{"id":5307,"date":"2017-01-16T13:40:50","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T20:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?p=5307"},"modified":"2018-01-15T07:59:39","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T14:59:39","slug":"heres-celebrate-mlk-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/01\/heres-celebrate-mlk-day.html","title":{"rendered":"Here’s How We Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"MLKday.001\"<\/a>
Students from Redemption Church face off in the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day \/ FIFA tournament.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

All the neighborhood kids are out of school for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so\u00a0for Cole McGee and his Redemption Church Youth Group there\u2019s only one way to celebrate: a massive Playstation\u00a0FIFA tournament.<\/p>\n

The church I pastor is seated\u00a0in one of the only pockets of socio-economic diversity in Johnson County Kansas, a mostly white, extremely affluent suburb of Kansas City. Our\u00a0neighborhood is largely Hispanic and skews poor in comparison to other suburbs on the Kansas side of the river. To the rest of Johnson County this part of town is known mostly for bad\u00a0traffic, great Mexican food, and for hosting the county courthouse and\u00a0jail, but if all you ever do is a drive by on your way to pay a ticket or get a marriage license you are really missing something special. Because this neighborhood is such a beautiful place.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the third year for the day-long Martin Luther King Jr.\/FIFA celebration. The kids draft teams ahead of time and youth pastor, Cole McGee, sets the bracket on a combination of how good each\u00a0player is and the strength of their team. Even with the seeding, the same kid wins every year. They kick him down to a lesser ranked team and he still destroys everyone, and there are some really good players here. This year a couple of kids decided to set up a loudspeaker and broadcast live commentary on the matches. You can see on\u00a0the right in\u00a0the picture above, the winner of the previous match (also my oldest son) is being interviewed by one of the announcers.<\/p>\n

This tournament is one of those things I think of when I say the neighborhood is a beautiful place. Participation is probably half-and-half\u00a0hispanic kids and gringos from the burbs, and these kids are tight. Between Sunday worship and weekly youth group\u00a0they are together a couple of times a week, but these day-long events are such important bonding moments. \u201cIt lets our kids have a common experience,\u201d McGee says. \u201cThey tell the stories of this day over and over. I think it has to do with how close they sit together and how they are running this event on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"mlk.001\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I watch\u00a0them all sitting together eating pizza, and playing cards while they wait for their next match. Closer to the game a few of the boys are\u00a0giving each other crap, and screaming for yellow cards and goals. The whole room is on their feet as\u00a0a match ends in\u00a0PK\u2019s. A freshman girl just beat a junior boy\u2026 he\u2019s never<\/span> going to live that down.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t think of a better way to celebrate the memory of Martin Luther King Jr., because none of these kids are blind to race. They know the tensions at work in our society<\/a>. They live those tensions. They also know how important it is for them to be part of this group together.\u00a0In the wake of the presidential election\u00a0our neighborhood has been gripped with anxiety. The Hispanic community is wondering how much of Donald Trump\u2019s bluster will be\u00a0followed up with action.<\/p>\n

These kids are not afraid to talk openly about their fears<\/a>. They tell stories about\u00a0the racism they deal with at school. They talk about the prospect of\u00a0deportation and the possibility their families could be split up. Some of these kids are Dreamers. They know the government has their personal information\u00a0and could round them up anytime. But that\u2019s not all they know. They also know that they\u00a0belong here at Redemption, together. They know that their friendships across racial lines may be essential in the days ahead. You can see it in the way they interact. These kids love each other. They\u2019re not just playing FIFA today. They are breaking down barriers and building bonds that will forever change the way they see race.<\/p>\n

I love the way our church loves the neighborhood, but even more than that, I love the way the neighborhood loves the church. Even those who don\u2019t attend here on Sundays, they watch out for the church, they feel a sense of ownership. There is a sense that we\u00a0are sharing the same\u00a0life, and that the whole reason the church needs to exist in the first\u00a0place isn\u2019t even about\u00a0the church at all. It\u2019s about the neighborhood. If the neighborhood isn\u2019t flourishing, then the church isn\u2019t doing it\u2019s job.<\/p>\n

