Date/Time
Date(s) - June 24, 2021
10:30 am - 12:00 pm
Categories No Categories
Christianity continues to find itself at a hinge point in Canada as a number of important conversations play out in our society. Racial Justice is one of those conversations and connected to it are themes like: Critical Race Theory, the Land Back Movement, Black Lives Matter and Institutional Racism.
As Jesus followers, how do we engage with these conversations our neighbours are having? What is Critical Race Theory and is it compatible with the Good News about Jesus? What does it take for churches and leaders to facilitate and experience authentic intercultural unity? Is Institutional Racism fake news or a reality we need to wrestle with? What can we do to develop cultural awareness and intercultural connectivity? What is Biblical Racial justice?
Join us in this brave, relational space for a 4-week learning experience with like-minded leaders across Canada. Together we will process this timely and vital topic together, listen, reflect on our understanding, ask good questions, consider our theology and accept the challenge to engage and pray.
If you are a ministry leader, pastor, church planter or Jesus follower looking to explore and go deeper on this vital topic, rooted in the Canadian context, regardless of ethnicity or background, this is for you.
You’ll receive access to all the Learning Centre recordings for a refresher or for your own continued learning and development.
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French translation will be available for this webinar. If you would like the Zoom link and instructions on how to access the French audio, please email [email protected].
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If you aren’t able to log in to these sessions live, they will be recorded and made available afterward to those who sign up.
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Schedule
June 3rd: Why critical race theory is critical for every church – Cid Latty
Having good foundations is vital for anything we want to build and this session is all about laying good foundations. Together we’ll examine Critical Race Theory and why it has been a contentious issue for some churches and denominations. We’ll seek to define terms like ‘race’ ‘ethnicity’ and ‘culture’, laying biblical perspectives, we will seek to offer the underpinning for a great conversation.
June 10th: Institutional racism: fake news or reality? – Keitha Ogbogu
Michael Emerson in the book ‘Divided by Faith’ outlines there are differences of opinion as to whether institutional racism actually exists. In this session, we’ll unpack what institutional racism looks like in our Canadian context and compare the statistical evidence with our definition. We’ll spend time examining various systems (housing, economic, educational, and criminal) to see what the data reveals. What might our findings say about our churches and denominations? What does this mean for those seeking to follow Jesus in our contexts?
June 17th: ‘I am not a racist’: personal responsibility in a developmental continuum – Tim Tang
As ministry leaders, pastors and church planters, how can we effectively and practically implement change? The Intercultural Development Inventory is a tool through which we can develop our individual and corporate intercultural competence. We’ll discuss how this tool can help in our biblically-based cross-cultural competencies and explore these supportive tools. We’ll also take a look at the various approaches to cultural difference, why this is important for us and the church, and how we can develop intercultural connectivity here in Canada.
June 24th: Let’s get practical – Cid Latty
In our final session together, we’ll consider the practicalities of moving forward. As Jesus followers looking to serve and lead well, what are the essentials for the task ahead? What have we leant so far and what can we take with us? We’ll participate with other like-minded leaders to share our learnings and discuss a number of cultural scenarios that will help us work towards a set of principles and practices for our journey towards intercultural competence.
In preparing for this learning environment we recommend the following reading:
Read the introductory paper for this learning experience: ‘Why the critical race theory is critical for every church’. Click here to download. You can also read it here: https://baptist.ca/2021/02/why-critical-race-theory-should-be-critical-for-every-church/ by Cid & Alison Latty
Other books:
Divided by Faith – Michael Emerson
Critical Race Theory – Richard Delgado, Jean Stefancic
Reading while black – Esau McCaulley
Diaspora Missiology – Enoch Wan
Unsettling Truths – Mark Charles, Soong-Chan Rah
Expert Presenters
Rev Cid Latty served in pastoral ministry for over 15 years with the Baptist Union of Great Britain before joining Canadian Baptist of Ontario and Quebec as the Congregational Development Associate. He co-founded the Cafechurch Network which helped to start more than a hundred café churches in high street coffee shops all over the UK. He is married to Alison and they have two children.
Keitha Ogbogu is the lead pastor at West Springs Church in Calgary, Alberta. A former teacher, she is passionate about the power of mentorship and especially enjoys encouraging young men and women who are called to preach, to speak and lead. Her pastoral work has affirmed her love for the nations, her pursuit of justice and, of course, her call to preach. She believes that the church holds the potential to transform neighbourhoods, cities and individuals when we get it right. She is married to Cyril and together they are raising two black princes, Samuel and Emmanuel.
Rev. Dr. Timothy Tang was born in Toronto where he now lives with his wife and three children. Tim has been a pastor at the East Toronto Chinese Baptist Church where he has been ministering since 2001, first as the English speaking congregational pastor, and now as the Intercultural Pastor-at-Large. As the son of international students, Tim leverages his personal experience of being a new Canadian to his present work in areas of ethnocultural inclusion at local and national levels. He has recently been seconded as the Director of the Tyndale Intercultural Ministries Centre under the Open Learning Centre at Tyndale University.
There are two options to access the New Leaf Learning Centre: a monthly subscription or a one-session pass. For the monthly subscription, please visit here. To sign up specifically for this May session of the Learning Centre, please see below.