Amidst Tragedy… Where Do We Go From Here?

No Name Fellowship has existed for the last 25 years to bring together Christian leaders in our community. We aim to collectively expose ourselves to the needs and assets of our city, exchange over those ideas and to embrace change.
 
In our current exploration of Knowing and Loving Our City, we recently hosted a gathering on Police and Community Engagement. Our desire was to show that The Church of Fresno could work and partner with the Police Department and other non-profits for peace in every neighborhood of Fresno.
 
We understand that there is a heavy national, and even some local, distrust of the police department. But we believe that listening to both #blacklivesmatter and #alllivesmatter perspectives are important. As we come out of a hard week of violence against black lives and against police officers, we wanted to offer some thoughts.
 
As No Name Fellowship we believe that…
 
We cannot be silent about the systemic racism that marginalizes, even subconsciously, African American lives. Our silence makes us implicit in this system.
 
We cannot allow The Church to think that it needs to choose between honorable law enforcement officers and the value of black lives.
 
There are good things happening in Fresno and there is evil in Fresno; sometimes they get mixed up and we get confused. We must work together to understand each other.
 
We cannot allow the conversation to be hijacked by violent people who were violent before these riots and will be violent after.
 
We cannot confuse the call for police officer accountability to be construed as a lack of support or appreciation for them or the job they do.
 
We cannot take this "battle" out of the spiritual arena and label it as merely a social exercise or a secular conversation. We are engaged in a spiritual warfare where prayer is vital, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom is central, and the Great Commandment is our highest law.
 
We cannot be intimidated by ignorant criticism.
 
We must stand with the broken, pray for the grieving, and walk alongside all of our brothers and sisters.
 
We need to mute the criticism of our brothers who chose to walk Shaw and rather put their courage and stance in perspective. They were the peacemakers. They kept the movement peaceful and orderly. They were salt and light. They were where the church must be – in the midst of the pain, the sorrow, and the people.
 
We are called to be peacemakers.
 
We are called to be led by and speak love. Any word not spoken in love is, at its core, untruth because it does not and cannot reveal the truth of who God is.
 
The Church is the only one that has been commissioned to preach, teach, and facilitate reconciliation. May we reclaim this high calling.
 
As a collection of Christian pastors, non-profits, and business leaders we pray that you will consider what your next step is to be a reconciler in these tumultuous times. It takes courage to listen to pain, to comfort the mourning, and to work towards a better future that is full of God’s shalom. A shalom where black lives are valued equally and where police officers are respected for the difficult task at hand. Until then we will pray and work towards a new future where heaven comes to earth. 

– No Name Steering Committee