I grew up in Warner Robins, Georgia in a “broken” home after my parents divorced when I was 4. My grandfather shared the Gospel with metirelessly and prayed for my salvation until the Holy Spirit made me alive and freed me from my sin at age 9 as I accepted Christ. At age 21, while at the University of Georgia, a college pastor mentored me and showed me how I knew God factually but not experientially; my relationship with Christ now became personal and authentic.
Upon graduation, I served as a student pastor in two towns in northeast Georgia. While at the first, I met my wife and my best friend, Natalie. We married in 2004 while I was on staff at the second church. Shortly after our wedding, God began a seismic shift in our lives. I met a church planter in Toronto, Ontario who taught me about church planting, and I began studying at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. God began to speak to Natalie and I about what it means to live like a missionary right where we are and to be burdened for people who are disconnected from relationship with God and the church. After I graduated from seminary in 2007, we sought God about whether or not he would have us plant a church, believing the planting of new churches is the way to see a movement of God in our cities and our culture.
In 2008, God began to intervene in our lives in unmistakable ways. We felt his call to plant the church. We felt his call to downtown Greenville, South Carolina. We watched him sell our house in 3 weeks with nothing but a sign in the yard we bought at a Home Depot. We watched the pastor, leadership, and congregation of the church where I served bless us immeasurably on the way out. And on the day before we moved, we watched God bless us with the joyful news of Natalie’s pregnancy and the expectation that our first son was on the way.
We moved to Greenville in October 2008 knowing no one but answering the call to plant Origins. God has surrounded us with friends far from Jesus as well as people who love and follow Jesus. We have seen people give their lives to Jesus in our living room and recommit themselves to Jesus in restaurants and public places. Along the way, we celebrated the birth of our sons Noah Reagan in May of 2009 and Owen Sanders in March of 2012. We are learning on the fly, trusting that God began something in us, wants to do something through us, and will carry them both to completion. We are chasing a vision of being a people who love God, one another, and our city as we live, work, serve, and play in Downtown Greenville.
I am John David Mangrum, the planting pastor of Origins, and that’s my story.
I've gotta be honest about a few things regarding the police shooting African American men in Louisiana and Minnesota in the past two days:
ReplyDelete1. I don't know that I should even be posting this...its really fresh for me. Part of me thinks that as a white Christ-following man that I just need to be quiet and "mourn with those who mourn." I have too often gone to Facebook or social media and said things before trying to empathize.
What does this have to do with the shootings. This is about you and how part of you “feel”. You neglected to follow through with how another part or maybe the rest of you felt, depending on how many parts your feeling is divided into. I would agree with the part that said to be quiet and "mourn with those who mourn.
2. I am a white man. I can't imagine being an African American man and having to even consider that this nonsense is even a possibility.
It is hard to imagine what you can’t imagine since you don’t define “this nonsense”. You are a white man with a very limited ability to imagine. I have read many great books of the black experience in America and watched many depictions of that experience in theaters and on TV. I have come away horrified by what black people have had to experience. I also looked at my own skin color with a tinge of shame but thankful that it was white. I can imagine and empathize. If you are referring to the shootings of innocent black men as nonsense you do have a problem with empathy. The shooting of innocent black men is not nonsense it is an outrage.
I can't imagine being a parent of an African American male and having to teach my son how to "safely" drive the speed limit and follow the laws or walk through a neighborhood and interact with police while having not broken the law.
You can’t imagine “how to "safely" drive the speed limit and follow the laws or walk through a neighborhood and interact with police while having not broken the law.”This is what most people try to teach their kids white or black. It is pretty basic. OBEY THE LAW. If you are stopped FOLLOW THE OFFICERS COMMANDS RESPECT THE OFFICER
Not one scenario in this country exists where the current situation for African American men will ever be my situation. So I am not saying "I get it" or "That's my story too" -- it isn't and never will be.
You need to work on your imagination. I can see a future where certain people will be stigmatized and discriminated against based on not skin color but for their beliefs. I can see it coming and you can’t even imagine it.
I've gotta be honest about a few things regarding the police shooting African American men in Louisiana and Minnesota in the past two days:
ReplyDelete1. I don't know that I should even be posting this...its really fresh for me. Part of me thinks that as a white Christ-following man that I just need to be quiet and "mourn with those who mourn." I have too often gone to Facebook or social media and said things before trying to empathize.
What does this have to do with the shootings. This is about you and how part of you “feel”. You neglected to follow through with how another part or maybe the rest of you felt, depending on how many parts your feeling is divided into. I would agree with the part that said to be quiet and "mourn with those who mourn.
2. I am a white man. I can't imagine being an African American man and having to even consider that this nonsense is even a possibility.
It is hard to imagine what you can’t imagine since you don’t define “this nonsense”. You are a white man with a very limited ability to imagine. I have read many great books of the black experience in America and watched many depictions of that experience in theaters and on TV. I have come away horrified by what black people have had to experience. I also looked at my own skin color with a tinge of shame but thankful that it was white. I can imagine and empathize. If you are referring to the shootings of innocent black men as nonsense you do have a problem with empathy. The shooting of innocent black men is not nonsense it is an outrage.
