Everyone Deserves a Seat at the Table, But We’re Not All Present
The Church Has Failed at Proper Representation and We Desperately Need to Work on It.
I went to church for the first time yesterday—the first time in a few years, anyway.
Yes, in the midst of everything going on, I snuck in the back row of a church (with my mask on the whole time because reasons [there’s a parallel there]). It’s been probably close to two years or so since I’ve been to a church for a non-Christmas/Easter/whatever service, and it’s my first time going to church since moving back to my home city.
I went to a church that some friends of mine go to, a church I had never been to before and a church that I knew up front is non-affirming. I sat in the back by myself, doing my best to avoid the need to code-switch for any reason. And while I was standing in the back and taking a look at the stage during the opening worship set, I noticed a black woman on stage wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt co-leading worship. It was a pleasant surprise to see, even if she was the only black person on stage and one of only two women on stage. Seeing her, though, made me think about how important that representation is to anyone watching that service. To see a black woman on stage in a predominantly white, decent-sized church…
