Today, we are featuring an excerpt from a new book entitled The Church and Migration: A Theological Vision for the People of God. Local theologian Daniel Montanez is a PhD student at the Boston University School of Theology and is the primary editor for this book, which explores the theme of human migration throughout the grand narrative of Scripture.

Read the excerpt below by Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, Academic Dean of Centro Latino & Associate Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, who reminds us of the need to start any conversation about migration from the perspective of our faith in order to foster unity and reconciliation.

“What about illegal do you not understand?” I have received this question and similar questions after multiple presentations about immigration in different churches over the past forty years. The questioners have been angry, frustrated, sometimes confused. It seems obvious to them that there is no acceptable reason for crossing a border without legal documentation or overstaying a VISA. At the same time, however, there are often people in the same audience (if the church is large enough) or at a minimum in the same Church denomination, who have personally experienced a broken immigration system and who empathize deeply with those who have ended up on the wrong side of that system. Many churches and denominations owe the majority of their growth over the past decades to immigrant Christians and to immigrants who become Christians through the missionary efforts of migrant believers. This is a family fight, a conflict between children of the same God, brothers and sisters, members of the same Body of Christ. The battle is often fought on political grounds, with little to no input from the scriptures that they share.

This book reminds Christians that we are standing on common sacred ground. If we are to have any hope of reconciliation, we must start any conversation about migration from the perspective of our faith. That perspective includes theology, of course, disciplined reflection on the Word and will of God. The authors in this book are grounded in orthodox Christian theology. They are also creative. I have been working with and teaching about these issues for many years, yet I found myself moved, inspired and provoked. The contents of this book go beyond theology to spirituality. The authors of these chapters call us to the deepening of our faith, hope, and love. Most of this book is written by people who have experienced migration, either through their own personal journey and/or through the experiences of their loved ones. They call us to incarnate the heart of God as we approach not only the issue but the people who are impacted by it. For that reason, it also goes beyond asking us to reconsider how we think about migration to how we practically respond to the plight of migrants.

To fully receive the gift of this book, approach it with both an open mind and an open heart. If you are a migrant, you may be encouraged and perhaps even healed from some of the wounds of shame, slander, and rejection. If you are confused about migration, you may attain some clarity. If you are angry about migration, you may hear a challenging but important message that could deepen your faith. Regardless, you will be blessed.

Today, we are featuring Dan Elliott as our guest blogger. Dan serves as the Promotions Manager for K-LOVE Boston and describes that his goal and his mission are simple: to help his audiences take one step closer to Christ. Dan holds a Master’s Degree in Ministry and is currently pursuing his Doctorate in Ministry with a focus on Advanced Expository preaching. Read below to hear Dan’s testimony of how he has seen God change lives and how KLOVE can partner with you to celebrate God’s great work in our region.

I love stories.

Stories that have a great beginning, middle, and end. I love stories that are as captivating as they are encouraging, ones that can take our attention forever and make the hours fly by. Where a great hero defeats evil and saves the people. And, when asked, I’m sure many of us can tell these kinds of great stories in our own lives. Stories of both pain and fulfilled promise, stories of devastating lows and incredible highs, and stories that are amazing examples of how good God is.

Great storytellers know how to engage people with what they’re doing and how to take the audience with them into the story. My story is an example of just that. I’ve grown up in church, have seen God do great things in the lives of people and have gotten to watch many stories changed for the better by Jesus. As a former Pastor, I have gotten to connect with people from all walks of life and see how the presence of God in their lives has made all the difference. As a traveling speaker, I’ve seen many people and their stories from a variety of places and have gotten to have a front row seat to the story that God is writing through His church here in New England. This story is one of unity and community, where God glorifies Himself through the collaboration that we can all have in working out His plan. 

I have also known significant pain, that has resulted in two books being written by my family. We have seen abuse, injury, and autism, as well as good times, hard times, and everything in between. I have seen God meet us in the middle of that pain and show how skilled of a storyteller He is. In fact, there is not a greater storyteller than Jesus, and the stroke of His pen changes the world. 

As we look at scripture, we can see God working both in our lives individually and in the lives of all of us together. Isaiah 43: 19-21 says this:

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.”

We can see God writing the story of His people and His work that culminated in both His resurrection and the creation of His church. Isaiah was writing this about future generations to come and to set the stage for one of God’s greatest stories, The Church. And the best part is, He isn’t done writing stories through His church, His eternal partner in His work for a renewed world. His love for the world is shown by His love for the church, because through the church the world will see Him. 