I can't imagine being a parent of an African American male and having to teach my son how to "safely" drive the speed limit and follow the laws or walk through a neighborhood and interact with police while having not broken the law.
You can’t imagine “how to "safely" drive the speed limit and follow the laws or walk through a neighborhood and interact with police while having not broken the law.”This is what most people try to teach their kids white or black. It is pretty basic. OBEY THE LAW. If you are stopped FOLLOW THE OFFICERS COMMANDS RESPECT THE OFFICER
Not one scenario in this country exists where the current situation for African American men will ever be my situation. So I am not saying "I get it" or "That's my story too" -- it isn't and never will be.
You need to work on your imagination. I can see a future where certain people will be stigmatized and discriminated against based on not skin color but for their beliefs. I can see it coming and you can’t even imagine it.
While I am a white man wrestling with whether or not to say anything, I feel I do have to say something: This has to stop. My heart is breaking for our country, our people, our broken-down system of "justice."
ReplyDeleteYou sure have said a lot for a man wrestling with whether to say anything. And what do you say “This has to stop” You fail to define this. “Your heart is breaking” Your heart will be fine----but I’m not sure about your imagination. If you are going to characterize our justice system as broken down you should have examples and cite how does a broken justice system contribute to “innocent black men” being shot.
I don't know what is the fix...broadly on a systematic level or even locally (where I am thankful for our chief of police, Ken Miller, and the bridges he is seeking to build)...
I can understand you not knowing what the fix is. You don’t even know what the problem.
4. In the scriptures, when something was broken and only God could intervene, the people put on sackcloth and dumped ashes on their head and just sat in silence and mourned and prayed. Today ought to be a day of intense mourning and crying out to God over what is broken. Just silence. (I accept that some will scream "Hypocrite!" for me writing that and throwing my voice into the conversation by calling for silence.)
This is a rather confusing paragraph.I can't imagine what you are trying to say.The religious walk a fine line between innocence (or ignorance) and reality. While the nonbelievers move ever further away from the concept of a deity and ignorance, the religious will do but one thing when tempted with a frightening reality: kneel.
5. Please, white friends, let's be careful not to soap box or grandstand and offer stupid statements that we tend to make about peripheral issues or comments that somehow "justify" the shootings. Just be quiet and pray and mourn. I'll make it simple; these should be our "talking points" this week: "I am sorry." "I don't understand." "This grieves God as much as it grieves us; it grieves him more." "I love you." "You better know I have your back" (or however you want to say that).
So you want to preempt any conversation that these shootings may not be as open and shut as you and the first and many on going reports have made them out to be. There have been developments that have called into questions first reports about both shootings Again "You better know I have your back" is not really appropriate It is obvious you don't know what this means.
6. Please do not offer to pray for someone if you aren't going to pray for them. In fact, where we'd offer an "I'll pray for you," please be bold and exchange that for a "Can I please pray for you right now?" You may think, How would I even know what to say? Ask them and then pray for what they share. And beyond that, just talk to God and bless him for all people and agree that he hates violence.
I don't pray so ------I will only say god must love violence. Sodom and Gomorra the great flood acts of great violence at his hand plus many others.
7. Remember our common humanity. This isn't a white and brown issue or a cops versus citizens issue. This is the fruit of living in a broken world with an Enemy who wants to destroy people and drag their souls to hell. Find common ground. No kid should have to grow up without a dad because he was shot at a traffic stop. No wife should have to bury her husband so senselessly and tragically. No parent should have to bury their child. These are things we all agree on because these are emotions we feel as humans -- not just as white people or African Americans or whatever other race or gender or sexual preference or age or religion or whatever other label we like to slap on people to create some sense of "us" and "them." Let's build bridges of empathy rooted in our common humanity.
ReplyDeleteYou are equating our police officers with demons from hell. First time I have heard that.
8. To my African American neighbors, friends, church members, brothers in ministry, and brothers and sisters in Christ, today know that I am so sorry -- profoundly sorry beyond words. Know that I know that I don't understand. I do believe that these all-too-common situations grieve our loving God. Please, please, please don't lose hope. With gracious and generous hearts, please allow white people like me, with all our sins and ignorance and inability to say the right things all the time, into your grief and teach us how to mourn with you and hope with you. Show us where and how we can serve and honor and have your back... And, finally, know that I love you.
You really don't understand. I really hope that there are not too many white people like you or we will never solve this problem. So black people have to teach white people how to mourn and hope the black way. I think that is racist and paternalistic. Do black people serve and honor a different god. Is that who they will show white people who to honor and serve. AND HAVE YOUR BACK--YOU REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT PHRASE MEANS.
Posted by JD Mangrum at 2:21:00 PM
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