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Good afternoon everyone we're gonna go ahead and get started . I'm so sorry to interrupt your conversation and your food, but um we're gonna go ahead and get started and I'm sure that you share my gratitude and

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excitement to uh welcome our speaker today. Uh, I just want to say a quick word about the Settles lecture, which is the mission and evangelism lecture . The WR Settles, um, Mr. WR

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Settles of Big Spring, Texas has made these lectures possible, um, to happen annually, and we are so. So grateful for that and we are grateful, uh, especially this year that we welcome

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Wesen Josue Perea to serve, um, as our speaker and to feature his film tonight at 6 p.m. so she, you should come back for that. The film Faith and Blackness, um. So have

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your lunch right now and then come back at 6 p.m. for that. um, so I wanna say first of all that um you have a lot of humility and uh a lot of wisdom so that's how

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I wanna first introduce you uh and as a friend and someone that I learned a lot from, so I am grateful for that. And so Joy also serves as the director of Black Lives and contemplation for

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the Center of spiritual imagination. Also the associate pastor at Metro Hope Church and building on this foundation, he holds key leadership roles at the exact as the executive director of the Afro-Latino Forum, the co-curator of

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the Afro-Latino Theology Project, and the executive director of the documentary Faith in Blackness an exploration of Afro-Latinna spirituality . His perspectives on Afro-Latinidad and spirituality have been featured in prominent publications such as The New York Times,

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The New Yorker, and USA Today, and his writing has been featured in Sojourners, Los Angeles Review of Books, and anthologies such as Let Spirits Speak , and Engaging Religion. A dedicated Brooklyn night.

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It's OK. We forgive you. He embodies Biggie's call to spread love the Brooklyn Way. So we a warm welcome to um Wes Jose Perea. Thank you so much, uh, Doctor Crystal. Thank

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you for welcoming me to this space. Thank you all and one provecho to everyone who's eating. One provecho, for those of you who don't speak Spanish is the way that we'll say in Latino adjacent cultures

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to eat well and enjoy your time. So one provecho, everyone. And thank you so much for to speak at the Seros lecture. Uh, I am truly humbled by the opportunity. Uh, to

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, to share any thoughts, my thoughts on the stage, I mean this is a stage that has been graced by elders and ancestors such as James Cone , Gusto Gonzalez, Gustavo Gutierrez, Anthea Butler,

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Aaron Jones, and many others. And so I am really humbled and, and grateful here, and I'm really grateful to Dean Margaret Aymer. Thank you so much for the wonderful invitation, Dean. Allison

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Riemersma, who's been a wonderful host and wonderful communicator , and of course Crystal. Uh, for thinking of me for recommending me for this lecture series. I also want to thank you all for being here

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. Thank you for wanting to hear any thoughts and hope that this can galvanize some conversation and hopefully at the end, if you have any complaints or concerns , we can talk about them together. And as

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we thank our people, I, it's always important , I think, to always thank our ancestors and think different people that have brought us here. I'm wearing the images of two of my ancestors here,

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Mia Jimenez Roman, and Juan Flores, who were important and instrumental in my leadership and in my grounding and in my intellectual growth. I'm also bringing up the name of my father, Flores Midro Pere Arenteria

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, who is no longer with us, who is one of the reasons that I'm grounded in blackness in the way that I am. These these ancestors and countless others always paved the way for us to be

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here today, and I think that we should think about just the way that that does that for everyone . Um, even Jesus at the moment of his transfiguration had ancestors who showed up to guide him on

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his path. So it's a very common thing for us to do that. So we've gathered here today at the Settles lecture to discuss and talk about evangelism , missions and evangelism, two topics that hold a

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complex and frankly sometimes troubled place in the history of the church. Well, I don't claim to be a professional church historian, there are others here that can do that. I like to dabble in it

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. It's undeniable that the that the origin of modern missions and what we can call today evangelism were rooted in a desire to fulfill the great commission, right ? The great commission was the great commission to go

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forth, make disciples, and reach the furthest corners of the earth. That's the great commission. However , this notable ambition at times has been overshadowed by practices that strayed from its intended original spirit. Leading

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to a mixed legacy that sometimes we have to contend with. A critical shift that happened in Christianity that actually created this, right? So as Christianity became a colonized religion, colonized by the Roman Empire.

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It, it became entangled with those forces of the empire. The very nature of proselytizing underwent the disturbing transformation instead of missions and evangelism serving as instruments of the organic grow of faith and people's real desire to

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, to, to find God. They were tragically repurposed as tools of oppression and persecution, as tools of empire. Forced conversions became a strategic weapon in the imperial arsenal. And it's crucial to acknowledge that

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not all missionaries participated in this. The ministries of evangelism and missions though, however, became inextricably linked to the imperial enterprise, fundamentally altering the very essence of what Christian missions and evangelism were. This historical

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reality demands our honest reflection and a commitment to understanding the complex legacy that we all inherit. Adding to the deeply problematic history is a doctrine of discovery. This concept rooted within the Catholic Church, and if

