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Whose Side Are You On?: A “Third Way” To Reconciliation (Roland Warren – 6/26/20 – NCS New Canaan & NCS Bergen County)

June 26, 2020 by NCS New Canaan Leave a Comment

With tremendous honesty, passion and wisdom, Roland Warren presents a “third way” approach to racial reconciliation and healing. Warren shares vulnerably about his first experience of racism and the impact it has had on his life. He also explains how God began to reveal insights about the current cultural climate by pointing him back to lessons learned in his early days at Goldman Sachs.

Starting with Joshua 5:13-14 (see text below) and then looking at the model of Jesus, Warren urges us to put aside the “tribal” sides that divide us over issues and concepts like “systemic racism”, “white privilege” and “black lives matter vs. all lives matter” and consider what it would look like to be “on God’s side” in addressing issues of racism and racial division. Warren reminds us that we are in a spiritual battle, and that the “two sides” are really the divisive side of Satan and the reconciling side of God–that is the real choice we have to make.

Warren shows that God’s way, as modeled by Jesus, is to pursue reconciliation by changing individual hearts–that systemic racial problems will only heal when people’s hearts have been changed to embrace both justice and mercy–whites and blacks committed to fighting injustice and forgiving. Warren boldly asserts that reconciliation will never happen between a guilty person and an angry person, which is why many current narratives and efforts just bring greater division.

During his 22 minute talk and an extended 45 minutes of Q&A, Roland addresses topics such as:

  • Why messages of reconciliation are not being heard because the media needs “volatility” for news.
  • How systemic injustice toward blacks today can be compared to systemic injustice toward Jews at the time of Jesus, and how Jesus addressed the systemic by changing individual hearts.
  • The lessons we can learn from how Jesus perceived and treated victims and victimizers.
  • Drawing on his experience as President of the National Fatherhood Initiative, the need to help build strong black families.
  • Drawing on his experience as current CEO of Care-Net, the tragic reasoning that he believes leads to a disproportionate number of black abortions.
  • That truly “caring” about black lives means caring comprehensively, from “womb to tomb”.
  • How whites and blacks can (and must) move toward reconciliation by getting past positions of anger and guilt.
  • The importance of personal responsibility and forgiveness in pursuing reconciliation.
  • Practical ways whites can come alongside blacks in the pursuit of reconciliation without supporting organizations they believe have a different agenda.
  • How “God’s side” of reconciliation can be expressed in secular terms as the universal desire for “peace”.

Warren’s message and perspective is one most people have probably not heard, but it is one that needs to be heard.

Here is a link to the 2016 article Warren mentions in his talk. https://newcanaansociety.org/new-canaan/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2020/06/washingtontimes.com-Black-Lives-Matters-real-agenda.pdf

Joshua 5:13-14 13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped[a] and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?”

Filed Under: Audio & Video, Video Tagged With: Anger, Audio & Video, Christianity-Theology, Cultural Change and Engagement, Faith, Faithful Presence, Father-Son, Forgiveness, Friendship, Great Commandments - Love God - Love Neighbor, Healing, NCS New Canaan, Prayer, Raising Children, Relationships, Right Wrong, Serving Others, Shame-Guilt, Speak Truth, Spiritual Warfare, Transparency and Authenticity

I’m Not Racist, But Am I Ignorant, Uninvolved? (Dr. Mark Gordon Fee – 6/12/20 – NCS New Canaan & NCS Albany)

June 12, 2020 by NCS New Canaan Leave a Comment

In a talk he has never delivered before, Dr. Mark Gordon Fee shares how God has been directing his attention and wrenching his heart in the light of the protests that have followed the death of George Floyd. Fee shares transparently from his own life experiences of fear, pain and anger that have been helping him recognize his ignorance about racism and, at the same time, become less ignorant. He also vulnerably admits that he has yet to understand what “involvement” should look like for him.

At the end of Fee’s talk, NCS brudder PJ Johns shares some impromptu reflections on growing up black in Westchester County, NY and raising his children in Fairfield County, CT. PJ concludes the only color that really matters is red–the color of the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for every human.

These are not messages about blame or victims or movements or politics or protests or riots. They are messages from two committed followers of Jesus sharing their hearts and their pains. They are messages about how we might “see” each other with more compassion and begin to honestly explore how to love each other as God first loved us–as just “brothers” with no chromatic descriptors.

