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Mission Mississippi
plans Day of Dialogue
Published Friday, August 21
By L.A. Story
Staff Writer
The monthly meeting of the Corinth chapter of Mission Mississippi included a discussion of preparations for the upcoming Day of Dialog event.
The Day of Dialog is a time of open, round-table discussions which is designed to facilitate a look at the issues that could possibly separate the Body of Christ along racial lines. The day is developed as a conference with opportunities to introduce strong discussions regarding the racial issues that still exist, but often remain unspoken, according to previous information regarding the event.
Plans for the local Day of Dialog, which is set for Sept. 12, are still sketchy at this time, as a location is still being decided. However, Mission Mississippi Marketing Coordinator Jennifer Lyles has indicated a desire to get the word out about the event so that any local churches who would like to host Mission Mississippi leaders, president Neddie Winters; renowned author, speaker and former organization president Dolphus Weary or Mission Mississippi executive Dan Hall on a Sunday morning or evening service before the event, would have the opportunity to do so. She noted that the dates of Aug. 30 or Sept. 6 were available.
Hosting one of these renowned speakers and organizational leaders will help raise awareness and understanding of the Day of Dialog and of Mission Mississippi's purpose in the hopes of gathering support of the organization as well as the local event, Lyles explained.
Still in its infancy, the Corinth chapter of Mission Mississippi began with a meeting of local pastors in spring of 2008 and eventually opened the monthly meetings to the public in early fall of last year. Mission Mississippi President Neddie Winters leads the meetings, which take place at 11:30 a.m. the third Thursday of every month at Martha's Menu in downtown Corinth.
This month, Winters' topic of discussion dealt with getting to know who a person really is from the inside out. Winters began to facilitate the discussion with the challenge: "Without titles or achievements, describe who you are."
When the answers from the group were slow to arrive, Winters helped the discussion along with a self-description: "I have a passion for people to love each other ... to care about each other. I want to be a peace maker and I guess that's why Mission Mississippi is a natural fit for me."
This began a series of answers from the group as they gave both positive and negative descriptions of themselves that included: a giver; a heart for helping children; advocate for underdogs; insecure; "hounded by the demon of perfectionism" and someone who is in the process of further cultivating an attitude of gratitude.
Winters went on to explain the purpose behind urging meeting attendees to answer the challenge was to reveal something about each individual to the rest of the group.
"Mission Mississippi's goal is to set an environment where people can get to know who you really are ..." said Winters. He went on to say that the people in the discussions cannot gain trust and friendship - thus making any progress in communication - if they do not know each other. The leader said he has been many places that often deny there is a problem with race in their community.
"Yes, there's no problem ... until there's a black and white shooting in the street or until there's racial profiling ... until then everybody knows their place. But, there's no problem," said Winters.
Regarding the idea of people - Christians, in particular - getting along with each other and developing a deeper understanding of each other, Winters said there is no other option. He said Christ commanded that everyone get along.
"Christians are the worst when it comes to separating themselves because of differences," said Winters. "We need to try to love each other in spite of our differences."
One attendee spoke up to note that he had frequent discussions with a friend of his, who had very different views from his own, who would make the remark, "I hope our friendship can survive this debate." Pastor Doris Day, of the Agape World Overcoming Christian Center, said that a real dialog can only happen when the participants "agree to disagree, but without being disagreeable."
Winters said that when people of all races, genders and beliefs come together as Christians they need to be motivated by their one commonality - their savior, Jesus Christ.
For more information about Mission Mississippi, visit the organization's website at www.missionmississippi.org.