Our church stands with this neighborhood. We are this neighborhood. We don\u2019t check immigration status. We just love each other. The character\u00a0of the immigrant community mirrors those things to which the church should aspire: community, hospitality, family, kindness, honesty, and hard work. It\u2019s hard to imagine wanting to deport these kids, these refugees from the drug wars, violence, and economic strife\u00a0of Northern Mexico and Central America. Losing any one single one of them would be like\u2026 no not like\u2026 it would mean losing one of our own kids<\/em>\u2026 not on my watch.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All the neighborhood kids are out of school for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so\u00a0for Cole McGee and his Redemption Church Youth Group there\u2019s only one way to celebrate: a massive Playstation\u00a0FIFA tournament. The church I pastor is seated\u00a0in one of the only pockets of socio-economic diversity in Johnson County Kansas, a mostly white, extremely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":5308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHere's How We Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's hard to imagine wanting to deport these kids, these refugees from the drug wars, violence, & economic strife of Northern Mexico & Central America. Losing any one single one of them would mean losing one of our own...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/01\/heres-celebrate-mlk-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Here's How We Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It's hard to imagine wanting to deport these kids, these refugees from the drug wars, violence, & economic strife of Northern Mexico & Central America. Losing any one single one of them would mean losing one of our own...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/01\/heres-celebrate-mlk-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Paperback Theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-16T20:40:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-15T14:59:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/230\/2017\/01\/MLKday.001.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Suttle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Tim_Suttle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Suttle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/01\/heres-celebrate-mlk-day.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/01\/heres-celebrate-mlk-day.html\",\"name\":\"Here's How We Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-16T20:40:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-15T14:59:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6\"},\"description\":\"It's hard to imagine wanting to deport these kids, these refugees from the drug wars, violence, & economic strife of Northern Mexico & Central America. Losing any one single one of them would mean losing one of our own...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/01\/heres-celebrate-mlk-day.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/01\/heres-celebrate-mlk-day.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/01\/heres-celebrate-mlk-day.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Here’s How We Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/\",\"name\":\"Paperback Theology\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6\",\"name\":\"Tim Suttle\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tim Suttle\"},\"description\":\"Find out more about Tim at TimSuttle.com Tim Suttle is the senior pastor of RedemptionChurchkc.com. He is the author of several books including his most recent - Shrink: Faithful Ministry in a Church Growth Culture (Zondervan 2014), Public Jesus (The House Studio, 2012), & An Evangelical Social Gospel? (Cascade, 2011). Tim's work has been featured at The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Sojourners, and other magazines and journals. Tim is also the founder and front-man of the popular Christian band Satellite Soul, with whom he toured for nearly a decade. The band's most recent album is \\\"Straight Back to Kansas.\\\" He helped to plant three thriving churches over the past 13 years and is the Senior Pastor of Redemption Church in Olathe, Kan. Tim's blog, Paperback Theology, is hosted at Patheos.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/@Tim_Suttle\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/author\/timsuttle\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Here's How We Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day","description":"It's hard to imagine wanting to deport these kids, these refugees from the drug wars, violence, & economic strife of Northern Mexico & Central America. Losing any one single one of them would mean losing one of our own...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/01\/heres-celebrate-mlk-day.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Here's How We Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day","og_description":"It's hard to imagine wanting to deport these kids, these refugees from the drug wars, violence, & economic strife of Northern Mexico & Central America. Losing any one single one of them would mean losing one of our own...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/01\/heres-celebrate-mlk-day.html","og_site_name":"Paperback Theology","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438","article_published_time":"2017-01-16T20:40:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-01-15T14:59:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":300,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/230\/2017\/01\/MLKday.001.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tim Suttle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Tim_Suttle","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tim Suttle","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/01\/heres-celebrate-mlk-day.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/01\/heres-celebrate-mlk-day.html","name":"Here's How We Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-01-16T20:40:50+00:00","dateModified":"2018-01-15T14:59:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6"},"description":"It's hard to imagine wanting to deport these kids, these refugees from the drug wars, violence, & economic strife of Northern Mexico & Central America. Losing any one single one of them would mean losing one of our own...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/01\/heres-celebrate-mlk-day.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/01\/heres-celebrate-mlk-day.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/01\/heres-celebrate-mlk-day.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Here’s How We Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/","name":"Paperback Theology","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6","name":"Tim Suttle","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tim Suttle"},"description":"Find out more about Tim at TimSuttle.com Tim Suttle is the senior pastor of RedemptionChurchkc.com. He is the author of several books including his most recent - Shrink: Faithful Ministry in a Church Growth Culture (Zondervan 2014), Public Jesus (The House Studio, 2012), & An Evangelical Social Gospel? (Cascade, 2011). Tim's work has been featured at The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Sojourners, and other magazines and journals. Tim is also the founder and front-man of the popular Christian band Satellite Soul, with whom he toured for nearly a decade. The band's most recent album is \"Straight Back to Kansas.\" He helped to plant three thriving churches over the past 13 years and is the Senior Pastor of Redemption Church in Olathe, Kan. Tim's blog, Paperback Theology, is hosted at Patheos.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438","https:\/\/twitter.com\/@Tim_Suttle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/author\/timsuttle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}