When one person practices Everyday Peacemaking, change is possible. But when that person leads a faith community into the praxis of Everyday Peacemaking, change is inevitable.
Pastor-peacemaker Amy Kasari has been instrumental in leading her church through radical transformation for years, and Global Immersion has been privileged to be part of that journey. It was her awakening to the inequitable experiences of her migrant neighbors in Central Oregon that caused Amy to contact Global Immersion. While participating in an immersion trip to the U.S./Mexico border, she realized that her congregation had a tangible role to play in pursuing the peace and prosperity of all those who called Bend, Oregon, “home.” Yet she also recognized that the journey of personal and congregational transformation would take time. So she began conspiring with Global Immersion co-founder Jer Swigart, who was a part of the Antioch congregation, about ways she could get involved locally. Her first step was participating in a coalition of faith leaders committed to building solidarity with their migrant neighbors that addressed the gaps in relationships and resources in her context. Proximity changed Amy and further awakened her imagination for the transformation of her congregation.
Her next step was participating in Global Immersion’s Journey of Hope (JOH) leadership cohort in 2022. The cohort experience, which culminated with an immersion into The Troubles of Northern Ireland, brought Amy into relationships with global leaders on a similar journey of personal and organizational transformation. Throughout her one-on-one coaching sessions with Jer, Amy began building a strategy for the slow and intentional work of congregational transformation. She caught the vision of what is possible when faith communities become Reconciling Communities.
In reflecting on Global Immersion’s approach to coaching leaders like Amy, Jer explains, “Our coaching is about offering companionship rather than instruction. We come alongside leaders like Amy and work to understand where they’re at in their personal formation and their hopes for both organizational and contextual transformation. Then, we offer input, invitations, and introductions so that each leader can discover and take their next steps.”
That process has been quite a ride for Amy and the people of Antioch.
After a shooting at a local grocery store left several dead in her area, Amy and the people of Antioch chose to address gun violence. Global Immersion introduced them to our friend Mike Martin at RAW Tools, a gun-violence-reduction organization that literally turns guns into garden tools.
In a recent live panel discussion that we hosted on gun violence, Amy revealed the slow process their congregation has gone through since that shooting. The forward-facing programming has involved a teaching series, book studies, and a public forum on faith, violence, and non-violence.
Their goal is not to form a congregation where everyone thinks the same on issues like gun violence. Instead, Antioch’s description of a Reconciling Community includes a bigger table populated by conservatives and liberals who are in relationship, curious with one another, and generous toward one another’s perspectives. As it relates to gun violence, they hope to be a family where gun owners and avowed pacifists can come together in authentic, co-creating relationships that usher in the peace and prosperity of their city.
Because of the slow work of transformation that Amy and her team are committed to, these goals and hopes are slowly being realized.
On August 12, 2023, Antioch will become the first gun decommissioning site in Central Oregon. Shortly thereafter, they will host and support their first refugee family. Then, this October, they will participate in an immersion into the Deep South to learn first-hand from historic and contemporary Freedom Fighters of the Civil Rights movement what it means to join God and others in the work of repair.
Reflecting on Antioch’s incredible journey, Amy points to the fuel behind it all:
“When I think of Christ and His Way, I think of his arms open wide on the cross,” Amy held her arms out wide and smiled. “Many Roman executions had the poor soul’s arms up over their head, but Christ was executed with his arms flung wide, in humility and open-armed welcome to all.”
Then she moved her outstretched arms together; her fists balled up at her chest.
“Contrast that open-armed love with the opposite, the worldly way of holding things tightly to our chests: we hold our guns, our security, our wealth, our self-importance, our own way—we hold it tightly, with two hands, close to our chest, and we miss out on the scary, beautiful, open-armed way of Christ in the world that leads to freedom and life to the fullest.”
Friends, this is what the church can and must be! We believe that if a predominantly white, conservative, Evangelical congregation in Central Oregon can become a Reconciling Community, then it’s possible everywhere.
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Amy Kasari has served on staff at Antioch Church since 2018. She is mother to Jason, Allie, and Claire. She holds as BS from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a Masters in Theology of Social Justice from Kilns College. Amy is an avid traveler, collector of maps, and loves the diversity of creation.