July 5, 2005

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. – At the "Cast Your Net Breakfast," sponsored by National Ministries and held during the American Baptist Churches USA Biennial Meeting July 2 in Denver, Colo., the Rev. Dr. Jeffrey A. Johnson, National Ministries' national coordinator of evangelism, compared "maintenance churches" that do evangelism to save themselves with "missional churches" that do evangelism to save others.

Churches with this maintenance mentality just think of "getting by," said Johnson, but churches with a missional focus know that truly following God's lead means "thriving, not just surviving." Johnson added: "When a church exists to take care of itself, it becomes a fortress; missional churches, on the other hand, acknowledge they are a force or an agent of change empowered by the Holy Spirit to make a difference in people's lives."

Participants walked prayerfully through a new style of prayer labyrinth during the National Ministries-sponsored workshop ‘Faces of Faith: Changing Our Perspectives and Changing Our Communities." Prayer labyrinths, which signify God's love, usually are one round geometric pattern and have been used in Christian worship since 325 A.D. The Charisma (Gift) labyrinth, designed by the Rev. Cheryl Dudley, associate executive director for Church in Community Transformation for National Ministries, is square, with four quadrants and a square in the middle where the quadrants meet.

Dudley designed the Charisma labyrinth to help facilitate the process of reconciliation across races and cultures. For the workshop, Native Americans were placed in the center as the "original" Americans, with the four quadrants comprising African-, Asian-, Hispanic- and Euro-Americans. Participants, who described feeling separated, made comments such as, "I had to stay in my quadrant. I wanted to jump over, because I have two African-American sons" and "I felt frustrated that I couldn't ‘explore' other cultures by entering their quadrants."

Amidst reflections on challenges of multiculturalism, causes of separation and reoccurring power dynamics, one person commented on the smiles she received upon reaching the center. It was a warm welcome. "That was extraordinary," she said.

American Baptist News Service