The Table We Didn't Build

In 2018, a progressive congregation in Portland decided to partner with a local Indigenous community on a land acknowledgment project. The church leaders arrived at the first meeting with a polished proposal, complete with timelines, budgets, and a beautifully designed plaque for their lobby. They had done the research. They were ready to lead.

The Indigenous elders listened politely, then asked a single question: "Who told you what we needed?"

Silence.

Paul writes to the Philippians, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others." For those of us committed to justice and inclusion, these verses cut close. We can pursue liberation while still centering ourselves as the protagonists. We can deconstruct oppressive systems and quietly rebuild them with us at the top.

The church scrapped their proposal. Instead, they spent a year listening — attending community meals, hearing stories, sitting with discomfort. When the project finally took shape, it looked nothing like the original plan. It was smaller, stranger, and far more beautiful because it belonged to the people it was meant to honor.

Humility in the way of Jesus is not performative allyship. It is the willingness to set down our expertly crafted plans, to decenter our own voices, and to trust that the Spirit is already at work in the communities we long to serve.