Just Like Jesus - A YBA Journey in 2021

Download the year's programme with resources - updated June 2021

Resouces - History, Churches and Racism - August 2021

Extra resources - updated June 2021

December challenges:-

Making a start
Look out for Advent reflections that focus on justice or make justice the theme of your own Advent ideas. Who will you share Christmas with as a result of this journey towards justice?

Seeing a change
Creating Sanctuary helps churches look at being safe places for everyone. It allows you to consider stories from LGBTQ people from a pastoral perspective. Plan to use this resource and explore how your church can be a place of welcome and safety for all.

What is the Just Like Jesus Journey?

ON 3rd June 2020 the YBA Regional Ministers wrote this response to the lament and protests at the murder of George Floyd:

"What we see and hear are not new conditions of injustice yet God graciously calls us once again to work with all our energy to dismantle those strongholds of evil which are prejudice, systemic racism and inequality. As Baptists we began our history in protesting for freedom and liberty for all. We say again that it is our duty to examine ourselves, to be informed and to engage actively in dismantling racism in both the public and private spheres we each inhabit. This is not something we can achieve with a fleeting concern but rather with commitment to a lifetime journey."

We invite you to commit to an intentional journey towards the holy justice of God
- click here for the YBA Theological Statement.                   Artwork (c) Eleanor Brennan

Since June, we have been praying and sharing with Baptists in our Association and in the Union, and we have particularly sought to work out what this intentional justice journey looks like for the YBA. As we look at ourselves, both individually and as YBA team and Executive, we also want to share the resources, reflections and challenges with YBA churches and encourage you to focus on justice with us.  We believe it is important at this time to start with matters of racial justice but we will also look at how inequality and exclusion impact on other groups of people who should all know the welcome of God.

We offer you Just like Jesus to start off a lifelong commitment to justice in all its aspects. We believe this is rooted in all that Jesus said and did as the incarnate Son, as God with us.

Monthly challenges – Making a Start and Seeing a Change

Each month for a year we have been suggesting some challenges. Some are very simple – one-off exercises to help you make a start. Others are about making and sustaining changes to the way you do things so that our habitual, maybe unconscious, behaviour becomes more just. They can be done individually but we recommend you do them with others. All the challenges are better reflected and prayed upon with others and ideally this is a journey for your church or community to make together. Do one challenge or all the challenges. Like anything worthwhile, the more you keep going with this journey, the more you will benefit. If it takes more than one year – keep going.

Key Questions

Whatever steps you take, key Just like Jesus questions are: What do I feel? What have I learned? How is my experience different from others? What does the Bible tell me? What do I/we need to change?

Catch up with the challenges:-

January challenges

Making a Start
When you have time, watch the BBC programme Sitting in Limbo.

Then with someone else or in a small group, ask these questions:

• What emotions did you experience as you watched the film, and why was that?
• What struck you as odd, now, unfair and even outright racist?
• Suggest changes we should make at the personal and societal levels.

Seeing a Change
Start a Just like Jesus journal.

Write, draw, scribble your thoughts, feelings and questions as you take this journey with Jesus and as you follow the suggestions. Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you through Scripture and through life. When you read Bible passages that are about justice write them in your journal. Make a note of your own experiences and how they differ from others. Write about your resistance, your prayers and your encounters with others. If you are doing this as a church why not give everyone a journal?

February challenges
Making a Start
Watch the BUGB Listening to God video with Christine Hudson-Roberts, and then use the "I can’t breathe" prayer exercise by Jane Day (pictured) - click here.

Seeing a Change
Book a JustAware! session for your deacons, housegroup leaders or whole church for a date in 2021. Contact Mary - click here.

Racial Justice Sunday 14th February.

March challenges

Making a Start
In October 2020 Baptist Union Council called for a day of prayer focused on justice issues in which lament plays a significant role. Plan your own day of lament on Good Friday (2nd April 2021). You will find some resources here.

Seeing a Change
As a church, review your programmes and rotas and plan to have a wider range of people leading, preaching and leading prayer and worship in your services and other meetings. Try to have someone different involved, whether from your own church or invited from outside, at least once every 3 weeks.

Resource - Church service marks anniversary of George Floyd killing 

April challenges:-

Making a start
Spend time looking together at pictures of Jesus that show him from a different race or culture from the UK majority. Here are some resources: Jesus Mafa, The Christ we Share.
With someone else or in a small group, ask these questions: What do we feel when we see Jesus looking like us/not like us? How does this matter when we are sharing worship or telling people about Jesus? What do we need to change so more people can see Jesus?

