Being woke in church, I need answers.

Some background

I grew up in the AFM church, super Pentecostal. My dad basically ran the church as the head of the board and that meant ALL my life revolved around this church in the Strand community.

When I got married I left to go with my husband to his Charismatic Pentecostal church, it was fun but weird because I wasn’t involved anywhere and didn’t know anyone. We moved churches again before we finally got divorced and I settled at a large Charismatic Pentecostal church in my hometown.

Listen, I came into a next level walk with the Lord when I started attending my new church. Stuff I heard all my life was taught to me from a different perspective and overall the vibe was & is just great. The kids love their kids church too…winning!

Now you know my life and here is where I’m at right now:

About a year ago something happened to me at work, it shook me and popped this bubble I had been living in. And none of it had anything to do with church.

I had been assigned to a project along with my white male colleague. As the only person of colour (and a woman too) in the room, I was evidently ignored. My colleague was oblivious to what was happening and I don’t think him or any of the people who look like him could ever understand what I went through at that moment.

This was a really big moment for me because I had never experienced anything like this. To me we were all the same, I talk like them, I walk like them, I have (for the most part) had the same experiences as them. At one stage, I even went to the same school as them and now I am at the same churches as them.

And yet, here I was experiencing what my black colleagues have tried explaining to me had been happening to them more often than not.

It was life changing.

At the same time there had been a few conversations among the teams at church about the colour division and I joined a young start-up which promotes a positive narrative around coloured people of Cape Town.

Before I knew it, I was following a few pages and reading different opinions about the divisions in our society.

It is safe to say that for the most part I am now WOKE.

Side note: the urban dictionary says “getting woke is like being in the Matrix and taking the red pill”

This has started affecting my church life and I wonder if it’s a problem?

You see our church is in a predominantly white area and, as it should, it has now started community initiatives and exploring the idea of expanding into the nearby coloured communities. Which is great. If they actually came into the community.

So I have questions for my white brothers and sisters:

Why is it that none of the white leaders in the church, except a foreign church employee here and there, and a few born frees, are coming out here and getting involved?

Are you all talk?

Why have you decided that as a coloured person I should go to the home cell in the coloured community and not the one 2km away from me in a upper class security complex?

Why are you ignoring the two black people who come to your social meetings?

Do you understand your responsibility in the society we live in?

Do you see what I see?

Why do you only greet me when your white friend is with me? It’s not what our church teaches.

See what I mean when I say, my wokeness is interfering with my church life?

I asked myself the other day, why am I still doing church. Here’s what I came up with:

·       As Christians we need community

·       I have a responsibility to bring my kids up in the house of the Lord

Those are my reasons and I am not interested in anything else. Especially not helping you prove that you are for all people when you cannot acknowledge how broken our society is, what we really struggle with and how you can help.

My people are working class citizens, we do

n’t need food anymore, we don’t need a ride and we don’t need your old clothes.

Feel free to tell me your thoughts.

This is me and where I’m at, it is what is.

Cheers,

Mel