Walking Prophetically: Marching as a Form of Worship | Sojourners

Walking Prophetically: Marching as a Form of Worship

100318_090501_351_immigrationThis Sunday like tens of thousands of Americans I'll be in Washington D.C. in the March for America rally on behalf of undocumented immigrants. On Friday, we had a pre-rally in the Bronx with Congressman Luis Gutierrez and several faith-based and not-for-profit organizations. Groups like the Latino Leadership Circle, the Latino Pastoral Action Center, NY Faith and Justice, and the NY State Interfaith Immigration Coalition have made it clear that comprehensive immigration reform is an issue for people of faith. We are marching to make it clear that we need immigration reform now to a broken system.

So this Sunday, March 21, the Lamb's Church, the Evangelical congregation which my wife and I have the privilege of pastoring, is taking our worship on the road. At 6:00 a.m. we are getting on a chartered bus to Washington, D.C. for the March for America gathering. I believe that this is a moment to move beyond speaking prophetically to marching prophetically. Many of the faithful at the Lamb's Church believe that marching on behalf of some of the most vulnerable is a form of worship. In the words of Bonhoeffer, "the church is only the church when it exists for the other." So we are going to wake-up early not to go to church but to "be church" at the National Mall with close to 100,000 people.

I spoke to one of my 20-something leaders yesterday and I said to her, "This is our moment for a public witness. When our children and grand-children ask us what we did on behalf of the stranger. We can say, 'We walked, child

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