Listen, learn and love well
Who We Are
The Well Initiative is a group of believers at Seymour Church who have come together across generations, political lines, and various backgrounds to humbly learn about issues of race from a Christian perspective, seeking to follow our Lord in His ministry of reconciliation.
Our hope is to see our church become a place where people from all backgrounds feel a deep sense of belonging.
Read more in Our Covenant.
Why “The Well” Initiative?
The well was a place of gathering, conversation, and community. It was also a place where cultural boundaries were crossed, expectations were challenged, and where the whole community was invited into an encounter with Jesus.
Hard, often messy work is required to reach the depth necessary for life-giving water. But once dug, wells provide the water—a common metaphor for the Spirit’s activity—that refreshes and gives life to a community.
All are welcome to join us around The Well at Seymour.
Upcoming Events | Resources | Our Covenant | Contact Us
Upcoming Events
Fall 2023 – Colossians Way Discussion Group on Sexuality and the Church. This is a pilot group that will be participating in the Colossians Way program that helps churches learn how to have respectful, fruitful, and faithful conversations around challenging and divisive issues. After the pilot group, we hope to offer more participation opportunities in Spring 2024.
Resources
A short list of resources we’ve found helpful.
Start Here:
- Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man (videos)
- Racism and the Church: Where do we go from here? (video)
- Racism and the Great Commission, Part 1 (article)
- Glossary of Terms: Racial Equity Tools
Dig Deeper:
- The Gospel Coalition resources on race
- Tim Keller on the Sin of Racism
- CRCNA Belhar Confession
- GR Black History Walking Tour (self-guided)
Further Resources:
A growing list of some of our group’s favorites.
Books – Nonfiction
- The Color of Compromise (video study & workbooks available in our church library)
- Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man
- Weep with Me (free PDF) by Mark Vroegop
- Beyond Colorblind by Sarah Shin
- Strength to Love by Martin Luther King Jr.
Movies/Documentaries
Podcasts
Music
Covenant for Seymour and Race
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Luke 4:18-19
The Well Initiative is a group of fellow believers at Seymour Church who have felt a growing urgency and awareness of the racial disparities in our country and desire to better love our neighbors. Like the priest and the Levite who pass by on the other side of the road to avoid the man who lies dying (Luke 10:25-37), we also have ignored the historic as well as present suffering of those around us, often in the context of race. We have come together across generations, political lines, and various backgrounds to humbly listen, learn, and engage with open hearts and minds, seeking to follow our Lord in His ministry of racial reconciliation.
Within Our Group
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
1 Corinthians 12:26-27
Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.
Matthew 9:12
We covenant to make The Well Initiative a welcoming place for current and new members to share our stories and burdens (Gal 6:2), grow in knowledge and faith (2 Pet 3:18), and spur one another on toward love (Heb 10:24), together following Christ and His heart for justice (Isa 1:17).
We covenant to be faithful, encouraging, and honest in our participation (Heb 10:25); to speak edifying words that build up rather than tear down (Eph 4:29); to lovingly help each other see our blind spots (Eph 4:15); to ground our activity in the deep wisdom of Scripture, carefully listening and responding to what God’s word speaks to us (Rom 12:2, Gal 5:14); and to learn about (Matt 9:12-13) and practice being God’s agents of reconciliation across races in a hurting world (2 Cor 5:18).
With Seymour Church
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Philippians 2:1-4
We covenant to be bridge builders at Seymour, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Eph 4:1-6), so that through our unity “the world may believe that separation, enmity, and hatred between people and groups is sin which Christ has already conquered” (The Belhar Confession; John 17:22).
Through Christ’s grace and compelled by His love (2 Cor 5:14), we covenant to listen to those whose opinions differ from ours and to engage in difficult conversations with a sense of curiosity, transparency, and respect (James 1:19, 1 Pet 3:15-16). We covenant to use our freedom to serve one another humbly in love (Gal 5:13-15), to seek repentance from each other when we fail (James 5:16, Col 3:13, 1 Pet 4:8), and to trust that the God of love and peace will be with our church (2 Cor 13:11).
It is our heart’s desire to see Seymour become a place where believers of all ethnicities will feel a sense of belonging, as fellow members of the family of Jesus, who is himself an ethnic minority (Eph 2:19, Gal 3:26-29, 1 Pet 2:10). We covenant to repent of the ways we have put worldly and cultural stumbling blocks in the way of those who desire to worship with us and join us, such as through our silence and through our words that are spoken in welcome, but rather express “you don’t belong” (Rom 14:13). We covenant to mourn with those of us who mourn (Rom 12:15), to suffer with those of us who suffer (1 Cor 12:26), and to work toward making Seymour a more truly welcoming place (Rom 15:7).
With Our Neighbors
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8
We repent and confess that we have not done our part to fight the sin of racism in our communities and in our own hearts (Jer 6:14). We covenant to not stay complacent but to seek justice for those who suffer, who are made in God’s image (Gen 1:27, James 3:9, Prov 21:3), whose blood is precious in His sight (Ps 72:14). From a posture of humility (Phil 2:3-4), we covenant to listen, learn, and engage with our neighbors and the communities around us, seeking to make amends where needed, loving not just with words and speech, but with actions and in truth (1 John 3:18).
Each of us has been silent in the face of injustice (Prov 31:8-9) and fearful, dismissive, suspicious, presumptive, defensive, prideful, and contemptful toward those who are different from us because of our natural prejudices (Jer 17:9, James 2:9, Lev 19:15-18). Though we desire to do good, evil is right there with us (Rom 7:21-25). But we are those who are under grace, for whom Christ died while we were yet powerless (Rom 6:14, 5:6), who are made alive with Him (Col 2:13-14), and who serve the Lord Jesus who has become for us our peace (Eph 2:11-22). We trust in this grace, life, and peace to now love each other as Christ has loved us, laying down our lives for our friends and our neighbors, that more may know Jesus (John 15:12-14, 13:35, 17:3). Together with His bride, the global church, we long for and work toward the Revelation vision in which racial injustice and inequality has no place—when all will stand together as equals before the throne of God (Rev 7:9-12).