2025 Journal-Yearbook

Illinois Great Rivers Conference 2025 Journal-Yearbook

is easy to lose hope. What will we do IGRC? Will we continue to welcome all people, introducing them to the saving love of Jesus? Will we continue to stand for what is right? Will we continue to be conduits of God’s grace even in the midst of struggle? Will we continue to “Be Loved and Be loving in our congregations and communities”? Our new slogan that is part of our mission, vision and strategy document— Be Loved. Be Loving --is very much in alignment with the new vision statement recently released by the Council of Bishops to Love Boldly, Serve Joyously, and Lead Coura- geously . Note the alignment: Be loved and be loving, and do it boldly. Be loved and be loving and out of that love, practice joyous service and courageous leadership. You will hear more about these vision statements and ideas in the coming months, but for now suffice it to say that it will take courage to be loving in this world. It will take patient endurance to continue to hope. As New Testament scholar N.T. Wright put it, “When the patience is Christian patience, and the tried and tested character a Christian character, the result is neither shallow optimism nor settled fatalism, but hope” (NIB, Abingdon, p. 517). So, let me end where I began—with rivers and with stories of hope. The southern part of the state of Illinois is bordered by two rivers, the Mississippi and the Ohio. These rivers were the main conduits of the Underground Railroad, an informal network of safe houses that brought African Americans to greater freedom in the north. As a result, communities of freed Blacks grew up along the Illinois River in particular. Lovejoy, Illinois, which sits along the Illinois River, was the first freed Black commu- nity in the state. It is the present-day Brooklyn. For African American people at that time in history, these rivers and the towns that grew up around them represented hope. Those that helped them along the way were a part of the rivers of God’s grace that brought hope. Now, I’ve got to keep a promise that I made when I preached about hope at the Cov- enant Keepers event in the spring. Some of you challenged me to come up with an acronym for Hope. Here is my most recent attempt: H—Healing O—Out-reaching P—Peace-seeking E—Everlasting Grace This acronym describes what I believe we are called to do as Christians, by God’s grace. • H—Healing-- We must heal the wounds of broken relationship. We must heal the wounds of division and polarization in our churches and communities--in our nation and the world. We must heal the wounds caused by rampant racism, sexism, homophobia, antisemitism, Islamophobia and all other forms of hatred. • O—Out-reaching-- To bring about healing, we’ve got to reach out--outside the walls of our churches. We’ve got to be an out-reaching church and an out-reaching people, who by the power of the Holy Spirit, form relationships

220 Leadership Reports