By AACC Editorial
Continuing our “It’s Complicated Series,” we are glad to chat with Jessica Gracewski to discuss her upbringing and how we can be intentional about understanding how our identities intersect with our faith as we seek maturity in Christ and better understandings of how we are made in imago Dei.
Jessica, thanks again for joining us here at AACC! We would love to hear about your Mixed background and how you navigated church as you were growing up? Was it challenging to find a church space that would be welcoming of you? How did you decide what type of Christian community would be the best fit?
I grew up as a Korean Japanese American transracial adoptee. My adoptive family background is majority White and the churches that I attended growing up were of dominant culture as well. I grew up in a military family that moved around quite a bit—this was both a highlight and a downfall. It was positive because it helped me to become highly resilient and able to navigate new and unfamiliar spaces with ease and comfort and could easily befriend others and find friendships.
However, this was a downfall because I was often always the “new girl” in all of the spaces, and even when I was younger still finding and adjusting to my own ethnic identity, I always despite being known as the “new girl” that also was “adopted” and that was also often the only Asian American in any of these spaces.
I grew up in a variety of Christian communities. They were mostly White dominant cultures until later in college, after I had begun my ethnic identity journey seriously as well as my discipleship to Jesus journey in a more intentional path.
As I have engaged different types of faith spaces and communities, I have tried to see if there is both an intentional representation and integration of individuals and cultures as we lived out the ways and life of Jesus. This can be expressed in a variety of ways and beautiful creativity in ways that it can be expressed and lived out in groups and church communities.
What Bible passages have been essential in shaping your views and perspectives on faithful witness and living as a Mixed Christian? And how has your lived experience given you new insights or perspectives on passages that previously seemed foreign or less relevant to you?
One key verse for me has been Romans 6:13 “Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.”
As I reflect on this, I think about my journey of ethnic identity. My adoption was something I had and could confront with Jesus and this was a huge turning point in my faith. I had a lot of things and memories both negative and positive on this experience that took time and years and prayer and celebration to be able to honestly look at.
I am confident that my heritage and past play an integral part about where I discovered my vocation and love for serving God in my own unique ways. Because of my background and navigation in and around mixed-race spaces, I was able to confront and bring light to those other individuals who may be overlooked or experience injustices or confrontations despite their ethnic or cultural background. In light of ongoing violence, discrimination, and racism against AAPIs, it has been important for me to cling to this verse in Romans in order to keep my theological framework when everything in me was confronted - body, mind, soul and the experience of discrimination and collective identity as an Asian American woman.
As you serve in an intentionally multicultural church, how do you and your fellow ministers balance the embrace of diversity while creating space for individual members' unique cultural/racial experiences and belongings in living out the beautiful diversity of the imago Dei in your congregation?
There are a few principles or commitments we share that are important. We embrace the practice of proximity breeding empathy—we surround ourselves with those that may or may not be similar or alike to us. Second, we celebrate different cultures. We try and infuse as much as we can through intentional relationships and Christ centered love and appreciation of those we meet and intentionally build. We build a theological framework by discovering and answering, “Who is our neighbor?”
We also focus on relationships. Strong relational ties help make differences less fearful because focusing on relational aspects help make others human and for us to be able to see one another as human, brothers and sisters in Christ. And by practicing community, we have space for us to share, grieve, celebrate, lament and all the other emotions in between.
And we seek to study and live out the implications of our fellow brothers and sisters being made in imago Dei by reflecting on how we can better practice the way of Jesus. This might mean a lot of different expressions; for example, we learn about our mental and emotional health, we learn about relational health, we do internal work in our mind, bodies and soul, we embody our spirituality and the way Jesus made us, and we bring others along in this discovery.
What advice and encouragement can you share for Mixed folks and families who are navigating how they can both honor and celebrate their own cultures and heritages in church spaces?
I would encourage folks to be intentional in our journey of discovering parts of things you aren't sure about. For me, it was being in community with other adoptees, especially Korean adoptees, so that I could learn more about my heritage.
And it is also about being intentional with our friends as they discover aspects of their identities. We can help them in the journey of building bridges, healing, confronting things, prayer, and friendship in their stories. For the sake of love and honor, discover the aspects of identity and heritage that might be different from you. Be curious and ask about the ways that their ethnic histories have combined together. And in doing so, we can remember and celebrate the unique differences of each of us, that we are not monolithic in any aspect of life.
Looking back, is there advice, encouragement, shout-out, or cautions you would share with your younger self that could encourage people as they navigate being mixed in Christian spaces?
I would tell myself and folks on their own journey that while there may be initial awkwardness and out of place or “otherness,” you will learn to celebrate uniqueness as you mature and grow and develop. And as I would encourage myself, so I hope that you would not be so resistant to the growing pains of discovering things.
I would like to thank my parents and friends who have been supportive of my journey in discovering my heritage and for making room and space and for asking really poignant and thoughtful questions, and for therapists and spiritual directors who helped me stay grounded and see how Christ anchors the discovery of identity. So I would encourage you to look for family, friends, and communities that provide you space and support you need in this journey.
And finally, I would tell myself that it’s a lifelong joy to keep going and to keep going at the pace that I was most comfortable with. Just as the discovery of identity and maturity is a lifelong discipleship to Jesus, so I hope that in our own ways, we would seek maturity in Christ and learn to discover, embrace, and celebrate all the ways that our stories matter to God!
You can view a full interview with Jessica Gracewski here:
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
Jessica Gracewski is an Asian American transracial adoptee, spiritual director, and minister in San Francisco, California.