Filed Under: Audio & Video, Video Tagged With: Anger, As One, Audio & Video, Chapter Friday, Cultural Change and Engagement, Fear and Worry, Friendship, Great Commandments - Love God - Love Neighbor, Healing, NCS New Canaan, Relationships, Right Wrong, Shame-Guilt, Transparency and Authenticity

Setting a New Default (Nigel Mumford – 5/15/20 – NCS New Canaan/Manchester/Virginia Beach)

May 15, 2020 by NCS New Canaan Leave a Comment

In the midst of the “Covid crisis”, Rev. Nigel Mumford explores where we go when we are stressed–how we respond when our “buttons” are pushed or our “triggers” are triggered–and how we can be healed from those buttons and triggers. By looking to Matthew 6:33 (“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”), Nigel helps us understand how to set a “new default” through God’s healing of our past. He vulnerably shares from his own life traumas, including those suffered as a British Royal Marine Commando, as well as his near-death experience with Swine Flu when he was in a coma for three weeks and in the ICU for three months.

Through examples from his own life as well as experiences from his global healing ministry, Nigel unpacks two sayings “Hurt people hurt people, but healed hurt people heal people” and “Don’t let your past ruin your present or your future.”

In an extensive Q&A session at the end, Nigel addresses questions about topics such as: healing from the trauma of Covid-19; sharing your deepest fears and hurts; strengthening marriages; going through a near-death experience; fearing death; the difference between forgiving, reconciling and healing; and quarantining alone.

Donations to Nigel’s ministry may be made at www.byhiswoundsministry.org

Nigel has just published a new book on healing titled “This Is Where Your Healing Begins”. Click this link to purchase a copy: https://amzn.to/2LvP5ML

Filed Under: Audio & Video, Video Tagged With: Anger, Audio & Video, Career and Financial Disappointments and Transitions, Chapter Friday, Crisis and Adversity, Dealing with Emotions, Faith, Fear and Worry, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Healing, Health Challenges and Losses, Isolation-Loneliness-Depression, Marriage, Nature of God, NCS New Canaan, Relationships, Shame-Guilt, Spiritual Warfare, Substance Abuse and Addictions, Transparency and Authenticity

Live to Forgive Through Empathy (Jason Romano – 11/22/19 – NCS New Canaan)

November 22, 2019 by NCS New Canaan Leave a Comment

With tremendous transparency and authenticity, Jason Romano shares the painful story of estrangement from his father. He takes us on a journey from childhood to the depths of hurt, resentment, unforgiveness and bondage, and then explains how that journey finally took a God-orchestrated turn toward forgiveness, freedom and healing. Romano also reflects on the rampant unforgiveness in our society and the damage it is doing.

In recounting the journey, Romano admits how difficult it is to truly forgive as Jesus forgives us. He vulnerably shares how for many years he responded to hurt by hurting back from a place of bitterness and anger. He finally came to understand that forgiveness is not about the other person–it is about you. But most importantly, he came to understand that the key to forgiveness is empathy–what Romano now calls “the antidote to life”. Romano shares that being able to finally have empathy for, and forgive, his father, started him on a life of forgiveness.

Filed Under: Audio & Video, Video Tagged With: Addiction, Anger, Audio & Video, Christianity-Theology, Crisis and Adversity, Dealing with Emotions, Father-Son, Forgiveness, Isolation-Loneliness-Depression, Nature of God, NCS New Canaan, Relationships, Substance Abuse and Addictions

Being All You Were Made To Be (Col. Richard Toliver – 10/10/14 – NCS New Canaan)

October 10, 2014 by NCS Leave a Comment

http://ncss3staging.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2015/12/09181617/Colonel-Richard-Toliver_10.10.14.mp3

In addition to sharing some insights on the challenges facing America and a reminding us that God is our ultimate Commander in Chief, Colonel Richard Toliver tells the remarkable story of how God “woke him up” with a bolt of lightning when he was in a fighter jet at 20,000 feet.  A decorated Top-Gun pilot, Colonel Toliver talks about his traumatic childhood and the incredible passion and focus on becoming a fighter pilot that lifted him out of his circumstances.  He also transparently admits how that singular career passion made him lose sight of the things most important in his life–his wife, children, friends and God.  Surviving the lightning bolt brought him to a new life in Jesus.  He reminds us that whatever we may have encountered in life and whatever mistakes we may have made, we each have a God-designed purpose that our heavenly Father wants us to realize, but in order to realize that purpose we must first take any unresolved issues and burdens to the Cross and leave them there, trusting that Jesus can deal with them for us.  Colonel Toliver ends with the key imperative to becoming all we were made to be–we must submit our passion to God and make our passion knowing Jesus and choosing to love God with all our heart.

Filed Under: Audio & Video Tagged With: Anger, Audio & Video, Calling and Purpose, Career and Financial Disappointments and Transitions, Dealing with Emotions, Divorce, Faith, Fear and Worry, Forgiveness, Great Commandments - Love God - Love Neighbor, Health Challenges and Losses, Isolation-Loneliness-Depression, Leadership, Nature of God, NCS New Canaan, Salvation, Shame-Guilt, Transparency and Authenticity

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