IBC Blog

eLetter

Learning From the Past

As a child growing up in Jamaica, we did not have the equivalent of Black History Month. However, we did have many occasions to remember significant events and people in the island's history. These occasions were primarily celebratory opportunities to remember the past: We celebrated the good, the bad, and the triumphs.

Hope & Healing

Sacrificial Love

During this month of February where we focus our attention on those we love, I have often asked myself what sacrificial love should really look like. Having experienced loss, trauma, and abuse, sacrificial love for me tends to cross over into what looks more like codependency than the love Christ offers us. This often leaves me asking how I am to love myself while I’m loving others.

eLetter

A Legacy of Faith

This year as I process Black History Month, I am drawn to the memories of women in my family and the legacy of faith that they built in my life. As a black female pastor in a mostly white church, I have struggled with believing that I am qualified for the position I hold. That perhaps some would only see me as a diversity hire or a check box. When I begin to believe those lies, God reminds me that I come from a long line of black women of faith.

eLetter

Seeing Me in the Bible

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a strong relationship with God. I grew up in the church, worshipped sincerely, prayed hard, and loved to read my Bible. I also remember loving to read my illustrated Bibles and my Adventure Bible comic book (if you can call that a Bible) as a child. I was consumed by these stories and getting to know Jesus.

eLetter

The Men Next to You

One of my favorite movie scenes of all time is at the end of Ridley Scott’s 2001 epic “Black Hawk Down.” Eric Bana, the Australian actor who donned an American southern accent to play a Delta Force operator named Hoot, answers Josh Hartnett’s character when he asks why he’s going back into the fray after 36 hours of hell:

“When I go home people'll ask me, ‘Hey Hoot, why do you do it man? What, you some kinda war junkie?’ You know what I'll say? I won't say a [expletive] word. Why? They won't understand. They won't understand why we do it. They won't understand that it's about the men next to you, and that's it. That's all it is."

eLetter

The Church Exists for Worship

“I believe the local church exists to do corporately what each Christian believer should be doing individually—and that is worship God. It is to show forth the excellencies of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. It is to reflect the glories of Christ ever shining upon us through the ministries of the Holy Spirit.”