by David Docusen | November 8, 2019 | Uncategorized
“I have to be honest, James, I hate the word inclusion.”
James looked at me with a mixed reaction of shock, disappointment, and confusion. After all, he was the leader of the newly formed diversity and inclusion group at a very large organization. They were doing great work creating safe places for people to have conversations about realities present along racial and gender lines that are present within a predominantly white and male-led organization.
I replied, “Let me explain… you know I love the work you guys are doing. Keep up your good work. However, I hate that word because of the implications that go along with it.”
“Ok…I’m intrigued,” he said as we jumped into a wide-ranging, genuine conversation about racial and gender inequality.
I hate the word inclusion because it implies a dominant group of people (this can include one dominant race, economic status, gender, etc.) is allowing a minority group to participate in the dominant expression of the organization. That doesn’t sound like much fun, does it?
It’s easy if you are a member of an all-male and all-white executive team to just tune me out right now. Remember, I’m a white guy that’s been in a lot of these rooms. We’ve got to do better because we’ve missed out on so much brilliance and beauty by filling rooms with people that look and act like us. I can’t stop thinking about the fact that Jesus said that loving God and neighbors is the most important commandment that we could follow (Mark 12:28-34). In order to truly love each other well, we need to take the time to understand and see each other.
A dominant group has a certain expression of the way they see the world, experience their faith, and make decisions. When a person of color or a woman is invited to be included in an organization that is led by a predominantly white and male leadership team, many times that simply means that they have been invited to help the dominant group continue to express their monotone worldview without genuine input from the person being included in the final decision-making process.
If a person on the margins is not given the genuine opportunity to make decisions or give input that would be deeply considered, inclusion comes off as disingenuous at best, and grossly oppressive at worst.
In order to truly experience the beauty of diversity, there has to be decision makers in the room that come from various backgrounds. How can an all-white board of directors make decisions that truly make people of color feel like their organization is allowing them to operate from their true center if no one that looks like them is even in the room? How can an all-male executive team make a well-informed decision without any women present that is genuinely for the women in that company?
Let’s dig in a bit more to church culture. Simply diversifying the racial representation of the worship team does not actually mean that you’ve created an atmosphere that is creating space for people of color to truly worship from their true center. If every song that is played on a Sunday morning is from the same general genre from the dominant culture the expression of worship from folks that have lived on the margins may never genuinely connect on a heart level.
We’ve got to learn how to sing together, even if the songs aren’t familiar or preferred.
We have to become more committed to filling executive teams and board rooms with women and people of color that are brilliant, qualified, and bring much-needed perspective to a white and male-dominated culture. If you have a position of influence within an organization that is dominated by a single ethnic or gender group, how can you use that influence to highlight the qualification and brilliance of people that have been pushed to the margins?
Inattentional blindness is the psychological phenomenon that causes you to miss things that are right in front of your eyes. This means that you genuinely may have never even realized that your organization was dominated by one race or gender. This phenomenon means that you get so used to your surroundings that you miss things in that context that are obvious to others.
Where do we start? Great question.
There are brilliant women and people of color everywhere. That being said, start by analyzing the context of your life and friendships. Who are your friends and the people that join you during your lunch break? Who are the friends that surround you in your home at the dinner table? This will take time, but starting with auditing your own life and friendships begins to open your eyes to the reality that there’s a much broader expression of beauty and brilliance than what we have experienced in our majority white and male-led culture.
Inclusion does not equal diversity. I don’t want to invite people of color and women to express life from the perspective of a white man. I want to experience the beauty of God like I see in the bible. Revelation 7:9 (MSG) says, “I saw a huge crowd, too huge to count. Everyone was there—all nations and tribes, all races and languages.” An entire community was singing and worshiping God with one voice. We all don’t have to sing the same part to sing the same song. Harmony – the combination of different parts of a song – is what makes for a beautiful song.
Is your church, nonprofit, or business singing a beautiful song or have you invited a group of talented singers to sing the same part you learned? I can hear a song that will be sung in the future and the melodies and harmonies are breathtaking and beautiful. It will take some practice, but let’s choose to sing together.
James and I finished our conversation and he smiled as he said, “I see you, David. I didn’t know where you were going with that one, but I see you. Let’s sing together.“
by David Docusen | November 5, 2019 | Uncategorized
I have dreamed of writing a book for almost twenty years. Actually, if I am being really honest, I’ve dreamed of writing a lot of books. What dreams do you have that you haven’t released to the world? Here’s to hoping that this post will encourage you to courageously respond to closed doors (don’t try to pry them open) and then courageously walk through open doors (don’t shrink back in fear).
