UniteBoston

Bridging Divides Across Christians for the Flourishing of the City

Testimonies from 10 Days Boston!

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God has already done so much through these 10 Days of Prayer!

UniteBoston seeks to be an answer to Jesus’ prayer in John 17 “that we would be one.” We believe that our part in this “oneness” is to nurture relational connections throughout the diversity of Boston’s Christian community.

At the center of Christian unity is the agape love that God has for us and that we have for one another. As each of us step outside our comfort zones to become more aware of the various cultures and Christian traditions in our city, we develop stronger relational connections, cultivating mutual respect and honor for the incredible diversity within the people of God in Boston.

Check out these testimonies to see all that God is doing to bring together His church in the city:

Day 1: Healing Miracle in Prayer Room

Night 3: Experiencing the Orthodox Faith – Changed Perspectives!

Night 4: Worship with our Deaf Brothers and Sisters

Day 5: Answered Prayer: Testimony from Prayer Room

Night 6: Changing Perspectives from 10 Days Catholic Gathering

 

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Night 8: Taize Prayer in MIT Chapelphoto 1-2

Night 8: Food and Fellowship with the MIT Lutheran/Episcopal Ministry
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Night 9: Passionate Worship with Symphony and City Churchphoto 3-2

Night 10: Embracing our Common Identity in Christ

At this gathering, we each placed our name tags with our individual identities at the foot of the cross, so that we were better able to embrace one another as brothers and sisters in Christ:

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Reflection – Aaron’s Story

Aaron shares how listening to a sermon by an Episcopal priest reshaped his perspective of the Christian church

For He himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility… His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. (Ephesians 2:14-16)

Praise God for the inseverable and eternal peace that is revealed as we all gaze at Christ’s sacrificial work on the cross!

Race and Grace: A Boston Fellow Points the Way

This week, UniteBoston features Terrance Moore, who was a 2015 graduate of the Boston Fellows program . Terrance hosted a conversation at a local church on race – He suggests that each of us, regardless of ethnicity or culture, should:

1. Be prayerful in processing and acting. We are often too quick to act on serious issues without personal brokenness. To understand the hurt, ask the Lord to take you to the place of your own pain and brokenness when he saved you. Pray for: revelation, healing, growth, reconciliation, restoration, overcoming, humility, compassion, work, burden and conviction. Pray against: insensitivity, inconvenience/sleepiness, pride, self-righteousness. (Joel 2:13; Ps. 34:17-19)

2. Make the pain the priority; don’t ignore or minimize it. Whatever the details of any one case, America’s story includes 250 years of slavery, 90 years of Jim Crow, 60 years of separate-but-equal, 35 years of racist housing policy, and the current state of mass incarceration, police brutality and discrimination, and militarization of inner-city neighborhoods. #BlackLivesMatter is a response to the message that they don’t. Do not discount the pain. Hurt with your brothers and sisters. Approach the Father with it, with them.

3. Educate yourself to the nuance, depth, and perspectives outside of your own experiences on the issue. Ask black friends about their experiences, and listen with an open heart.

4. Embrace the inconvenience and discomfort of the matter; don’t opt out. This is hard work. We don’t feel qualified. It’s uncomfortable, inconvenient, scary, susceptible to conflict. The church must act in practical ways to restore justice. Sometimes this will mean engaging those who hold harmful and ignorant views on the issues, even close friends or relatives.

5. Don’t forsake the opportunity to minister through bearing burdens for the opportunity “to be right” in your opinion. Don’t try to prove that you “get it.” You can’t, not fully. And that’s the point, in part.

6. Actively participate, but be a guest by not taking the attention off the issue or the amplification of black voices. Ask. Listen. Give voice to people silenced and ignored.

“Overall, the state of racial relations in America is a very dismal one. Luckily, the Church must remember, God is in the business of resurrecting what seems dead. The process of reconciliation begins at the source of God’s salvation for us: compassion. If the Church can undertake America’s racial issues at a heart level where we compassionately seek to hurt, listen, walk, and work with its brothers and sisters of the black community under the healing lordship of our Father, we will be the restorers of justice God has called us to be. To do that, we have to move past intentions and obstacles and embrace the dirty and difficult work of reconciliation; just as Jesus did for us.”

*Note: Originally published in a Boston Fellows email; reprinted with permission

Learn about the Founding of Boston

Did you know that Boston was founded to be a city on a hill and a model for Christian charity? These were the founding principles of our city, spoken by John Winthrop, as he and his fellow companions sailed to begin their civilization in America.

In a Church History course at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, Amy Seifert and Kelly Steinhaus researched the history behind the Founder’s Memorial in Boston Common. They wanted to share our findings with the Christian community in Greater Boston by producing a video.

Click on the video link below to watch the video and learn more about Boston’s history! Also, we acknowledge that this is only one perspective of the founding of Boston, and we welcome your ideas and input by commenting via Youtube.

The Power That Brings Hope

This week, Ryan Garza shares a self-produced video about the hope Christ has given him, despite the darkness of circumstances around him. He writes:

On the night of September 9th, 2014 I was doing homework in my room when suddenly I felt inspired to begin writing. I opened a word document and began writing about finding hope in my generation. After living in Boston for about two years now, I have realized how desperate people are for hope. The goal of this video is to spread the hope that I, and so many other people, have in us everyday. I hope this video inspires healing and restoration to all those who see and hear this message.

You can watch the video on Youtube here:

Follow Ryan on Instagram – ryan.garza or Twitter – @ryanagarza


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