Real Community Church recognized Black History beyond February

At REAL Community Covenant Church, conversations about race are not limited to February.

CJ Kelly, a senior at Indiana Wesleyan and two-year attendee at REAL, said that the church has a culture capable of having conversations about race and celebrating diversity year-round.

“I feel like the only thing different we do is that we have a slide that says, ‘Happy Black History Month,’” Kelly said. “Because that’s something we do year-round, we don’t see a major shift during the month of February.”

Kelly said the church’s commitment to celebrating different cultures stems from the vision statement. The statement, centered around the promise of being a multiethnic and multiclass church, is read every Sunday by members of the congregation.

“I feel so often like you go to a church and you don’t really know what the church’s vision statement is,” Kelly said. “I think it’s so important that we say that together every Sunday morning because it reminds us what we’re called to be as a church and as a church community.”

Kelly said that the church aims to properly reflect the cultures represented in the community.

“If those are the cultures that are represented in our church and in our community, those are what we should be celebrating all year round as we worship together,” Kelly said.

Debbie Cheryiot Bii, director of congregational engagement and family connections at REAL, said that head pastor Andrew Morrell often incorporates messages of racial reconciliation into his sermons.

“I make a joke and say that often John 3:16 or Genesis 1:1, or even the Jesus wept scripture, our pastor will find ways to talk about reconciliation or the marginalized,” Cheryiot Bii said. “Maybe that’s why I don’t feel like we have a singular way of celebrating Black history in February. I think it’s a continuous celebration for us.”

Cheryiot Bii said that the transparency within the church to acknowledge racial struggles throughout history helps the congregation to have more intentional and meaningful conversations about such issues.

“It’s weird to talk about, saying that we are comfortable talking about race,” Cheryiot Bii said. “But I think we’ve practiced it enough that it’s not a shock to our system whenever we do talk about race.”

Andrew Sprock, an attendee at REAL, said that the emphasis of the church to highlight different cultures has helped him grow. Sprock said that building a healthy and diverse community within the church is challenging but rewarding. 

“I think part of my own growth is through the building of stronger connections with people whose life experience is really different than mine,” Sprock said. “It happens both in these beautiful and joyful ways, but it also happens through the honest engagement of some of the tensions that grow between us and the ways in which we have to learn how to have healthy and productive conflict.”

Kelly said he agrees with the church’s practice of celebrating different cultures regardless of the time of year.

“We should be celebrating each other’s cultures weekly, not monthly,” Kelly said.