"Many Voices, One Gospel: Local Reflections on Immigration and the Way of Jesus"
From Surge Leadership:
Since January, and with increasing urgency in recent weeks, we have witnessed a concerning escalation of immigration enforcement measures impacting immigrant families, many of whom are integral members of our churches and communities. Across the Surge, leaders are walking closely with families facing detention, separation, and legal uncertainty. Even those not directly affected, remain closely connected through trusted relationships with sister churches navigating these realities on the ground.
Surge also has longstanding collaborations with grassroots organizations both locally and nationally who are engaged in immigration reform, legal advocacy, and community organizing. We join their commitment to nonviolence and their ongoing efforts to pursue justice with wisdom, discipline, and love.
This is a moment for the Church to be diligent to represent Jesus through our response, not with fear or retreat, but with clarity, courage, and compassion. As followers of Jesus, we are called to bear witness to the person of Jesus in the midst of fear, injustice, and division. This means refusing to treat anyone with hostility, and instead offer a distinct presence marked by prayer, solidarity, and practical love.
We pray that churches across our network, and beyond, would navigate this season not through reactive temporary emotion or passive detachment, but with intentionality. May we be formed by lament, moved by love, and committed to participating in the work of shalom wherever God has placed us.
On our website, you’ll find statements and resources from several of our partner churches and ministries, including Neighborhood Ministries, Refugee Connections, Beloved South Phoenix, Desert Spring Bible Church, Roosevelt Community Church, and Axiom. We encourage you to read through these as you discern how to respond in your own context.
If leaders within your congregation would benefit from guidance, training, or facilitated dialogue on how to engage this moment faithfully, Surge is available to support you. Reach out to info@surgenetwork.com.
PHX Refugee Connections
Beloved South Phoenix
Desert Springs Bible Church
Axiom Church
Roosevelt Community Church
From Axiom Church, Mennonite Brethren
“As immigration policies stir deep emotions and protest fills the streets, we are not called to retreat in silence, nor to retaliate with force. We are called to a third way—the way of Jesus. A way that doesn't ignore pain or injustice, but leans in with compassion, creativity, and conviction.
Let us be medics on the battlefield—caring for the wounded, regardless of their uniform. A shelter in the storm. Conscientious objectors to the culture wars, faithfully walking the narrow road of Christ. Speaking truth with love, solidarity with the suffering. Offering hope to the hurting, and mercy even to those who oppress.
To the criminal on our left, the innocent on our right and to the power before us—we extend the same Jesus: the one who saves, restores, and confronts through the power of peace.
May we embody Jesus in all protest—one that reveals the Kingdom breaking in.”
From Drew Jackson
Saint Oscar Romero said, “There are many things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried.” I believe a new world is one of those things. Only when we begin to weep over the collective evil we are seeing and participating in will we begin to catch a vision for something beyond it. Do not let them force you into apathy. Indifference is evil’s strongest weapon.
And what we recognize when we look out over the course of human history is that those who mourn over the evil of the world are those who act to confront it.
Blessed are those who mourn.
From Beloved South Phoenix
What we are witnessing in our city and across our country is horrendous, disturbing, and deeply inhumane.
Every human being is made in the image of God—and no image bearer deserves to be treated with cruelty, disregard, or subjected to traps.
Families in our communities are living in constant fear. Parents are too afraid to leave their homes, even to buy groceries for their children. Kids are terrified to attend summer programs where they learn, play, and receive free meals—because they fear they might not make it back home, or they may return to find their mom or dad gone.
It’s heartbreaking to see undocumented immigrants, many of whom are following the law by showing up to required court hearings, being arrested by ICE in premeditated traps. This is wrong. This is unjust.
Time and time again, we see Jesus in the Gospels moving toward the marginalized, standing with the vulnerable, and dignifying the oppressed. He loved the foreigner. He welcomed the outsider. He upheld the dignity of every person—no exceptions.
To treat anyone as less than worthy of basic human decency, because of the color of their skin, their background, or their citizenship status, is not the way of Jesus.
As followers of Christ, we must not look away. We must not stay silent. Families are being torn apart, and lives are being shattered. We are called to love as He loved—and to stand for what is right.
We stand with the vulnerable. We stand with the oppressed. We stand with those Jesus would stand with.
A Prayer for the Table, From Banquet
Jesus, You set a table in the presence of our enemies—
not to defeat them, but to feed them. Teach us to do the same.
Let this table be our protest against hatred, fear, and isolation.
Let bread and wine undo what swords and silence cannot.
Make us be present to the hurting, open to the stranger,
and faithful to your way of peace.
Amen.
From Pastor Caleb Cambell
Arizona Resources
1. Help people know their rights - Tusderechos.us
2. For church leaders: World Relief's Responding to ICE raids in places of worship.
3. Corazon AZ (training, classes, and public demonstration opportunities) (Insta) and Website.
4. Puente AZ is tracking enforcement measures and provides opportunities for public demonstrations.
5. Aliento AZ (insta) serves students, mixed families, and DACA recipients (People who were brought here as kids.)
Nationwide/Federal
6. Protecting Vulnerable Children by Women of Welcome.
7. Learn about advocacy and policy at the federal level, at immigrationforum.org, evangelicalimmigrationtable.com, and welcome.us
8. Advocacy / Contacting your representatives: Call your Federal Representatives by Women of Welcome and World Relief's Advocacy page (including the unnecessary separation of families)
I am told phone calls with a personal connection to the issue(s) go a LONG way for our representatives. It gives them "cover" to go against their peers if needed, saying "I received 100 calls about this" etc... Emails that are personalized also help.
Also, if you are in the Phoenix Area, DSBC is hosting Phx Refugee Connection's Refugee Ministry 101 workshop in a couple of weeks (details).
Neighborhood Ministries:
Neighborhood Ministries is actively organizing training for immigrants and their friends and family immigrants. They offer this resource to pass along:
Know Your Rights
https://www.tusderechos.us/
Are you an ally?
Stand in solidarity w/ your immigrant neighbors- share link above & follow @phxrapidresponse to get helpful up-to-date info.
