In the midst of a Roman Empire marked by severe prejudices and hatreds, the first Christians viewed themselves as part of world-wide family that transcended national, class, cultural, and racial barriers. They understood Jesus, through his blood shed on the cross, had destroyed these barriers and created a “new human race,” a new society, a new people, i.e. the church (Eph. 2:14-15).
It is significant that millenials and Generations Z’ers are so passionate for a multiracial, multicultural church in our day. And it is also significant that one of the biggest stories of our time is the mass movements of people around the world (i.e. migrants, refugees, internally displaced people, and asylum seekers).
In this podcast, I share my own journey and story in coming to grips with this complex reality over forty years ago as a new believer, and how it led us to plant New Life Fellowship Church in New York City with a mission to bridge racial, cultural, economic and gender barriers.
We made many mistakes along the way, but God profoundly transformed us and forged the development of what we know today as Emotionally Healthy Discipleship in the process. In this podcast, I also talk about a few of the key decisions in our history that propelled us forward and discuss the first three contributions of EH Discipleship for building reconciled communities:
- Calling people to a radical desert spirituality with Jesus
- Utilizing genograms for self awareness and transformation, and
- Valuing brokenness and vulnerability
Send in specific questions you may have to info@emotionallyhealthy.org, and I will attempt to integrate them in to Part 2 of this podcast.
Enjoy.
Pete
