Recently I was introduced to yet another way to think about the study of history, namely, history as discipleship<\/strong>. Catalyst for Harmony<\/a> is a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that guides church leaders through a cohort discipleship model with an emphasis on producing racial harmony. Their website says their program is for \u201cA pastor, staff, or catalytic lay leader who desires to increase racial harmony in their congregation and community through scripturally rooted, gospel-congruent, culturally expansive, and hope-aimed discipleship.\u201d<\/p>\n Andy Gray, Catalyst\u2019s founder and executive director, created a unique Seven H\u2019s discipleship model based on his own previous pastoral experiences related to racial harmony:\u00a0 Heart, Humility, History, Hearing, Healing, Harness, Hope.<\/p>\n Andy leads cohorts of church leaders through a four-phase program:<\/p>\n 1. Studying Fuller Seminary\u2019s \u201cFirst Things for Flourishing\u201d Curriculum<\/a>,<\/p>\n 2. Participating in cultural agility training<\/p>\n 3. Participating in a Sankofa trip<\/p>\n 4. Participating in racial harmony training that deep dives into the Seven Hs.<\/p>\n Andy led a Sankoa trip in April that I was able to join even though I am not part of a Catalyst cohort.\u00a0 Sankofa<\/a> is a concept from the Akan language of West Africa that means \u201cGo back and get it.\u201d Or, to go a little deeper, the concept derives from an Akan proverb best translated \u201cIf you forget and you go back to get it, there is nothing wrong with it.\u201d\u00a0 The concept is usually portrayed by a bird whose feet face forward, but whose head faces backwards. This speaks to the importance of learning history that you never knew \u2014 or forgot \u2014 so that it can help you make better decisions as you move forward. Really, this is what all history teaching should be accomplishing for students.<\/p>\n Sankofa trips can occur in any number of historical\/cultural contexts, but the ones that Catalyst mostly organizes are trips in the South that focus on African American history that is too often downplayed in American K-12 education and popular culture. We began by touring the Whitney Plantation<\/a> on the Mississippi River that had descendants of slaves living in its \u201cquarters\u201d into the 1970s (as was true of some other southern plantations). Today Whitney Plantation is interpreted solely from the perspective of the enslaved people who lived and labored there. From there we went on to the French Quarter of New Orleans, Biloxi (civil rights era \u201cwade-ins\u201d marker), Mobile (Africatown<\/a>), Selma (Edmund Pettis Bridge), Montgomery (Three of the Equal Justice Initiative\u2019s \u201clegacy sites\u201d<\/a> \u2013 The Legacy Museum, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park), Birmingham (16th Street Baptist Church), Tuscaloosa (Stillman College), and Memphis (Mason Temple and the National Civil Rights Museum<\/a>). The trip was enriched by the inclusion of two sociologists, Michael Emerson and Glenn Bracey II, who each made brief but impactful presentations about race in America. Emerson and Bracy co-authored the very insightful book The Religion of Whiteness: How Racism Distorts Christian Faith.<\/a> The trip lasted from Monday through Friday.<\/p>\n Part of the design brilliance of the trip was that Andy repeatedly challenged us to intentionally frame our experiences according to the following points:<\/p>\n I have previously visited a couple of the sites on this trip, and this past semester I taught \u201cAfrican American History to 1877,\u201d and for years I have taught our \u201cAfrica & The Slave Trade\u201d course, so very little of what we experienced was \u201cnews\u201d to me. But it was striking to witness the powerful emotional impact these experiences had on my fellow Americans, who clearly had not previously learned much of this information. Although several Sankofa travelers were not part of the current Catalyst cohort, each person was clearly navigating a \u201cteachable moment\u201d in their lives relative to our nation\u2019s painful, yet inspiring, African American (hi)story.<\/p>\n \u201cAfrican American history\u201d is, in fact, \u201cAmerican History.\u201d The pain, the struggle, the persistence, the resistance, and the aspirations of African Americans are vital, non-negotiable parts of the American story.<\/p>\n At the Edmund Pettis Bridge, I came to terms with the price paid by so many to secure voting rights for African Americans, and specifically the 1965 Voting Rights Act. That place became hallowed ground to me. It was a cruel and sickening irony for our reflection at that bridge to be so soon followed up by yet one more SCOTUS decision<\/a> gutting that seminal law. As our ongoing GroupMe conversations revealed, many on our trip found the April 29 Louisiana v. Callais<\/em> decision deeply disturbing. It\u2019s very telling how one\u2019s historical understanding affects how they see and respond to current events.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I wish I lived in Minneapolis so I could join the next Catalyst cohort and intentionally walk through all four stages of this process. But regardless, this trip has demonstrated that understanding previously obscured aspects of our nation\u2019s history can be a vital step in \u201cscripturally rooted, gospel-congruent, culturally expansive, and hope-aimed discipleship.\u201d Hope is the Seventh H, and it is what our discipleship journey this side of eternity should, and arguably, must<\/em> lead us to. For though the arc of the moral universe is long<\/a>, our great hope as Christians is that it bends toward justice because since Jesus rose from the dead anything is possible! As Abraham rhetorically asked, \u201cShall not the Judge of all the earth do right?\u201d (Genesis 18:25) And we dare not forget that the apostle Peter admonished his readers: \u201cBut in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect\u201d (I Peter 3:15)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/168\/2026\/06\/West-African-Adinkra-symbols-on-the-Cabildo-in-NOLA.jpg\")
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<\/a>There is more I could say about the trip, but we wrapped up our experience with each of us verbally processing our emotions and thoughts, with several of us breaking down in tears as we tried to come to terms with the weight of this history. One caucasion woman said that after learning this history she was overwhelmed by the realization about how incredibly optimistic African Americans have to be to continue living in this country. She is right, but truth be told, I told her that the more I know about our history and the more I see current social-political trends, the more I personally struggle with maintaining my optimism.<\/p>\n\n
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