First Baptist Decatur as a Sanctuary
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A Sanctuary for Racial Justice: What a week we had last week in the life of our congregation. As I shared in our Friday Update, we hosted three events in our church around the topic of racial justice. For those of us who had the privilege of sharing in those experiences, we saw and felt a community intent upon learning how to heal and open to the challenges of doing justice.
A Sanctuary for Our LGBTQ+ Community: On Friday and Saturday, we had the honor of once again hosting our partner organization, Our Song, the largest (and best!) Gay and Lesbian choir in the Atlanta area. Robert Glor, Our Song’s director, chose for the theme of “Sanctuary” for the concert. And how appropriate. Many of the singers in the Our Song choir grew up in churches where they were taught about faith and learned that Jesus loved them. Then later, tragically, many of them also felt painful rejection from those same faith communities.
Sharing their powerful songs around the theme of “sanctuary,” a sacred place, a safe place, a brave space in our sanctuary, this was truly a holy honor we should not take lightly.
A Sanctuary for Carmen Deedy: I had such a good time getting to interview Carmen Deedy this past Sunday. A New York Times best-selling author, internationally known speaker and contributor to TED-talks, Carmen’s beautiful life was on full display in our 11:15 worship service. Her story really began in our sanctuary.
In 1963, she and her family were welcomed into our congregation as refugees from Cuba. Our sanctuary became their sanctuary. Carmen shared numerous stories of adjusting to their new life while being helped by too many new friends to name. Every kind act, every good deed, she acknowledged, changed her life. From the actions of caring people in our church, she became motivated to give back and to be the energetic, positive force for kindness and hope in our world that she is today.
FBCD Today: A sanctuary for racial justice; a sanctuary for our LGBTQ+ community; a sanctuary for refugees fleeing the horrors of war, famine or extreme prejudice. Let us never take our sanctuary, our church, or the power for good that it represents, for granted.
Learn How to Help: Would you like to make a difference? Are you interested in learning more about the needs in our community and ways you might be able to help? Stay tuned! See the multitude of information in our Tuesday and Friday Updates and in our Monthly Outlook Newsletter; take notice each month as we share more information during the monthly “Mission Moments” in both of our worship services. And you can also visit our website at www.fbcdecatur.com.
Love,
David
David Jordan
Senior Pastor