In many ways, I see myself as a coward for not being able to step up and express my frustrations to you all.

For fear of stigma or judgement, I’ve long felt constrained to express my thoughts. However, I owe it to myself to express how I feel.

Prior to writing this letter, I’ve searched myself so many times and have wondered what my motives were. In many ways, I found myself steeped in many of the same errors I identified to be present in you all. In doing so, I wondered if I was really so qualified to write this.  I really am not. In many ways, I also struggle to escape the allures and anxieties of our neoliberal society and current world. However, I am trying, and I implore you all to do the same.

No matter the distance, church is home. It always has been. In this home, I consider you all to be my family. I love you all and you’ve done more for me than I could ever repay.

Our friendship has been foundational to my spiritual and emotional growth in every possible way: It was through you all that I met Jesus for the first time. It was through you all that I learned the power of prayer. It was through you all that I had true friends for the first time.

Our friendship together were true miracles because, for a long time, I really struggled to make true and authentic friends. It was also through you all that I was able to learn about the radical love of Christ. The wonderfully selfless love that put Christ on the Cross.

…

So, what happened to that?

When did we, in our efforts to find work, settle down, get married, and branch out become apathetic to the needs and the hardships of our world? When did we stop being radical?

The level of apathy amongst us is so disappointing and the level of engagement even more so.

War, rape, famine, poverty, drug use, wage inequality, gender discrimination, racism, colonialism and inequity at every level is the everyday reality for many, not our comfortable middle-class lives.

Our comfort is our privilege and yet, in many ways, has been our demise.

It’s made us blind to the radical love we should we showing. It’s made us forget the urgency.

I understand that many of us fights fires and save lives on a daily basis. I sincerely thank you for that. However, what of living out the Gospel truth in radical ways?

I’m not telling you to move to a war zone. I’m not telling you to give away your house. I’m not telling you to donate your entire income. However, at the very least, start reading the damn news and start praying about it. Get to know our world and understand why Jesus is broken over it. Get involved with your community and lobby for change. Go to rallies and raise your voice at protests. If you’re too busy, stay tuned to politics on social media at the very least. Social media is not just a fad or a game. It’s an important platform that allows grassroots organizations to speak their minds and for us to support them.

The Acts 2 fellowship was an extremely God-oriented community. It was a beautiful community and it was a radical community.

It is disappointing that we look nothing like that.

Instead, many at the Church are following the trajectories of today’s millennials and are rather, impeding important and progressive ideas from being put onto the table. It’s ridiculous and wrong to think that social justice mobilization is only for activists. It should be a mindset that we uphold every single day. It should be a thirst we have every single day. It should fuel our prayers to God every single day.  This is, at the very least, what it means to be ‘radical’.

I acknowledge that I struggle with this. I struggle with this a lot. Ashamedly, there are many times I want to just appreciate the luxuries of my middle-class life. My daily schedule involves reading 10 hours a day. Tangibly, I do very little to serve my community.

However, I’m really trying my best every day to be proactive about the issues that affect our world. I’m trying my best to think reflexively about my privileges every moment I can. I’m trying my best to trust God, to pray incessantly, and to love everyone in my community

Friends, I’m writing this letter because it hurt me so much to see your apathetic responses to a brother-in-Christ in mourning. I understand that he was not a particularly close friend. However, Christ’s blood covers all awkwardness, bad blood, and distance. Rather, Christ’s love moves us to care and honestly, your responses were pathetic.

If you cannot undertake a single act of compassion and reconciliation, how will God entrust you with a task of much more substance?

Friends, I am asking you to step up to care for this world and to care for your community and not just the people you want to care for.

If you decide this is not for you, then I am sad to say that we cannot be friends.