they weren’t the only ones. Many, if not everyone, at the church had left their home countries for a better life in the states and they all had someone back home to think of. Despite missing their families, we still celebrated because the Savior that was born thousands of years ago is the same Savior that protected everyone as they sojourned to this land.

My parents may not have taught us the traditions of our heritage but they did their best to teach us to remember Jesus.

This Christmas, my sweet niece and nephew invited me to join them in singing some Christmas songs in a mini-recital for the family. In remembrance of my early childhood days, we plan on singing some Christmas songs in Spanish.

As I hope you can see, my Mexican-American Christmas isn’t made up of just honoring cultural traditions but honoring the One who gave me the culture I can claim today.

Samantha Treviño is a student majoring in English at Texas State University and an aspiring writer. She currently works at The Settlement Home for Children. Originally from Virginia, she now lives in Austin, Texas and did NOT run as fast as she could to get there. She enjoys worship jam sessions, shopping for books and deep conversations. She is passionate about encouraging and leading others to Christ. You can follow her on Instagram @_samiam77.

These stories are from Part 2 of Pax’s ​two-part series, “Tis Our Season: Cultural Identity & Justice during the Holidays.” We are thrilled to be collaborating with SheLoves Magazine for this second part and our aim is to intentionally make space for a multicultural Christmas together. Like and follow Pax and SheLoves on Instagram to learn about how to experience peace, justice and wholeness during this holiday season. To read more about faith and culture, read P​ax’s StoryArc on Cultural Identity​ and follow SheLoves Magazine on their website shelovesmagazine.com.

Cultural Identity & Justice During Christmas was originally published in ar-che-type on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.