Rest, Dream, Act: Lift Up Your Eyes for Justice, Reconciliation, and Love

By Amy Cuthbert

I attended the Justice Network Summit in Dallas, Texas, in November. The summit is something that I look forward to every year as it allows the opportunity to address the issues surrounding justice within the Free Methodist Church and how to further champion discussion over racism, inequality, and oppression within our churches and communities.

This year the main theme of the summit was Rest, Dream, and Act. The topic of Rest was key to the start of the summit as burnout is a real danger for those who primarily feel called to work against injustice, which can leave one discouraged and depressed. There were moments during this seminar to share some of the hardest experiences of the past year and to encourage each person to get the rest they need to keep moving forward.

The next section of Dream centered on the distorted narratives of Jesus that are currently being presented among Christians in 2025. This is a narrative completely void of a God who cares for the oppressed and instead elevates certain groups of people over others. Everyone was given the opportunity to imagine a different narrative of Jesus who cares for the oppressed and how to begin to change this mentality to one that reflects the Jesus seen in Scripture and through whom all are considered equal at the foot of the cross.

Lastly, the summit members were challenged to Act. This is a difficult call especially in an era when to act for justice might mean dire consequences for those who make their voices heard and who attempt to implement meaningful change. It was a needed challenge because it called for those who champion justice to follow in the footsteps of the great prophets and leaders who have walked this difficult path and now surround us as a great cloud of witnesses. It challenged us to act in sacrificial ways to uplift those in our churches and communities who experience injustice. Conversation then followed throughout the subsequent days over what this type of action would look like.

“… we could all see the incredible vision of what the gospel of Jesus Christ can look like partnered with a heart for justice.”

As impactful as all these sessions and seminars were, the biggest value for being at the Justice Network Summit is that it allows those who feel isolated on their journey toward justice to get together and fellowship. For myself, I often feel as though there is something wrong with my journey toward ministering in the gospel of Jesus coupled with justice because there are so few who see it the same way I do. Then, all of a sudden, I am in Dallas surrounded by people who understand my heart completely and are working toward the same goal. It is incredible to not have to fight to get my voice or concept understood but to rest in the common knowledge of those who get it.

What hit me most about this summit was that as we worshipped, discussed, and shared our hearts together, we could all see the incredible vision of what the gospel of Jesus Christ can look like partnered with a heart for justice. For many, including myself, this is a beautiful vision of the church as we have always dreamed it could be. This vision alone is enough to drive a continuation of our work back in the communities we love so much.

Mosaix: Lift Up Your Eyes

This was the 25th anniversary gathering of Mosaix, and my first time attending this national conference (which had a theme this year of “Lift Up Your Eyes” based on Genesis 13:14–15) as it fell right after the Justice Network Summit in Dallas.

It was incredible to see so many different churches and denominations that championed the idea of a multiracial church. The presenters spoke about the way in which the church had advanced in seeing multiracial congregations and addressed the key issues that kept this from happening.

Mosaix leaders claimed that they had reached their goal of a certain percentage of U.S. congregations experiencing multiracial membership, but they had run into the unexpected challenge of seeing ideological divisions between the different churches growing as well. The Mosaix community created a new goal of addressing this division while aiming to work toward reconciliation and love.

Among those who attended in my Free Methodist group, the speaker that made the biggest impact was Rodrigo Cruz who began his talk by telling a heart-wrenching story of being in a restaurant with his family as they overheard a young waiter experiencing racist remarks and horrible treatment from a customer. The listening audience was shocked to learn that when Cruz went to hug the waiter after this horrifying experience, it was his own son who was the waiter.

Cruz then challenged the audience with the fact that an interracial congregation means nothing when its members are experiencing this degree of hatred and violence, which is occurring at an increasing rate in the United States right now. He encouraged everyone to “lift up their eyes and speak on behalf of those who don’t have a voice right now.” Our group felt that Cruz spoke the harsh truth that needed to be heard in this era of racist ideology.

Dr. Amy Cuthbert is an adjunct professor at Point Loma Nazarene University and a teaching pastor at The Foundry Community Church in Escondido, California. Although raised in the church, she attended seminary because she was dissatisfied with her faith and needed answers about Christianity and the Bible. Through her studies, she discovered that she had not fully grasped the simplicity of Jesus, the cross and salvation and finally found peace with God. She recently completed a Doctor of Ministry degree at Northeastern Seminary, and she is working on publishing a dissertation on the book of Galatians and the ways it speaks into Christian nationalism in the United States. Amy married her husband, Michael, in Cape Town, South Africa, and they have two boys, Elijah and Gabriel.