By: Michelle Tribe

Today has been a day marred with sadness.

The shooting at Emanuel First AME in Charleston, SC weighs heavily in the air.

Nine people gunned down, allegedly for the color of their skin.

Nine people gunned down while attending a prayer service at church.

Nine people gunned down who leave behind families who will never truly have closure.

Nine people gunned down.
For my wife and I this incident in Charleston has hit home for us a little more than it might have in the past. We live in a neighborhood that is comprised primarily of people of color and we’ve been intentionally building relationships with our neighbors for more than a year now.

As a part of that relationship-building process, a friend from our neighborhood invited us to attend a revival at his church. The church is right around the corner from our home and it’s a Missionary Baptist Church. For the uninitiated, “Missionary Baptist” means a Baptist church that is connected to the long history of primarily black Baptist churches.

And this church was no different.

My wife, son, and I were the only people in attendance who were not black. We loved our time with our new friends! We were shown great hospitality and I was even invited to help receive people who might come down during the altar call.

It was a truly blessed experience for our family (and hopefully for our new friends too!).

However, the shooting in Charleston made us stop and think a bit. Apparently the alleged shooter was there for over an hour before the carnage began. Did he participate in the prayer service? Was he shown a similar level of hospitality that my family was?

And will his actions have an impact on my family’s ability to continue to build relationships with people in our neighborhood, especially historically black churches in our neighborhood.
Will we now face a new level of scrutiny due to the shooting in Charleston?

I’m not sure what the answer to that question is…but I’m excited to find out. In fact, we welcome increased scrutiny. We want to continue to dispel unhelpful stereotypes that prevent folks from different backgrounds from interacting well. We want to jump through whatever hoops are necessary in order to mourn with, worship with, and serve with our friends of color.
We welcome the awkwardness. Why? Because we truly believe that in Christ these sorts of barriers can be brought down and true community and fellowship can be forged by the power of the Spirit.
Lord, make it so in our lives and all over this divided country of ours! Amen.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.  And please be civil!