Seeing a change
Look at these statistics from the Equality and Human Rights Commission and in this 2020 article. Find out more about discrimination and inequality issues in your local area and consider how your church can pray and work with others to change things. Ask God to open your eyes and ears in fresh ways to the struggles of others around you.

Resource: Response to Sewell Report

May challenges:-
Making a start
Read this blog by Jon Kuhrt on the importance of church being the least segregated place in a community.

Seeing a change
Hold a listening meeting (download a guide here) so everyone can find out the experiences of those in and connected to your church. Take turns, inviting each person to speak on their own experiences (or the experiences of someone close to them) of justice or injustice. Listen to each person carefully and try to understand and feel their experiences more deeply. Think about how life is very different when you don’t have to worry about being discriminated against.

June challenges:-
Making a start
Find out more about the history of your church and about your area, its landmarks and its famous people. In particular, look out for a history of involvement in the slave trade or colonialism. Find out as well if there is a history of support for the Abolitionist movement, links with the US civil rights movement or the anti-apartheid movement.

Seeing a change
Get to know someone who is different from you in race, background, culture, education, religion... or someone you’ve just not spoken to before. Be excited that this is someone uniquely and beautifully formed by God and precious to Jesus. Who they are is going to reveal more of Jesus to you. Practice good listening as you get to know them and try to imagine life from their point of view.
Refugee Week June 14th-20th - Get involved.

July challenges:-
Making a start
Organise a justice book club using these suggestions:
Ben Lindsay, We need to talk about Race;
Layla F Saad, Me and White Supremacy;
David Olosuga, Black and British: a forgotten history;
Margot Lee Shetterly, Hidden Figures;
Caroline Criado-Perez, Invisible Women;
Kupling, Lucas and Brabiner, Pilgrims in the Dark Pt 1;
Alex Renton, Blood Legacy: Reckoning with a Family's Story of Slavery.
Chine McDonald, God is not a White Man. Play the discussion on youtube.

Seeing a change
Plan to use the BUGB visions of colour material in your church and add it to your programme for Autumn 2021/Spring 2022. https://www.baptist.org.uk/Groups/310747/Racial_Justice_Training.aspx 

September challenges:-
Making a start
Book yourself a place for the Sam Sharpe Lecture on Thursday, October 21st at 7pm - click here.
The Sam Sharpe Project.
Watch the 2020 Sam Sharpe Lecture – click here.

Seeing a change
Do an audit of your church or organisation – look at your leadership, look at your worship, look at the materials you use for learning, think about the stories you tell and ask the question – how can we be more diverse and more inclusive in our church community? What are the barriers? What can we change?

October challenges:-
Making a start: 
Explore the Through the Roof website. Their vision is Transforming lives through Jesus with disabled people. What do we lose in our church by making it difficult for people with disabilities to contribute?
Resource: BUGB's Disability Justice Group has launched a project to help Christians and churches explore and talk about disability, church and faith. Click here for the link.

Seeing a change:
Pray together about the ministry and leadership roles in your church and who God is calling for the future. Plan how you can release resources for training, coaching or work experience so that no-one is excluded from these opportunities. Write this into your budget plans for 2022.

November challenges:-
Making a start
Write to someone you know who speaks out against injustice. This could be issues such as gender-based violence, racism, sexism, parity of stipend, disability or some other topic. It will be a person who may have campaigned, written books or challenged institutions. This person will model a life of speaking out. Be totally honest in the letter about some of your own struggles and difficulties (if you have any) with regard to speaking out against issues of injustice. Ask them for their words of wisdom towards you and any recommendations. Once you have received a reply to your letter take up their advice and put it into practice. If you can have a coffee and talk with them - all the better.

Seeing a change
Review the material your church’s children’s and young people’s work. Look at the BUGB Wonderful Youth Resources and plan to use them.

December challenges:-
Making a start
Look out for Advent reflections that focus on justice or make justice the theme of your own Advent ideas. Who will you share Christmas with as a result of this journey towards justice?

Seeing a change
Creating Sanctuary helps churches look at being safe places for everyone. It allows you to consider stories from LGBTQ people from a pastoral perspective. Plan to use this resource and explore how your church can be a place of welcome and safety for all.