I’ve got no less than ten different book ideas safely tucked away in a password-protected journal program on my computer. Whenever I get a new idea, I pull out my computer or phone, open Evernote, and capture the moment. I’ve been capturing moments like this for over ten years. These ideas have remained safely behind an additional layer that I have hid behind for a while: insecurity. Dara (my wife) knows most of my ideas, but that is the farthest most of them have traveled.
Everything changed a few months ago when I signed a contract with the Fedd Agency. Honestly, typing out or saying the words my agent still feels unnatural. Doesn’t really roll off the tongue.
I was massively encouraged by my second interaction with my agent, Esther in April 2019. She was incredibly excited about the ideas that I had formed around the topic of neighborliness. However, this was after an eye-opening first call with Esther in September of 2016.
“I have been excited to chat with you,” Esther (founder and owner of the Fedd Agency) said. “Tell me your ideas. However, make it quick. If you can’t tell me your idea in a few sentences, you don’t have an idea.” Five minutes later I was still rambling through my catalogue of Evernote ideas. Esther graciously stopped me and said, “I am excited to work with you, but you don’t have an idea yet. Finish up your doctoral program, clear your head, and call me back in a few years.”
She had a point. I was full of ideas that had no practical expression that would genuinely benefit others if they read what I was writing. If I didn’t fully understand my ideas at that point, there was no way I could ever pass them on in a way that would encourage others. I doubled down on my education and finished my doctoral program in April 2019. A few weeks later, I took a deep breath and reached back out to Esther.
“Let’s do it again,” she said with a genuine excitement. “Remember, however, you have to make it quick. You don’t have an idea if you can’t say it quickly.”
I remember feeling a brief moment of nervousness before I replied, but that was quickly followed by a feeling of confidence and readiness. The insecurity that I had become so familiar with over the years was still present, but I believed in the message God had formed and shaped in my heart so much that insecurity would no longer keep me from sharing.
“I started my doctoral program three years ago with the idea that I wanted to understand the reasons behind the cyclical patterns of generational poverty. However, the more I studied the unequal systems that divide our communities, the more I was drawn to the call of Jesus to love God and neighbors. If we express a spirit of neighborliness, we would never have inequity in our society.” I stopped, listened to what seemed to be forever-silence (most likely a three-second pause) and Esther said, “What did you just say? Neighborliness? That’s it!! That’s the message that we all need to hear. That’s the message I need to hear.”
Later that day, Esther sent me a contract and we began the process of developing a book proposal. All of a sudden, I was going from safely storing the most intimate and vulnerable ideas that I was developing to sharing them with an editorial team (shout out to my main editor at Fedd, Tori Thacher!) that wanted to pull all of the best ideas out of me and get them into this proposal.
The editorial team coached me through writing the first proposal and I submitted it to them after six weeks of writing, re-writing, throwing paper against the wall (literally and figuratively). Tori’s first response was encouraging and challenging. “This is really good,” she said. “But you have more in you.”
Anyone else out there here the “but you have more in you” louder than the “it’s really good?” I know I’m not alone on that one. I had to move past my insecurities because I want the message to be as strong as possible. Additionally, I’m convinced Tori is a savant when it comes to writing, so I decided to take the encouragement with the challenge and keep moving forward.
Over the next two weeks, Tori and I worked hand-in-hand on a completely new proposal. It was deeper, more nuanced, and much clearer than the first one I wrote. I’m grateful for Tori’s courage to challenge me, because she pulled ideas out of me that I didn’t even know were present behind the layers of notes that I had created on my own.
I will never forget getting the final email from Esther and Tori that said that they had completed the proposal with the attached design that they would be sending to publishers. As a note, this isn’t the final artwork or even the final title (the publishers will be involved with final creative decisions).
Seeing this graphic was a dream twenty years in the making. I thought I would cry (sometimes I cry), but I didn’t. I just sat there completely speechless. I love to talk, so speechless seems to be a reaction reserved for moments like the birth of my four kids and the rare occasion that the Detroit Tigers – my favorite baseball team since I was a child – actually win a game.
The team from the Fedd Agency has been incredible along the way. They genuinely believe in the message that God continues to form in my heart. I thank God on a regular basis that they are advocating for this book (and books to come). However, I had no clue what the process would look like once they submitted the book to publishers.
I checked my email no less than a hundred times the next few days. I guess I was just figuring that major publishers were just waiting to get a book exploring the potentially volatile topic of race, economics, and the greatest commandment. I wrote Jill (director of author relations) and said, “By the way… what’s this process look like? Days, weeks, months?” She wrote back and kindly told me that the process could take several months. She added, “Make sure you’re not writing anymore on the framework of this book. It could all change if they publishers feel like it needs to go in another direction.”
