UniteBoston

Nurturing Relational Connections Across Boston's Christian Community

RCCI Learning Community for White Evangelicals

The Race and Christian Community Initiative Learning Communities for White Evangelicals are cohorts where Christians can learn about racism from a biblical perspective and develop the capacity to respond to it as an outworking of their faith. Our current cohorts are designed for White leaders shaped by the evangelical tradition, and aim to create a space where they can come together to learn about and do the self-work needed to engage issues related to race more effectively. RCCI understands leadership broadly and welcomes formal and informal leadership alike. 

Cohorts are six-month commitments through which people examine and respond to the ways racism impacts ourselves, our society, our Christian communities, and faith. They are run in a seminar-style format for small groups of 6-8 people and utilize various methods, including engaging books and media, guest speakers, discussion, spiritual disciplines, creative exercises, and field trips. Cohorts value experiential and peer learning and aim to get beyond an intellectual understanding of race by engaging the whole person in mind, body, emotions, and spirit.

At the end of each cohort, participants go through an individual and communal discernment process regarding how they can take actions to contribute to the dismantling of racism in their sphere of influence. All alumni are also invited into RCCI’s action taking communities to receive ongoing resources to move from knowing and caring to action.

While we do not currently offer learning communities designed for BIPOC folks, we invite people of all races to sign up for our resource and events email list that spreads the word about learning and action opportunities hosted by organizations throughout Greater Boston. Applications are due Friday, August 25th, 2023! 

Visit egc.org/racecohort to:

Future of Evangelicalism Conference

IS THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH IN IRREPARABLE DECLINE?
HOW CAN WE GET YOUNG PEOPLE MORE INVOLVED IN LOCAL CHURCH MINISTRY?
WHAT KEY FACTORS WILL LEAD TO A VIBRANT RESURGENCE IN EVANGELICALISM?

The 2023 Kingdom Resources for Christ Spring Retreat (April 13-16) picks up where thinkers like Stanley J. Grenz and the Robert E. Webber left off. In the 1990s, both Christian thinkers were valiantly trying to re-envision and rethink Evangelicalism for a postmodern world—and yet, thirty years later, we’re still within the general trajectory of where they believed Evangelicalism needed to go, but socially and culturally, our whole world is also at a very different place today than the world they were facing.

As a corrective response, the above mentioned historical ingredients of Evangelicalism will be critically engaged towards a reconstructive proposal intended to internally renew the Evangelical movement towards something more holistic—this, without seeking to become “post-evangelical” or “post-conservative” (self-identifiers that some who have given up on Evangelicalism have already embraced). Instead, we’re proposing a re-constructive way forward for Evangelicalism.

Join Project Arctos online April 15-16 to explore how we can pursue a more vibrant Evangelical Christianity. We’ll be hosting digital access to Dr. Wen’s sessions, as well as a separate online discussion for those interested.

Our discussion will be led by Dr. Clement Wen, Professor of Theology at China Evangelical Seminary in Taiwan. Clement has written many forward-thinking articles on Christian life and theology, including his series ‘COVID-19 as the End of the Modern World?’ Full registration includes in-person access to all sessions, prepared meals, and housing on a first-come basis. Partial and online-only registration options are also available. Scholarships provided on as-needed basis. You can register here to secure your space in this important conversation. Or please reach out to Matt Reffie with any questions.

Leading Boldly in the Midst of a Community in Crisis

Join us for Vision New England’s Women in Christian Leadership “Leading Well” forum, featuring Rev. Gloria White-Hammond, entitled “Leading Boldly in the Midst of a Community in Crisis.”

Historians often discuss watershed moments—critical turning points in history that fundamentally change how people think about and do life. The past 1 ½ years has been a quintessential watershed moment in which many communities have experienced multiple painful crises simultaneously. Just as God raised up and equipped Esther to respond to the crisis in her day, God is calling today’s Christian women leaders to step up with conviction, step out on faith and step forward with courage.

Rev. Gloria White-Hammond, M.D. is co-pastor of Bethel AME Church in Boston and a pediatrician who long practiced at the South End Community Health Center. She also co-directs the Harvard Medical School and Harvard Divinity School course, “Medicine and Spirituality in Healing.” Rev. Gloria is a longtime champion of health equity and publicly speaks about COVID-19 vaccination as a pastor and a physician, especially in communities of color. Rev. Gloria’s innovative ministries include Do The Write Thing, a creative writing mentoring ministry for high-risk adolescent girls; My Sister’s Keeper,  www.mskeeper.org , a humanitarian and human rights organization that champions social justice for women and girls in conflict zones; and Shatter the Silence, a ministry that addresses sexual victimization in communities of faith.

Leading Confidently In God’s Rescue Mission – Carolyn Custis James

Vision New England – Women in Christian Leadership – Leading Well Forum Series

In our rapidly changing world, women are learning how to draw from the attitudes and skills that are developed from our unique experiences as women. These distinct approaches to leadership achieve results, but often in different ways. We invite Christian women in leadership on church staffs or in non-profits to join us online this year to explore what it means to lead well. This is a great opportunity to hear their voice and share yours…to listen, ask questions, and reflect with peers so that your own leadership is honed.

On September 24th hear from Carolyn Custis James in on free, interactive zoom forum. God’s calling on His daughters is big. His plan from the beginning has been for his male and female image bearers together to reflect his heart for the world and look after things on his behalf. This is God’s call to leadership. Throughout scripture God often chooses the most unlikely people to advance his purposes for the world. Far too often human systems impede our ability to respond. How do we as women leaders confidently embrace our calling and encourage other women and girls to hear and step into their calling too? From her theological training and years of ministry experience, Carolyn will challenge us to accept these divine assignments.

Carolyn is an award winning author who thinks deeply about what it means to be a female follower of Jesus in a postmodern world. In 2013, Christianity Today named her one of the 50 evangelical women to watch. She speaks regularly at church conferences, colleges, and for other Christian organizations both in the US and abroad and is a guest lecturer at various theological seminaries. Her speaking and writing ministry is dedicated to addressing the deeper needs and issues confronting both women and men as they endeavor to extend God’s kingdom together in a messy and complicated world. Her books include Malestrom:  Manhood Swept into the Currents of a Changing World and Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women.

To register, click here.

Pastor’s Forum: Sharing the Uniqueness of Jesus in our Pluralistic Culture

The Shoemaker Center for Church Renewal and the Dean’s office at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary are please to welcome Carrie Boren Headington, Canon Evangelist, Episcopal Diocese of Dallas for a combined Pastor’s Forum/Dean’s Forum on November 5, 2019. Carrie will speak on ‘Sharing the Uniqueness of Jesus in our Pluralistic Culture.’ Lunch is free for Gordon-Conwell students with registration.


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