From Palm Sunday to Press Conferences

This past Palm Sunday, along with hundreds of other Michigan Christians, I gathered in Lansing. Together we marked the day when Jesus turned toward Jerusalem to face the powers of his day, confident that the power of God was greater.

Together with many others that day, I made a Palm Sunday Promise.

I promised to “act to serve God and my neighbor and to strengthen democracy.”

Palm Sunday Path happened in Michigan because an ecumenical team worked hard to create it. I was on that team.

Because I was on that team, I got invited to weeklong, faith-based community organizing training in Ohio in April. I said “yes.”

While there, I told the organizers, “We need this in Michigan. Can you come?”

They said, “Yes. We can come for a two-day training at the end of June.”

I didn’t know what I was getting into.

I didn’t know the FBI would raid the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, seizing their records and computers, in early June. 

I didn’t know I would wonder if my name was in an FBI file, taken from a registration list, taken from a seized computer.

More to the point, I didn’t know that when the trainers said “Yes, we’ll come to Michigan,” they had the launch of a new initiative called Faith in Us in mind.

In April, when I invited them, Faith in Us hadn’t launched yet.

In May, I was in Minnesota for a Forward Movement board meeting. I had coffee with the Rev. Todd Lippert, whom I had met through Palm Sunday Path.

He showed me the almost-final website for Faith in Us. He explained that there would be a national sign on letter; it would help faith leaders step forward for democracy.

As a strategy, that made sense to me. I remembered the third part of my Palm Sunday Promise: “I will act to serve God and my neighbor and to strengthen democracy.”

I had been looking for a way to strengthen democracy as a person of faith in Michigan, but I hadn’t seen it yet. Here it was. So again, I said yes.

Soon, I found myself in a text thread, part of a team planning a two-day training. Then, on June 24 and 25, in East Lansing, Christian and Muslim leaders from across the state gathered. I was there.

On June 24, trainers organized us by region to start planning press conferences in Grand Rapids, Lansing, and Detroit to announce support for the sign-on letter. I was to anchor the Grand Rapids press conference.

The date scheduled for national press conferences was July 7th. It was in less than two weeks.

At the front of the room, Todd said, “I am sure you feel tension. This is a very short timeline. I also feel tension. We are agreed on that.”

Indeed I did feel tension. The tension I felt was the pressure of responsibility. How on God’s green earth were we going to pull this off?

But we did.

Afterwards, I would tell people it was a miracle.

I am telling you now: it was a miracle.

Only God can assemble six speakers across four religious traditions, mobilize forty-six clergy to show up in one location and provide a videographer. That all happened, just in Grand Rapids.

Only God can team people up with no history of working together, and no history of working with the press, and yield the most press coverage of any state holding Faith in Us press conferences. That all happened in Michigan.

It was a miracle. To God be the glory!

And it was a lot of stress. We were figuring everything out as we went. 

I am grateful it went so well. I am grateful it is over.

You can find the media coverage of July 7 here.

For my next steps, I am going to make sure I have a clearer plan in place.

And there will be next steps. 

In accordance with the rest of my Palm Sunday Promise, I’ve been praying for healing and justice in my community, in America and in the world.

In prayer, I have been called to step into this work.

In accordance with the rest of my Palm Sunday Promise, I’ve been learning about how today’s issues affect the county where I live.

I’ve learned about Michigan’s gloriously decentralized elections system. I’m learning about non-partisan organizations already working to strengthen democracy here. I’m still learning.

Last week Ben Gardner told me that in the past, voting rights coalition partners have partnered with faith-based organizing groups on one-off projects in specific regions. But it’s never happened statewide or in any ongoing way. That's a missed opportunity, we agreed.

It’s been just over two months since the weeklong faith-based training I took in Ohio. It’s been enough time for some things to settle in, and others to shake out.

It’s been enough time to realize what stands out to me from that week.

What stands out is this one sentence: “Michigan is an important place.”

When I connected with trainers outside official sessions, they asked where I lived.

"Michigan," I said. To me, that was no big deal.

There would be a pause, a beat where they thought for a second.

Then they would look at me just a little differently, and say:

“Michigan is an important place.”

This happened in two different conversations, with two different trainers.

I always knew Michigan was an important place to me. I never knew how important Michigan was for others. 

Later, I shared this with a lifetime Michigander, and he smiled. "Yes," he said. "We pick presidents."

I am committed to Michigan. I moved here in 1997 looking for a forever home, and I found one. (Someday I'll tell that story.)

I plan to stay in this important place, because I believe Benedictine stability is the antidote for much of what’s wrong in America today. I plan to stay as a faith leader continuing to engage in the democratic process. I plan to write about it.

Tomorrow, I’m taking poll chaplain training with Faiths United to Save Democracy. I’m on a steep learning curve.

I don't want this learning to be mine alone.

I'll be writing more here, though. You're invited to subscribe and join the journey.