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you don't know about it, ask your professors about the doctrine of discovery. When far beyond just simply justifying forced conversions and the persecutions of other faiths, it lay the groundwork for a much more insidious framework

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, the systematic theft of land and the entrenchment of racial hierarchies. This toxic combination of religious justification and imperial ambition produced the deeply incompatible and damaging messages that have plagued our history as Christians. It created a

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system where the very presence of indigenous people and their cultures was seen as an impediment to the expansion of quote unquote civilization, a tragic legacy that we continue to grapple with today. We cannot shy away from

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the uncomfortable truths of this past. Even figures like Bartolo Me de las Casas, who some of us celebrate all the time as a beautiful saint. We're deeply flawed. His history specifically as a slaveholder who

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held very racist ideologies demand that we have to critically examine the narratives that we've been told and resist simplistic and supremacist portrayals of Christian history. The sheer absurdity of the history is staggering. We, the church

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, we, and I say we on purpose, carried enslaved people on vessels name for the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, to cities named after the savior . It's a twisted, almost unbelievable contradiction that screams

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for this answer. For an answer from us. But we must ask ourselves, what were we doing ? Well, how will we move forward? The Imperial project drastically distorted the core purpose of the missions

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and evangelism. We witnessed the hijacking of the faith , a co-opting that tether Christianity to capitalism and militarism and ideologies that that oppose the original intention of the Christian message. This betrayal demands that we grapple with

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the profound damage of all of that. So here we stand in 2025. And the search for authentic missions and evangelism is more vital than ever. What does it generally mean to answer that call, to

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be a missionary, to be an evangelist? How do we reconcile the profound discrepancies between the original intent and the historical reality we inherit? How do we find a path forward that honors both truth but engenders

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us towards transformation? The great prophet from Compton, Kendrick Lamar, and the recent song reincarnated, speaks of rewriting the devil's story to reclaim power. You should really listen to reincarnated at some point. How

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can we then too exercise that same agency, Transforming the narratives of missions and evangelists that have shaped this expression and taking back what was lost. I don't know if I have a full answer, but I'm

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gonna share a little story. A little over a month ago, I embarked on a pilgrimage to the abbey of Care Moussa in Senegal. This image that you see before you is from their altar. It

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captures something of the spirit of that place. This monastery is famous for its powerful visual art, this wall, these frescoes on this wall, on this wall. And for its choral traditions which are unlike

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anything that I've ever experienced that I've ever witnessed as I ought to explore, so in the project that I'm working on, as I mentioned, as it was mentioned in, in, in my little bio

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, I'm exploring the connections between blackness and contemplation. So I went to, so, so you know it's always important to start in Africa because Africa is the birthplace of monasticism and contemplative practices within the Christian

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sphere. And although Christianity is woven into the, into the fabric of Africa, it has a shorter , more complicated history in Senegal. Some French monks arrived with the tide of colonization. A period marked

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by profound exploitation of the land of Senegal. So I asked the monks, with gender, these are all black monks. I asked the monks with curiosity , how do they navigate their relationship with within a

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predominantly Muslim society knowing that their version of Christianity is not original to the land, knowing that it has a colonial connection to it. The monk that I spoke with the most was this beautiful brother named Brother

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Thomas. Uh, and I wrote a little blog piece about it. I can send it, uh , extended blog piece about my pilgrimage to Koussa. And brother Thomas told me a revealing story. He

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said, well, Said that in the monastery's early days, the French monks really wanted to bring a French organ from Paris. To Senegal. And they wanted to create different images of Jesus, the images

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that look like them, a white French man, and that's what they wanted to bring to the people . However, some of the brothers were like, this makes no sense, and they soon understood that

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they were unintentionally attempting to make the Senegalese people fit into their way of understanding faith and seeing the divine in their way rather than allowing a true original expression to emerge from the place. So they transformed,

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they changed. If the monastery is really to, to, to resonate within Senegalese people, then it has to reflect their culture. So they this led to a complete shift in the monastery. They went

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, they began with the images, these images that you see here, they understood first that if people couldn't see the divine reflected in their own likeness, how could they possibly forge a genuine connection with the

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divine? So they transformed all the images and all the images with the monastery were commissioned by to one of their brothers to create this beautiful frescoes. These frescoes strategically positioned on the church's main wall are huge

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. They look small here, well, because it's a picture, but they're really huge and they're supposed to evoke this this connection that you have with the worship. When I asked Brother Thomas about these images

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, I said, what happened with, what, what, what was, tell me a little bit about these frescoes, he said, he said this to fully embrace faith, especially Christian faith, we

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need visual access, and Christian art provides visual access . These frescoes rendered in flat, expressive tones of black, red, yellow and white. Well, maybe not very elaborate and expressive, he said,

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mean something, they are sacred. And the transformation extended to the music as well instead of relying on traditional Gregorian chant that is known in monastic settings, and with European instruments, the monastery collaborated with local

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leaders to use the kora, a native instrument to Senegal. They created their own version of the corra that would fit monastic singing. They created their own version of chanting that would fit the local community instead

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of bringing Gregorian chant and forcing them. They allowed that to happen. They, they decided to use a bunch of different instruments as well. They used theora, they used the jemba, they use the

