"Brenda Salter McNeil: Seeking the heart of racial justice" -- Dec. 27, 2006

By Caleb Breakey
Urbana Today

A three-sided, beige balcony mounts the brick walls in Ander­son Chapel at North Park Univer­sity (NPU) in Chicago, Ill. Below, a wooden floor aisle divides two sections of blue chairs.

At the front of the chapel are two platforms. The more elevated stage consists of a piano, drum set, and space for a worship team. The stage beneath belongs to preach­ers and speakers, a spot where Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil delivered a message of racial and ethnic rec­onciliation on Nov. 15. She spoke from Jeremiah 1:5 and used an il­lustration from a Disney film, The Lion King.

NPU freshman Rosa Baez couldn’t see any parallels between the message and the movie at first, but by the closing prayer, McNeil cleared all confusion.

“Like Simba and Jeremiah, there are times where we feel too young and ill-equipped for [God’s calling for us] - we run from it,” McNeil said.

Baez said she got the mes­sage, naming Simba’s gradual ac­ceptance of his role as king. “As young people, we have something to do on this earth,” Baez said. “We have a destiny to fulfill.”

McNeil is the director of Salter McNeil & Associates, a company which provides training, consult­ing, and leadership development in racial and ethnic reconciliation. She lives in Chicago with her two children and husband Derek, a graduate professor of psychology at Wheaton College in Illinois.

Salter McNeil & Associates works in three steps during its ministry at schools, organiza­tions, or churches, McNeil said: develop a Biblical vision, assess racial and ethnic strengths and weaknesses, and train between 10 and 12 people as part of a recon­ciliation team.

LaMorris J. Crawford is one of those persons trained. He recently graduated from Olivet Nazarene University, where he served as president of the Multi-Ethnic Relation Committee and is now employed by ONU as an associate director of transfer admissions. Crawford stays in touch with Mc­Neil, who left a lasting impression on him.

“I have never met my biologi­cal mother, and Dr. Brenda has be­come that to me,” Crawford said. “God has put her in my life for a reason, and I am blessed to call her ‘mom.’ Not only is she a dynamic speaker, but she is an example of love walking on earth.”

The training Crawford re­ceived from Salter McNeil & As­sociates makes him capable of de­veloping policies and procedures that change his campus’ climate, said McNeil, who will speak dur­ing the Dec. 28 evening plenary session at Urbana 06.

One reconciliation team is researching and working toward implementing an intercultural competent credit requirement. Just as Christian universities require chapel credits to de­velop its students’ faith, an intercultural compe­tent credit would help students of different cultures and races to mesh, McNeil said.

A wedding McNeil attended last week ex­emplifies her mission of reconciliation. An Afri­can American woman from Chicago, who never con­sidered interracial mar­riage before hearing Mc­Neil speak, married a white man from Minnesota. The couple met at a pri­marily Ko­rean church.

“I’m seeing people make life decisions - who they marry, where they go to church,” McNeil said.

“The gospel of reconciliation that we’ve been instructed with is be­ing evidenced in the way people are living their lives.”

Susie Becker, who first heard McNeil speak as a sophomore in college 10 years ago, said McNeil shaped her commitment to recon­ciliation.

“Her faith in God and her love for God’s people is inspiring,” Becker said. “She speaks the truth in love and always brings people into a place where they are open to God directing and leading them.”

McNeil believes a lack of racial and ethnic reconciliation hinders evangelism because the world has become more globally diverse. She noted how McDonalds works glob­ally, opening stores in the Middle East, Europe, Australia and sev­eral other locations outside of the United States.

“If we say that we’re supposed to be the light of the world, but McDonalds is ahead of us, then I think our message is in question,” McNeil said. “You make Jesus look bad, that’s the translation.”

She said the generation at Urbana 06 is called to the nations and to global reconciliation.

“They have to be careful not to run away from that,” McNeil said. “Hakuna Matata.”