Last week consultants from The Solution Consulting Co., Ava Williams and Yinka Ajirotutu, visited Hyde Park Community UMC and spent time helping us develop understanding and skills for achieving the 3 Year goal of our Strategic Plan: “As co-creators in God’s unfolding story, we commit to practices that build a beloved diverse intergenerational community that includes 250 new people investing in the life of the church and community with half under the age of 45 by 2026.”
While meeting with the Servant Leadership Board, one idea they helped us think about was the difference between safe space and brave space. In the church we often seek to create safe space. We value a space where everyone feels welcome, knows they are loved, and can be fully themselves. We don’t want anyone to be harmed in our midst. Safe space is a good thing, much better than unsafe space.
However, there can be problems with safe space. We can’t guarantee that everyone will always be safe. Safe space often protects the status quo and works to the advantage of those who are already safe. It avoids growing or addressing problems or unpleasantness in the name of comfort and peace.
They invited us to consider how brave space is an even better option. Brave space is not always comfortable or safe. It values kindness, but in a way that is challenging. It involves naming our struggles, trying new things, making mistakes, asking for forgiveness, offering grace, and trying again. It opens up opportunities to do the most important work that our mission calls us to. It works through challenges and helps us grow. It creates a more life-giving space for everyone.
The idea of brave space reminds me of the Four Fold Path of Forgiveness that we have been following over these weeks of our Lenten series on forgiveness: Telling the Story, Naming the Hurt, Granting Forgiveness, and Releasing or Restoring the Relationship. We cannot follow this journey to completion if we stay in comfortable, safe space. When we move into brave space, however, we can complete the journey and it transforms us and the world around us for good.
This Sunday, Palm Sunday, marks the beginning of Holy Week. As Jesus enters Jerusalem surrounded with shouts of praise, he is not entering safe space. If he was seeking safe space, he would have left the crowds and the city. His entry into Jerusalem challenged the status quo and the delicate, superficial peace that existed between the various groups in power. It was a brave journey that included pain and suffering and led to the cross.
Because of his choice enter this brave space, Easter became possible. We are all able to experience forgiveness, transformation, and new life in Jesus because of it.
This Holy Week, may we join Jesus on this journey into brave and holy space, trusting in the transforming power of God’s love.
Blessings,
Pastor Suzanne