ONE
Radical Inclusivity is
and must be radical.
Inclusivity, with love for all of God’s
creation, challenges major fundamental, deep-seated Christian beliefs,
doctrines and theologies at the center of society which characterize
people who do not fit the definition of the acceptable social norm as
enemies of God and routinely mistreats, oppresses and excludes people
from the community of faith and its institutions.
TWO
Radical Inclusivity,
recognizes, values, loves and celebrates people on the margin.
Jesus was himself from the edge of society with a ministry to those who
were considered least. Jesus’ public ministry and associations were
primarily with the poor, weak, outcast, foreigners and prostitutes.
THREE
Radical Inclusivity recognizes
harm done in the name of God.
Many people rejected by the
Church got their burns from Bible believing Christian flame-throwers.
Contempt for the Church and all things religious often stems from
exposure to oppressive theology, self-serving biblical literalism and
unyielding tradition. It is neither Christ-like nor spiritual to be
oppressive. No human being is born with a destiny to be oppressed or
to oppress others.
FOUR
Radical Inclusivity is
intentional and creates ministry on the margin.
“On
Purpose” because of the radically inclusive love of Jesus Christ. The
inclusive community deliberately makes a conscious and unapologetic
decision to love and celebrate the Creator’s diversity welcoming all
persons regardless to race, color, ancestry, age, gender and sexual or
affectional orientation. Radical Inclusivity practices and celebrates
the Christian community outside of the dominant culture believing that
the Kingdom (Kingdom) of God includes the margin of society and is a
perfect place for ministry. Marginalized people, now as in the time of
Jesus’ earthly ministry, respond to a community of openness and
extravagant grace, where other people from the edge gather. Such an
atmosphere welcomes people to feel it is safer to be who they are.
FIVE
The primary goal of Radical Inclusivity is
not to imitate or change the mainline church, but rather to be Church.
The Church belongs to God and is the Body of Jesus Christ. It is not
the sole property of any denomination, person or group. There are
systemic wrongs in organized church due to oppressive theology,
bibliolatry and traditional beliefs, which prevent freedom for all
people that we can never fully right. Radical inclusivity however, is
ministry rooted in restoration believing that God has given the church
the work and ministry of reconciliation. It is for freedom that Christ
has made us free (Gal. 5:1). Although, radical inclusivity believes
and celebrates the kinship and fellowship of all believers of Jesus
Christ it is does not seek to change the mainline church but it uses
its power of love to model and demonstrate the radically inclusive love
of Jesus Christ.
SIX
Radical Inclusivity
requires a new way of seeing and a new way of being.
“…from
this day forward, we regard no one from a strictly human point of
view, not even Jesus.” (II Cor. 5:16) This scripture passage implies
that we can celebrate one another in some new and powerful way in
Christian community - some way that both accepts who each of us is in a
human sense and transcends our humanity allowing us to see each other
as God sees us. Christian community can truly be celebrated when we
realize the Church is a spiritual, mystical, faith community and we
relate best when we make the two-foot drop from head to heart.
SEVEN
Radical Inclusivity
requires awareness, information and understanding.
The
creation of Christian community among people marginalized by the Church
requires that the community be prepared and maintain a presence of
cultural familiarity through education and training which equips the
community to understand, actively fight and overcome oppressive and
exclusive theology and practices. Sustaining and eventually celebrating
community on the margin requires the Church to re-examine sexual and
relational ethics, develop a theology of welcome and de-stigmatize its
view of any group of people.
EIGHT
Radical Inclusivity does not hide and works
to undo shame and fear.
The radically inclusive ministry of
Jesus does not encourage people to hide their ‘unacceptable’ realities
(based upon the dominant culture’ point of view or faith) in order to
be embraced. True community comes when marginalized people take back
the right to fully “be.” People must celebrate not in spite of who
they are, but because of who their Creator has made them. In order for
marginalized people to have community they must develop community
“naked” with their “marginality” in full view while often celebrating
the very thing that separates them from the dominant culture.
NINE
Radical Inclusivity recognizes diversity on
the margin.
People live and are located on the various
margins of society for many different reasons. Most people live on the
margin because the dominant culture and/or faith communities have
forced them Outside
their boundaries to a margin. Not all marginalized people are poor,
uneducated or visible. Because many marginalized people are together on
the margin does not mean that each affirms the other or that their
common marginality will hold the community together. People on the
margins are challenged to find the inter-connectedness of their
marginalities.
TEN
Radical
Inclusivity must be linked to preaching and teaching.
The
creation of Christian community among people marginalized by the Church
requires preaching and teaching that defines and strengthens the
essence of the community through a theology of radical inclusivity.
Preaching and teaching clarifies, reinforces and supports the collective
theology of the community and gives voice to its emergence and
evolution.
ELEVEN
Radical
Inclusivity demands hospitality.
Marginalized people
experience hospitality where they have neither to defend nor to deny
their place or their humanness. Henri Nouwen, author of Reaching Out,
says, “Hospitality…means primarily the creation of a free space where
the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.
Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where
change can take place. It is not bring men and women over to our side,
but to offer freedom not disturbed by a dividing line. It is not to
lead our neighbor into a corner where there are no alternatives left,
but to open a wide spectrum of options for choice and commitment. It is
not a method of making our God and our way into the criteria of
happiness, but the opening of an opportunity to others to find their
God and their way. Hospitality is not a subtle invitation to adopt the
life style of the host, but the gift of chance for the guest to find
his/her own.”
TWELVE
Radical Inclusivity is best sustained and celebrated when
everyone in the community is responsible and accountable.
Sustaining Christian community requires an intentional effort to design a
framework that includes everyone in the life of the Church. The
dissemination of duties and chores insure that all members share in and
contribute to the welfare of the community. It is often difficult for
people who have not had continuity in life to understand that freedom
without responsibility and accountability is as detrimental as slavery.
Freedom cannot be an end unto itself. Freedom from something must
flow into freedom to be something else or it is not truly freedom. The
object of getting free is being fee: the object of being free is
living free.