As I developed and demonstrated cultural engagement,  I have learned in these interviews with authors and beloved people of color that too often they had not been engaged or very seldom had they been engaged at all, in conversations about how racism has affected their life in general and their lives as believers. By investing time overall in one another's lives for a year or more before sitting down and having these conversations there was already some trust built in because they knew my background with racism both as a perpetrator and victim.  I lived as a minority in various contexts, coupled with my experience of being disowned by my own family for courting a woman of color. These were contributing factors to the ripe fruit evident in these relatively brief  interviews, but also to the most casual of observers. Glory be to God!

Some feedback they gave about my interactions is that instead of trying to act like I understood or being dismissive of their experiences in any form or fashion they noted how engaged and curious I was. I was also not afraid of drawing parallels even if I couldn't understand exactly what they have gone through. Joseph, an African-American brother, said it helped him break out of his victim mentality of “well nobody really understands” and therefore I can still act anyway I want because nobody's really been through what I've been through. However, to have me come alongside him taking the level of interest I showed and once again, establish common ground where we could see one another's pain and suffering. Then to find the same hope in Christ regardless of the color of our skin and backgrounds. Also to know that Christ is no respecter of persons especially in his time of incarnation, he loved even the lepers of that culture, the “untouchables.”  The message was clear, conform or be cast out. Uniformity above all.  Joseph expressed this kind of experience was much of his church life, he was expected to conform to be uniform i.e. sameness. Even though they did not come from nor have the same experiences of their majority brothers and sisters. The sweet spot has been in unity by embracing, edifying, encouraging, seeing and affirming diversity yet striving for unity within the One Body of Christ.