Reflecting on Our Summer Skills Lab & BIPOC Social

It was a joy to kick off our Summer Skills Labs last Sunday with a class on Leadership, Whiteness, and Culture, and a BIPOC Social & Stories. The Leadership, Whiteness, & Culture class was led by Rev. Liz and Cliff Johnson, while Jonathan and Pastors Randall & Julie led the BIPOC social. We asked some of our leaders to share about the events below! Thank you to everyone who participated in either of these events — and we hope you’ll join us for our next Summer Skills Lab on End-of-Life Preparation on July 14!

Summer Skills Lab: Leadership, Whiteness, & Culture

Shared by Cliff

After the worship service on June 23, Rev Liz and I co-hosted a workshop focused on Leadership, Whiteness, and Culture. In addition to discussing an article from Michael Emerson, participants spent the session reflecting and sharing about how our identities, and especially our identities as White people, influence the ways we show up in community together, at LaSalle and beyond.

While a one-hour workshop is just a starting point, obviously, I’m excited we held some space for that discussion. During the course of my time on our “RRJLT” (that’s Racial Righteousness Journey Leadership Team…you can see why we needed an acronym! 😉), we repeatedly heard from LaSallers that they aspired to be in authentic community together. We didn’t just hear that from certain pockets or congregants, either. It was a nearly universal vision: that LaSalle would be a place of generous community. Sometimes that’s easier said than done, though. Almost everyone at LaSalle shared that they felt we had some work to do.

• To be generous to ourselves and each other, we have to understand the ways our past experiences have shaped our expectations of LaSalle.

• To build community, we have to be vulnerable enough to reflect on those expectations together.

There’s nothing quick about that community building process, and there are no real shortcuts either. It’s a practice. We have to show up together, share honestly, and live into our beliefs over and over and over.

A one-hour workshop like the one we held on Sunday isn’t groundbreaking. In fact, we’ve had lots and lots of discussions about race and identity over the years! All we hoped to do last week was provide a space where those who were interested could push themselves to be a little more reflective and a little more vulnerable, and those steps are often easier to take with others who share an identity.

We’re at a pivotal point as a church community. As the staff shared during our annual meeting earlier this month, we’re growing. More people are showing up. More people are becoming members. Every new person that shows up has their own experiences and hopes for this place. When that happens, all sorts of things come to the surface. As someone who’s been around a while, I’ve started noticing the ways I show up at church or describe the place or define my own role within it. Those observations can be uncomfortable and revelatory and sometimes both at once. In order to live up to our aspiration of being a generous community and a place of belonging for everyone, I think we have to better understand ourselves and each other. That happens one conversation at a time, and I’m grateful we’re just getting started.

BIPOC Social & Stories

Shared by Jonathan

The BIPOC social was a great time of conversation and story sharing! If you’re not familiar, BIPOC stands for "Black, Indigenous (i.e. American First Nations), or Person of Color.” There are many BIPOC folk at LaSalle, and we feel the importance of having restorative spaces for connection, learning to share our stories, be re-energized, and be in a space that centers BIPOC individuals where we can be understood and reconnect (with each other, and with God) in culturally familiar ways. This Sunday we reflected in small groups about moments or places where we felt seen in our racial or cultural identities, and parts of our personal or family stories that are important to who we are today. Look out for more restorative spaces for people of color at LSC to renew, recharge, and reconnect!