Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep

In the life of Jesus, you see him building relationships with people at a grassroot level. The church in Australia doesn't do this very well, especially with our First Nations people. Sometimes the church gets too caught up in their structures and institutions, so the empathy that they may have [to rejoice and mourn with people] is missing and they have no feelings of connection with First Nations people.

The rejoicing I see in Romans 12:15 means engaging with your community in celebration in all different areas of people’s lives, whether it's education, sport, or other programs. It's seeking to celebrate and rejoice over the achievements of those who live in the community where our church is, in our society.

Churches can be very connected to various parts of community life but they often find it very hard to really connect with First Nations people in their communities. You’ve got to have people inside the church make roadways and give information about the celebrations and achievements that are happening in the First Nations community in their area.

Then there is the command to “mourn with those that mourn.” I think Jesus knew the barriers or prejudices in place across human society, but didn’t allow these to stop him from actually addressing issues of injustice or suffering. Jesus made a way for the church, not just then, but also now, to engage with vulnerable or disadvantaged people in society. I am not just talking about aid, where people come and are given food, but relationships. And as we build a relationship with our community, with our First Nations people, I believe that our empathy can grow.

We see this kind of empathy on display when Jesus wept at the news that Lazarus was dead. That scripture emphasises the very human nature of Jesus. It shows us that Jesus really had a very close relationship with this particular family.

It is important that leaders of all positions learn to “mourn with those that mourn.” I think that the church and leaders do not do that very well – not because they can't feel, but because they just can't see what's happening behind the scenes, in their communities. They really can't show that empathy to our people because they don't really know what issues they are facing.

We know that in the political arena we have leaders that are in place to be a voice for the vulnerable people within their society. Most of our Indigenous people don't have that kind of voice and this even extends to the church. This is why it's important to raise up indigenous leaders who can be a voice in the church, to be equipped to be good leaders as well as to carry the weight and responsibilities for their community and for the church.

How does our own reconciliation with Christ transform the way that we relate and reconcile with one another?

When we follow Christ we find that he deals with our prejudice. God establishes reconciliation as an important thing to deal with: it does not come from the political arena, it actually started from God’s agenda. Because of our sinful nature and intellectual barriers, Jesus had to show us how to be reconciled, by becoming human. And when he did that, he demonstrated to us how to accept people the way they are, not to measure them up by our own categories – no! – he measures us equally, and with equality. Reconciliation is based on equality, and treating each other with respect. I sometimes hear people speak about reconciliation as a theory, just an idea that sounds good. It can be used as a very intellectual word but we need to member that at the grassroot level reconciliation is about how we are to treat each other the way that Jesus showed us to.

We have got to remember not to look at our community from a professional point of view, not from our roles or through the authority we may have. Remember that Jesus never let people know that he was the Messiah. He never said “You are going to listen to me on the authority I have from heaven.”

People sometimes get caught up in thinking that their roles or their titles are what makes them important. No, you're not important because of them. In Jesus' life we see that the only time he draws attention to his role is when he asks Peter “Who do you say I am?” And he let Peter see the revelation. He never went around blowing his own trumpet.

Rather, with real humility Jesus showed us how to treat people with respect and honour. (Romans 12:10) Your responsibility, my responsibility, our titles, our roles are insignificant and unnecessarily put us in a box. But Jesus broke open that box, he left heaven where his authority was based and he came to the earth. He walked the talk, he talked to walk. He didn't just talk about being a leader, he lived as one. He went among the people, the most vulnerable people and didn't even have a place to live. He didn't live a high and mighty life. Rather, what Jesus said was “If you love me deny yourself.” And he says “Carry your cross and follow me.” That's the crunch of true Christianity.

When you look at Jesus, what he said and how he did it, and what he was involved with, you see that he didn't spend a lot of time with the rich, but he did spend a lot of time with vulnerable and disadvantaged people.

How do we pray for reconciliation and the church?

First Nations people need a lot of prayer, especially our elders because they carry a lot of responsibility. When the Voice referendum failed there was a heavy weight on us as First Nations people, a mourning that affected us. In that loss we didn't even have the opportunity for a conversation with the church about it. Churches generally didn't raise their voices about it at all, even to say, “Look, we apologise that this thing didn't go through for you.” I don’t know whether you thought that the Voice was a good idea or not, but there was not even the offer to stand in the gap for our people after the referendum loss. I was really disappointed to see the church missing at that time.

We also need to pray about the lack of connection and knowledge about our First Nations people. I'm praying that it will change. I'm praying that the church will look at ways to support us financially, and to support our Indigenous ministries in Australia. Churches give a lot of money overseas and there is hardly anything spent in this nation for our First Nations people. You can see this in every church denomination. So my prayer is that, hopefully, we can pray for a change in this dynamic, and that it comes from the top.

I pray that resources like this one produced by Tearfund will provide an opportunity to get people that have ears to listen, to hear the stories and the frustrations of our people, the injustice that's happening in our First Nations communities. We have had over 500 First Nations deaths in custody since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody [in 1991]. The church has to be the voice of justice to confront the police, confront our politicians, and to confront every institution, because we are the vulnerable people of this land.

Biography

My name is William Dumas. I'm a Birripi man, that's my country where my father's from and my mum is from Dunghutti country around Kempsey. My wife and I have been married for 42 years, we have six children and 17 grandchildren, so I am really blessed. I have been in ministry for 38 years. I was saved in 1980 when I became a Christian in Redfern and since then I have had an ongoing encounter with the Lord and my life has been transformed.

I began pastoring in Taree in the 1990s where I established a couple of churches and became a senior pastor. We then moved up to Tweed Heads in 2002 and have been here for 22 years now. We took over leadership of South Tweed Full Gospel Church which later changed its name to Ganggalah which means “A Place of Wisdom and Learning” in Bundjalung language.

We started a Bible college that ran for 15 years and we trained up a lot of Indigenous as well as non-indigenous people there. About 60% of our students were Indigenous. In all, between 100 and 150 leaders were trained in that Bible college and a lot of informal, on country, discipleship courses were taught.

Since COVID, we’ve done church online. We have a growing audience and more engagement across our nation, with people across the board in all levels of leadership and in communities as well.

I also work for the Pacific Group of Christian Schools and am based out of the Pacific Coast Christian School in Tweed Heads. The Pacific Group of Christian Schools has 10 schools in total. My role as the Indigenous Training Consultant includes the planting of Aboriginal Christian Schools in our communities, like the Pacific Gulgangali Jarjums Christian School based in Tweed Heads. This school has been operating for 3 years and is growing. It addresses the missing pieces of “Christianity and Culture”, and provides education that embeds cultural learning principles.

I also have a role as the chairman of the National Indigenous Initiative, which is an initiative of Australia Christian Churches (ACC). We have co-workers in seven states and work with our state executives, and district leaders across the 1300 churches of the ACC. I also do mentoring and leadership programs with Hillsong.

So that's what I do. Plus being a full time dad and a husband, and a grandparent!