Different experiences, a common Bible

By Phil Haslanger
Collaboration Project Story Team

Some of the folks are from Christ the Solid Rock Baptist Church - a predominantly African-America congregation. Others are from Lake Edge Lutheran - a very white congregation. There are a smattering of people from an Episcopal congregation, a United Church of Christ congregation, other points on the Christian denominational spectrum.

Guiding the group is Rev. Everett Mitchell, pastor of Christ the Solid Rock (and a Dane County judge). This group has grown from something he began at Lake Edge in 2008 as a law student after teaching a Sunday school series on Black Theology and Black Power to this vibrant  multidenominational weekly exploration of the books in the Bible.

For me, as a regular participant in the group over the last couple of years, the range of experiences that people bring to these discussions has widened my own understanding of the ideas that are part of our sacred texts.

Mitchell reflected on what this has become: “I didn't realize the importance of bringing together an intersection of religious theological perspectives into one space.” 

The beginnings at  Lake Edge Lutheran focused on just one book of the Bible - the Gospel according to Mark. The group worked its way through it over the course of a year and a half.

Mitchell was then a University of Wisconsin-Madison law student and associate director of what was then Madison-area Urban Ministry (now JustDane). He met with these white Lutherans every Thursday night. 

The group got broader once Mitchell became the pastor at Christ the Solid Rock in 2011. Stephen Marsh, who was also Black, became the pastor at Lake Edge Lutheran in 2012 and together they combined the Bible study efforts at the two congregations to form the cross-racial, cross-denomination entity it has become. In recent years, it has continued based at Christ the Solid Rock, but with an even wider array of denominational backgrounds coming to the group.

“While I grew up primarily black Baptist, I appreciate the diversity of perspectives that different traditions can bring to a text,” Mitchell explained. “The richness of Christian tradition is best understood when the table is set to include all those whose eyes and hearts are rooted in God's love for others.”

The conversations run for about an hour on Wednesday nights, now on Zoom since the COVID-19 pandemic has diminished the chances for groups to meet in person. Mitchell takes the lead, drawing on his depth of knowledge from Princeton Theological Seminary, his intense study of the scriptures and his life experience. 

Over the past couple of years, we have been exploring the letters of Paul to the earliest Christian communities. On a good night, we get through a chapter, but often it takes longer as the conversations veer into things that are happening in the life of the community or the life of the individual members right now. 

As often happens in groups like this, a bond has formed among the participants who might not otherwise cross paths. Prayers surround those experiencing illness, grieving a death. Traumatic experiences from the past often are shared with the group as we wrestle with concepts like forgiveness or grace or judgment. The passages of scripture take on fresh meaning as they spark these conversations. 

There are moments when the specific differences among congregations come to the fore.  When Paul is writing about communion, that leads to a discussion of the variety of ways Christians in our day understand communion and share it within their own churches. When Paul takes off after teachers he sees in Corinth as misleading the community, that takes us to a discussion about the wide divisions among Christians in the U.S. today.

All of this has created a richness of conversation that opens up more possibilities than the usual Bible study group. The respect for differing traditions, understanding and experiences has helped knit this disparate collection of Christians into a community of caring and discovery. The Word of God comes alive in our midst. 

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