At K-LOVE, we see the value of the local church, and we exist to push it forward. We want to partner with churches in telling the stories of how God is moving in their midst to do great things for His glory. God is doing so many amazing things throughout New England, and we know that the church at large here could truly benefit from hearing some of these things and seeing themselves encouraged. God is moving here, and we love sharing the stories of it. One of our favorite stories is of the time God used our radio station to prevent someone from taking their own life. While on their way to a bridge, they were moving through the radio dial, and they providentially came across our station. Through the message of the songs that they heard they realized that there was hope available, even when life seemed hopeless through a relationship with Jesus. Once they came to this conclusion, they got involved in a local church and the rest is history: this person began a relationship with Christ and never looked back.

Personally, I love hearing these stories of how God is changing lives through His church and doing great things. If you would like us to be a part of your church’s story, we’d love to talk about how we can help. We have a variety of platforms that we could feature your church or organization on including our text club, Instagram page, and our website events page. We don’t ask for anything financially, rather we see it as an opportunity to partner alongside your church to tell others about the story that God is telling through you. We love stories and can’t wait to tell others about God’s work in the middle of yours. 

For more information about how we can help please shoot us an email at boston@klove.com or reach out to us on Instagram @kloveboston. 

It was, indeed, a Christian celebration of liberation filled with preaching, music, singing/rapping, poetry, testimony and prayer! Let’s take a photographic scroll down memory lane as we use this Friday to flash back to the first inaugural Juneteenth Jubilee Observance! Thanks again to Rev. Kevin Peterson for the vision and The Table, Restoration City Church, New Democracy Coalition and UniteBoston for the partnership in making this happen!

Photos courtesy of Josh Wilson, Devlin Scott, Davie Hernandez, Kelly Fassett and Fons Cervera.

The beauty of the resurrection is that death is not the end of the story – but leads to ultimate life. Similarly, we often see how there are signs of God’s redemptive life coming out of painful circumstances and broken realities in our world. In this season of Eastertide, we want to feature The Boston Project Ministries, which “engages and equips neighbors, volunteers, and churches to build strong communities characterized by God’s shalom.” Below, Paul Malkemes shares how they worked with residents of the community to create a mural symbolizing hope after the heartbreaking loss of a young man in the neighborhood.

“We have learned that healing as a community is often rooted in relationships.”

– Paul Malkemes

Our community has experienced some real heartache this year. Maybe you have to? 

Early in 2021, we lost a young man to violence. He was deeply loved by his family, school, and community. He was an artist, a comic and video game enthusiast, a promising student, and a beloved son. An outdoor memorial and healing service brought together over 100 young people to grieve. Unexpected loss can sometimes be the hardest to recover from.

Then in the spring, retaliatory violence shook our community again. Trauma reawakened. Parents kept their children inside; neighbors wanted to move. What was happening?

Neighbors began to ask: How do we heal as a community? How do we find hope?

Our sense of safety had been shattered. The COVID-19 pandemic layered health concerns, loneliness, economic hardship, and learning loss on top of this tragedy. We have learned that healing as a community is often rooted in relationships. “Knowing and being able to talk to my neighbors helps me get through,” shares one resident.

So we began planning monthly events – a book fair, a vaccination clinic, building raised bed gardens, and having cookouts. But we wondered – could we have a more permanent reminder of our healing-hope journey? One youth expressed it this way, “Hope is like looking for the light at the end of the tunnel.” The idea for a mural was born.

The vision was cast for a mural that would both memorialize the loss of our beloved young person, and speak to the eternal message of hope found in Jesus – even as we face challenges in our individual lives and within our collective community.

Summer arrived and the time to create began. The process of building the mural was a sacred act of hope. “It was a beautiful experience, and I felt really honored to be part of this healing and catharsis for the community, and my friend,” expressed one youth.  Another teen shared, “For me, it was an impact to see a memory coming to life. Watching adults, kids, and teens grieving together. At the same time, it gave people life. It was very beautiful – to some people, it was remembering our friend, for others, it was seeing hope for our community.”

Muralist Alex Cook reflects “It is powerful to have a human figure (in the mural) enveloped in hope. It is about our identity, our inner experience, and our struggles. It is intimate. It makes you think about your own relationship to hope. The butterflies represent our letting go and the healing process. You don’t keep a butterfly, but you let it rise.”

