Fear will not keep us away.
Tomorrow we will gather. As usual. 9:45 for Sunday School. 11:00 for worship. We need to be gathering more. Not less. In Charleston, in a church, the people gathered for Bible study and for prayer.
They will keep gathering - and so will we.
Last night young people from Maryland filled our sanctuary with glorious music. And all this week youth from Raleigh spent the night at our church while on mission trip. And tomorrow we will gather as a community of faith to study, worship, sing and pray.
Just like usual - but not usual at all because the level of hate and violence feels a bit more like the norm than it should.
We will try to speak truth to power and love to hate, and we will ask hard questions and we will sit in silence and we will know that it will not be enough just to gather. We will need to figure out what our role is in contributing to racism and what we can do to bring healing.
It won't be enough, but we will sing Lift Every Voice as loudly as we can. It won't be enough, but it will be what we do. At least in the morning. Without fear, we will gather. And pray. And sing our hearts out. Hope to see you there.