That email was almost two months ago. I have learned so much about myself during this time of waiting. I have reinforced a long-known reality that I’m not really good at waiting. God is teaching me how to patiently wait for him to open doors that no man can close and close doors that no man can open (Revelation 3:8). I am learning to appreciate the present moment and not wish away a season of calm to get to the season where I will see this dream realized. God is present in the waiting.
What are you waiting on today? What dream is in your heart that has not been fulfilled? Maybe we can join each other in recognizing that God is with us in the waiting.
One of the names of God in the bible is Immanuel. It means “God with us.” Let that one sink in. One of his names in Scripture means that he is with us in every season. God ascends to the mountaintop with us to see the beautiful view of what we have accomplished and what is still to come. God descends into the valley with with us when we can’t see past the forest of doubt and fear. He is with us on every part of the journey, and he’s traveling with us today.
Let’s be real… I still hope this season of waiting ends soon. However, I’m growing more and more comfortable in the waiting because I know that God is with me everywhere I go. I don’t like seasons of waiting, but I’m grateful I’m not alone. God is with me and I have a hunch you may be on a similar journey, as well.
Immanuel, God is with us.
by David Docusen | June 25, 2019 | Uncategorized
Developing this doctoral dissertation was a life-changing journey. Jesus shaped my heart in ways that I could have never imagined, and I love him more today than ever before because of being exposed to his story.
Here’s the link to download the dissertation, with the abstract (summary) of the project.
https://firescholars.seu.edu/dmin/5
Neighborliness: A Call to Racial and Socioeconomic Equity in Charlotte, North Carolina
In Mark 12:28-34, Jesus is challenged by an expert in religious law to identify the most important commandment. He replies that loving God and neighbors is the most important of the over six hundred commandments. This research project investigates how healing can come to communities that have been racially and socioeconomically divided when a spirit of biblical neighborliness is present. The ubiquity of this call to neighborliness throughout Scripture highlights the importance of this topic, but special emphasis is given to Mark 12:28-34 and Isaiah 58:1-14 in order to focus the effort and scope of this dissertation.
Chapter One surveys the biblical call to neighborliness in Mark 12:28-34 and Isaiah 58:1-14. Chapter Two explains the influences that cause individuals born into poverty to likely remain in poverty their entire life. The framework of stabilizing education, employment, healthcare, and housing is introduced as a strategy to break the cyclical pattern of generational poverty. Chapter Three moves to describing a seminar, titled “Neighborliness: A Seminar on Race, Economics, and Friendship,” hosted at Center City Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Chapter Four then offers a reflective summary and analysis of the feedback from participants of the seminar. Lastly, Chapter Five reveals the desire of the researcher to continue to progress toward the study and practical expression of biblical neighborliness in cities across the world.
by David Docusen | February 25, 2019 | Uncategorized
I have what looks like is going to be a scar under my right eye. It happened a few days after my mom was in a horrific car accident (January 2019) that almost took her life. I spent every day in the hospital with her as she was dealing with seven broken bones, three surgeries, and bleeding on the brain.
I went home one night to go check in on the fam and help with a few things around the house. Alight in the living room needed to be changed, so I went to grab the ladder out of our utility closet in the garage. When I grabbed the ladder, the weed whacker fell off the brace that holds it up against the wall and onto my face. Not cool. I bled, and I was frustrated.
It’s turned out to be a permanent mark that reminds me of God’s faithfulness because during this entire season, my mom (Becky Docusen) has been praising God from her bed, unable to walk or do many basic things that we take for granted. She has one working limb right now, and she’s using it to raise in worship to God. Mom said, “hopefully that heals one day.” I said, “It’s just a face, and it reminds me every day of God’s faithfulness to us in this season, and of your (mom) faithfulness to God.”
by David Docusen | February 18, 2019 | Uncategorized
I just found myself all up in my feelings tonight as I wrote the first draft of my conclusion for the doctoral dissertation. Three years worth of academic research and practical ministry as I’ve explore race, economics, and friendship as it relates to the topic of biblical neighborliness.
Here’s my first stab at my conclusion… it will change through the editing process, but I wanted to share the experience as it unfolds. There’s probably mistakes, but after three years and 12+ hours of writing today alone, I don’t hardly care at all … hahahahaha… shoot me a message if you have any feedback!