As we were completing the mural, a neighbor walked up and said to us, “that person in the mural, it’s Jesus right? It has to be Jesus.” We believe Jesus is the one who restores and embodies HOPE.  In the words of Pastor Valerie Copeland, “Art has a way of pointing our hearts toward God.”

We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. Let your unfailing love surround us,  Lord, for our hope, is in you alone.

Psalm 33:20-22

As we emerge from the pandemic, we wanted to highlight the creative ministry at Roxbury Presbyterian Church, where church leaders imparted ashes to congregants in their cars after their Zoom Ash Wednesday service. Read below to hear Elder Chase Grogan, Elder Kim Houston, and Rev. Dana Baker describe the significance of this practice, how it blessed the broader community, and what the Church should focus on moving forward.

How did you decide to impart ashes on the cars? What was the most meaningful moment of that day for you?

Chase: Throughout the pandemic, we have been going back and forth with how to create and foster a sense of community while existing in this space of isolation. We’ve done other creative events like this and we figured we would provide the best solution for a circumstance where we knew people would gather. Our creative worship team, along with our church administrator, put together the logistics and THE PEOPLE SHOWED UP!! 

Maybe the most meaningful aspect, however, was not just the members that drove from around the city – some even on the bus – but there were community members walking down the street that asked for ashes and prayer! They wanted to know what we were doing and so there was a sense of evangelism and outreach that also occurred that was the biggest blessing! 

Dana: One woman was on the phone as she walked by – she stopped right in front of us and told the person on the phone, “I’ve got to go, I’ve got something much more important to do right now.”  The fact that she recognized that what we were doing was something significant, and would stop a conversation in which she was in the middle, just said to me how much meaning these sacramental moments can have even when people aren’t directly connected with a local congregation.  We prayed for each person afterwards as they walked away.  Who knows what God will do through that moment.

Kim: Also, one of our congregants got off the bus with so much excitement, waving and shouting “I’m here!” All I could say to myself is: “Look at God!” 

For me the meaning of Lent has evolved as I have grown spiritually.  In the beginning it was just a time to give up something for 40 days, sugar or coffee or even TV, flat and one dimensional.  Now I see it as multidimensional, not just giving up something but adding on something to get closer to God, like prayer, journaling or more studying. The giving up of something is to remove the distractions so you can allow more of God in. 

What is significant about the mission and ministry of Roxbury Presbyterian Church? 

Chase: The significance about RPC is that we’ve existed for over 130 years as a place where the community can be ministered to. Social justice and community outreach have been central to the narrative of our church’s history and seem to be woven into the fabric of who we are. Our church has been used to house programs for the Black Panthers, Alcoholics Anonymous, educational and community programs and now our Social Impact Center where we open ourselves to the community through our trauma-informed programming. Even as we have entered a new season after our beloved pastor, Rev. Liz Walker, retired in December, the outreach and the impact of being involved in the community remain a vital part of what we do and why we exist. Rev. Liz impressed on our hearts the importance of being the love of Christ and the mission and ministry of RPC seeks to embed that in everything that we do. 

Is there anything you’d like to say to Christians in Boston?

Chase: We know everyone is excited about seeing “the light at the end of the tunnel.” Soon, our congregations may be back to “normal,” but we must reflect and put into practice what we’ve learned through the pandemic. As the world changes, and the needs of the community change, we as the Body of Christ also must evolve. We must be ready to incorporate technology into our services. We must be ready to speak to the growing mental health challenges in our communities. We must be creative and intuitive and willing to color outside of our traditional lines; and yes, it may be challenging but ministry must be intentional. The Bible reminds us that those that win souls are wise and we, at RPC, are praying for that wisdom so that we can continue to reflect the love and compassion of Christ as we minister to a broken world. 

Dana: These are some words and a prayer that I used to open the RPC Ash Wednesday Service.  May they continue to challenge us to reflect on these in the remaining days of Lent.

“Father God, I find myself tonight so thankful for the liturgical calendar.  For rhythms that remind us to pause and reflect.  For the invitation to stop numbing ourselves or busying ourselves so we don’t notice what really ails us: that the world is not as it should be. 

To remember the tension of being dust and beloved, living and dying, the here and not yet.  That although all of nature will soon remind us that winter and death does have an end – that You have also provided this space.  This muddy place.  This making room for the resurrection of new blooms.

So as we enter into this service, I want to commit to you Lord the words of a prayer, a poem that really captures the cries of my heart, and I hope the cries of others, of a place between dirt and divinity, between ashes and the hope of the resurrection.

“Art and Prayer by Jan Richardson”