On a normal Misssissippi Sunday afternoon last August, members from several Southern Baptist churches braved the summer heat and joined several hundred other churchgoers for a picnic. The crowd consumed dozens of hot dogs and hamburgers, kids sat still long enough to have their faces painted and families laughed together in a shaded park pavilion as they listened to Christian music over a portable tape player.
By all external appearances, this was a normal church picnic — except for the black and white faces sitting side by side.
The picnic purposefully brought together African American and white Christians from a variety of churches and denominations throughout Jackson for one simple reason: Christian unity.
The multi-church picnic is just one example of how Mission Mississippi is helping the state change these days in regard to racial matters. Three years ago, Mission Mississippi rallied across racial and denominational lines to launch a ministry committed to reconciliation. Local residents call the group’s efforts nothing short of “radical.”
Their vision of unity encourages black and white Christians to come together “so that the message of Christ can be better seen in our communities throughout Mississippi,” according to Lee Paris, chairman of Mission Mississippi’s state board of directors.
“Reconciliation and unity does not happen by rallies,” says Jarvis Ward, Mission Mississippi’s executive director, “but rather, by right relationships — first people who are rightly related to the one living and true God through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and then to each other.”
To help foster such relationships, Jarvis and his staff of volunteers organize a variety of creative gatherings throughout the year, including weekly prayer meetings at one of the 100-plus churches participating in Mission Mississippi, 50 percent of which are African American and 50 percent white, representing a dozen denominations.
Each Thursday morning, an average of 30 to 50 pastors, leaders and supporters gather for prayer, devotions, fellowship and breakfast. If participants miss the Thursday morning meeting, they are invited to a Friday morning prayer meeting at the Salvation Army headquarters.
“The first Thursday morning prayer breakfast was held May 6, 1993,” says Portia McGehee, co-chair of the Mission Mississippi prayer committee. “Since that time, we have prayed in 50 locations. Alternating between black and white churches has been enriching.”
In addition to the interracial prayer breakfasts, Mission Mississippi holds an annual citywide rally in Jackson. Last Oct. 18-19, for example, 6,000 Christians from throughout the state attended the third annual, worship- oriented Mission Mississippi Reconciliation Rally at the Mississippi Coliseum. Black pastor E.V. Hill of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, called by Time magazine as “one of the most outstanding preachers in the United States,” addressed the interracial crowd, along with Frank Pollard, pastor of Jackson’s First Baptist Church.
The Baptist pastors shared messages focusing on grace and brotherly love. Pollard discussed how Christ’s journey to the cross and his subsequent death are the key reasons how he can love his brother, E.V. Hill, as he did. “Our friendship is based on Christ and grounded in his love,” Pollard said of his long friendship with Hill.
Hill’s message centered on his early racist attitudes and how God removed his hatred of white people through the unconditional love of one man. “If God could break my heart, there is no person that God could not change,” he said. Hill then called the audience to stand and repent of any racist attitudes they had ever had. Hundreds confessed their sin and accepted the challenge to meet with someone of another race on a regular basis.
The interracial Mission Mississippi Mass Choir sang at the rally, under the direction of a host of local choir leaders. Mississippi First Lady Pat Fordice even admonished the audience to stay involved in politics and to pray for their governmental leaders. “We cannot afford to lose this great nation,” she said. “We must pray for God to heal our land.”
Along with contemporary recording artist, Kathy Trocolli, motivational speaker Joseph Jennings, a former gang leader and drug addict, spoke to Jackson youth in local schools and at the rally services. “I understand the extremes of desperation induced by drugs, crime and illicit sex,” said the 6-foot-11-inch, 280-pound Jennings who kept the attention of the teen-agers.
According to Gary Maze, Mission Mississippi youth committee chairman, more than 260 youth recorded decisions for Christ as a result of a featured youth night. Organizers are planning a similar reconciliation rally for youth and families next fall and each year after until, says Paris, “Mississippi is known for its love.”
But annual rallies and weekly prayer meetings aren’t the only thing Mission Mississippi is about. In addition to several interracial, multi-church picnics with free food and family entertainment, each Christmas participants are invited to their City Wide Christmas Party for food, music and fellowship. Throughout the year, supporters are encouraged to attend cross- denominational Bible studies as a part of the mission’s efforts to promote racial harmony. They also are encouraged to go out to dinner with friends of a different race to help build relationships; consequently, a dozen local restaurants have even begun giving “Mission Mississippi” discounts.
Individual congregations also are challenged to build relationships across cultural lines. For instance, Cade Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, a predominantly African American church in inner-city Jackson, worshiped with Crossgates Baptist Church, a predominantly white church in Brandon, a suburb just outside of Jackson. The exchange was a natural event for the two pastors who had been meeting for lunch regularly during the past few years.
Horace Buckley, Cade Chapel’s pastor, and Barry Clingan of Crossgates Baptist have been building a unique friendship in their common desire to see the body of Christ unite. Their churches’ “Pulpit Swap” Sunday was sponsored by Mission Mississippi, and several other churches have followed suit. And last August, the Crossgates church made to a surprise offering Cade Chapel’s building program.
The efforts of Mission Mississippi have so impressed local residents and political representatives that Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice even declared October as Mission Mississippi Month.
Local and national press coverage has highlighted Mission Mississippi’s efforts perhaps, says Ward, because “a model is being built to be a blessing from Mississippi to the entire nation.”
For this to take place, Christians must draw from that source, Jesus Christ, who “alone reconciles sinners to God and who has given to the church the ‘ministry of reconciliation,'” Ward says, citing the words in Scripture from 2 Corinthians 5:19.
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Kadlecek is a free-lance writer in Jackson, Miss., and is coauthor with John Perkins of “Resurrecting Hope: Powerful Stories of How God Is Moving to each Our Cities,” published by Regal Books.
Copyright (c) 1996 Baptist Press RNbp6103mrjB6103c614r