SMA Spotlight
As we travel across the country and encounter our clients in their own settings and surroundings, we become richer in knowledge, wiser in experience, and even more committed to pursuing racial justice and reconciliation.
Whether it is a one-time speaking engagement, a weekend workshop, or a months-long consultancy, our lives continue to be changed as we interact with our clients and move forward collectively in our quest for racial justice.
In this spotlight, we share some of our journeys and experiences with the hope that you will be inspired, encouraged, and emboldened in your journey toward racial healing and wholeness.
Pictures
Below are some pictures from Seattle Pacific University
Why Dr. Brenda is Better Than Pizza
By: Julia Nicholls,
Editor of etc magazine,
Seattle Pacific University
I anticipated our Intercultural Competency conference for weeks. I wasn’t itching to work in groups with my office mates or discuss counter-cultural social action. I just heard delicious free food would be available all day – and that did it for me!
I had only been a staff member at Seattle Pacific University for a few weeks, when Rev. Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil came to speak. At SPU, we talk a lot about reconciliation, but it hadn’t been made tangible to me yet. I didn’t know how to go about “reconciling.” Brenda gave me some ideas.
Start with worship
Brenda stepped up to the podium beaming. Everything about her voice, her smile and her eyes told me she was bursting to share what was on her heart. The first thing she did was to give glory to God and ask us to sing with her, “God is so good to me.”
I forgot about my breakfast pizza and felt myself switch into worship mode. Brenda’s voice is full and round and seemed to lift into every cranny of the room. At one point, she sang a few feet from my face and I felt as if the music was bouncing around my ears and making my face tingle. Right away I could tell this wasn’t just a conference. It was a time of reflection and exploration on God’s calling on our lives.
Follow Christ’s example
Brenda relayed the ways in which Jesus took risks, stepped out of his cultural norms, relinquished power and showed a real need for the Samaritan woman at the well. When she spoke, it felt like she was addressing each person in the room.
“Part of what I do is to just show up and be present,” Brenda told us. That was obvious. She was listening to us. She wasn’t just teaching, but I could tell that she was learning too. And her attentiveness sparked our attention.
Using her gift
I overheard one staff member talking between breaks. She was telling her friend how she hadn’t slept the night before and she worried that she wouldn’t be able to listen and stay alert. “But, I’ve been fine,” she told her friend. “The art of keeping people truly and utterly engaged is a gift.”
Brenda used that gift to give us ways to think about loving people of different cultures. She gave us 10 steps to intercultural competency that came from the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. We split into groups and brainstormed ways to implement those steps on campus. I was struck by Jesus’ true need for the Samaritan woman: He was thirsty. In the same way, me must truly need each other and be willing to relinquish any power we might have. These are things I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.
Looking back and ahead
After the conference, staff members continued to mill around and brainstorm ways to diversify campus and break barriers and boundaries. My pastor at my last church once told me that people always stay after the service whenever the Holy Spirit shows up. I believe that’s exactly what happened.
Now a month later, I have a hand-out next to my computer that reminds me of the steps to intercultural competency. Have I reached the competency mark? Not at all! If anything, I am simply now aware of how incompetent I am. But, I feel like that’s a start. The tools and memories I received from Brenda remind me to keep trying – and I will. I continue to remember the energy and conviction I felt at the conference – and I have not once stopped to reminisce about the food.