The journey of this dissertation process started in 2015 when I looked across our congregation at Center City Church and I saw a predominantly white congregation in a city that was brimming with cultural diversity. I prayed a private prayer to the Lord after a Sunday morning service and asked him to teach me how to see the beauty of the diverse kingdom of God expressed at Center City Church. I had no clue what I was praying, and even more so I could have never anticipated the beauty and the challenge of seeing this prayer answered. I have been deeply touched and changed by the rigor of this academic and theological journey, but immeasurably more by the friendships that have filled my life over the past four years. I am forever changed by the neighborliness that has been expressed to me by the pastors that have faithfully served the West Charlotte community for years and the residents of the Camp Greene neighborhood that have welcomed our church family with open arms. I am a better son of God, husband to Dara, father to Max, Mary, Jack, and Ben, and pastor for Center City Church because of the experiences that have been afforded to me on this academic and relational journey.
As a son of God, my eyes have been opened to the beauty of God’s diverse creation across racial and economic lines. I have learned how to patiently listen to the stories of others without insisting on interjecting my own personal opinions or biased outlook on life. I have learned the value of humbly placing myself at the feet of others that may not have personal riches (as measured by the dominant culture) and learning from a different level of faithfulness and trust in the Lord that is sharpened by trials and tribulation that I may never experience myself.
As a husband to Dara and father to my children, I have learned how to engage in meaningful conversation around our dinner table about culture and the dynamics that are ever-present in our society that our family (as middle-class and white) may never have addressed if I had not been afforded this opportunity to explore race, economics, and friendship at such an intimate level. I will never forget the first time that my oldest son, Max (fifteen years old at the time), and I listened to Propaganda’s album and discussed the meaning of the lyrics in-depth that explored dynamics that my son had never had to address. I saw a spark in his eyes that day that has grown into a fire for justice and compassion today.
As a pastor at Center City Church, I have witnessed beauty that is forged through conflict, forgiveness, misunderstanding, grace, and faithfully journeying together toward a beautiful expression of neighborliness that was described by Jesus as the greatest of all the commandments. We are an imperfect Christian community genuinely pursuing the perfection of Jesus on a daily basis. I will continue to choose Jesus daily and share his love with others, and I expect nothing less from this beautiful and courageous community that is embodying the message of Jesus in Charlotte, North Carolina.
As I look toward the future of where I hope this field of study will continue to press toward, I can envision two areas that I would hope that either myself or others will explore to add to the work that has been explored in this dissertation project. The first would be a practical examination of how affluent and influential leaders in the community (business and political leaders, in particular) can genuinely use their positions of power to engage in a meaningful way in the work of creating a more equitable society for all residents of Charlotte, North Carolina and cities like it across the world. There are countless men and women of God that I have met in the past four years that genuinely want to share their influence and resources with neighbors in Charlotte that have only known the devastating pattern of generational poverty. However, the unknown or unseen landmines of racial and economic complexity that have been set by the enemy have produced fear and timidity and hindered them from using their influential positions to bring true equity to high-poverty communities. I believe that someone will take on this mantle and courageously engage in making a submission that will have an incredible impact by bring reconciliation and healing between neighbors from vastly different economic realities that are all created in the same image of our beautiful God.
I have a personal desire to explore the topic of the spirit of mammon that is referenced in Matthew 6:24 and how it has infiltrated our culture –in cities as a whole and the church community. The New Living Translation does not mention this spirit specifically as mammon. It reads, “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.” However, the King James Version does refer to this spirit specifically. It states, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
This spirit seems to be insatiable and without satisfaction. I have met countless businessfolks that have achieved the highest levels of success as defined by the popular economic measurables of our society. However, so many feel like they do not have enough and they continue to work harder and harder to achieve some sort of satisfaction that always seems out of reach. Sadly, I also recognize this same spirit in popular church culture, as well. Church leaders insatiably chasing after astronomic levels of numeric and financial growth in churches, never satisfied with what God has given them and chasing after a sense of peace and tranquility that will only be found at the feet of Jesus. Instead of finding security in their status as a son or daughter of the king, the unattainable pursuit of satisfaction by notoriety or fame has them trapped. The spirit of mammon has ensnared entire communities and churches with the false promises of peace and security through influence, power, and financial gain. Jesus provides the antidote to the spirit of mammon in Matthew 6:33. He says, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”
When Jesus was challenged by the lawyer in Mark 12:28-34 to sum up the greatest of all the commandments, Jesus concisely and powerfully replied that we should love God and neighbors. If this was the central commandment of Jesus, I believe that the aim of the body of Christ should be to love God with full passion and embody a spirit neighborliness to a world that is desperately in need of reconciliation.