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sabar, jemba and sabar are two types of drums . Uh, they use the balaphon, which is like a xylophonic kind of instrument, um, and they just, and they just use different instruments to

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make sure that the sound and the look resonated to people and not the other way around. I discovered a similar story while while in Senegal, I was not in the Congo, but from the Congo,

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a nation with a deeply troubled colonial past and present . Christianity there too arrived with empire, often used as a tool of oppression and murder, force upon the people of the land. But amidst this darkness

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, one priest offered a path. He wanted to create a choir of, of, he wanted to create a choir, and he wanted, but he didn't want the choir to sound like the choirs he

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heard in France or in Belgium, sorry. He wanted the choir to sound like it would come from Congo. And he said something to the young boys that he was building in this choir. They have

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11 beautiful album called um Missa Luba. I can give you the information on it just as you hear the sound, and he said to them, I honor your ways and I want to honor the ways

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of your ancestors. So don't sing this mass like you would do for me. Sing it like you would if you would do it for your people. And there's one last example of this kind of thing

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that I'm gonna talk about that comes from the New Zealand Book of Common Prayer by the Anglican Church. It was, uh, if you're not familiar with it, the Anglican Church went to New Zealand also

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with colonization, also with the troubled legacy that it comes with. But then they noticed that the Maori people weren't really responding to none of the Anglican prayers they were saying. So instead, what they did

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is they, they met with Maori leaders and incorporated Maori prayers into their prayer book and created a space where the Maori people could authentically see themselves in the gospel. This approach moved away from impulsing this alien

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faith that came to oppress them and instead empowered them to experience Christianity within their own cultural context. So I say all that, so these are different examples , and I'm not sure how many basketball enthusiasts we

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have in the room. But a recent high profile trade that affected the state of Texas. Involve the superstar joining a new team. I'm sorry about this , but it's a good metaphor. Stay with me

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if you're angry. Usually, the question when a player gets traded is always asked, how can a player fit into the team? How can it work for him to change his game? Usually, it's

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always about the player has to fit in. But this time LeBron James gave Lukaonic, I didn't want to bring up his name, but you know, a powerful piece of advice. He told them,

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don't fit in, fit out. I really thought about that fit out. Fit out, I believe , encapsulates the essence of how we must approach mission and evangelism today. So yeah, I know it's

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the LeBron James theology, just stay with it, stay with it. Don't hate me. So do think it was a nice quote. We need to cultivate a posture of humble mission and evangelism, one

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that prioritizes creating pathways for people to shape our practices , ensuring that these practices resonate with their lived experiences rather than forcing them to convert to preconceived modes and notions. A church that encourages people to fit out

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is a church that embraces it God-given diversity. It tries to live out Jesus' example of seeking and not being sought. It's a community that values individual contributions , allowing them to shape its identity. This is

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a church that understands and reclaim missions and evangelism as pathways for authentic faith expression. Not as extensions of imperial power. And this idea, this principle of fitting out isn't limited to just our approaches, missions

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and evangelism. It must permeate every facet and aspect of our faith. We need to reimagine how we engage with scripture. Do we, do we allow people to fit out when they read scripture? Do

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we create spaces where people can fit out, where individuals can truly be themselves as they worship. In the everyday rhythms of Christian life, do we provide aspects for people to fit out in their spiritual journeys

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, or are we forcing people to conform to one way of doing Christianity? Maybe our task While we're asking people to fit out, it's also about adding new ideas. Also about how can we discard old

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ideas. What if we begin by rejecting the problematic constructs of missions and evangelism that have been built up over time and some which have become internalized for all of us. It is through this process of deconstruction

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and then reconstruction as we usually know it in more technical terms that we can start to embrace more liberative concepts and more creative ideas. It's then and only then, and I feel we can truly be missional

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in our work. And so to conclude, then we can take some questions and comments. I feel like it's important for us to reframe and rethink how we think of missions and evangelism in the context of

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how we can allow people to fit out, allow people to shape our practices and shape our practices around that and not the other way around. This work is urgent. We're dangerous times globally. And as

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De La Soul, the profits from Long Island say , stakes is high. They say this in their songs, stakes is high. Neighborhoods are not hoods because nobody is neighbors. Neighborhoods are not hoods cause

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nobody's neighbors. This loss of neighborly ideal is happening all around us, all around the world and sometimes missions and evangelism exacerbate that. We don't come as neighbors we don't think of people as neighbors. So

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the stakes are indeed high. The world demands a much broader, more in more inclusive expression of love . We can no longer afford to ignore the truth of our past. The issues of our of our

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of our legacy. And we must transform our approach to teaching the faith, to embracing Christianity. To missionalizing and evangelizing people. We need to do that in a form that is actually of the way,

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the way of the carpenter, not of our own way. And so for us here, I think it's important to allow people to see themselves in the divine, to hear themselves in the divine, and

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to truly allow people to worship the divine in spirit and in truth. All of that will allow us , will lead us to something that's a fuller, more authentic, more original embodiment of the way of