Becoming Beloved Community
The Becoming Beloved Community Team of the Christian Church (DOC) in Greater Kansas City started as the Region's pro-reconciling and anti-racism team in the spring of 2019. Recognizing that the church has been a part of starting and sustaining racism over the years, and recognizing that Jesus calls us to work for justice and equity, we seek to empower Greater KC Disciples to be a part of the movement for wholeness through education, relationship-building, and actions leveraging change.
Our Team is volunteer-led and operated. We consist of 10-15 pastors and lay people from around the Greater KC Region.
Just Disciples: Living at the Intersection of Faith and Justice
The Becoming Beloved Community Team now has a podcast available on Spotify. The episodes of this podcast will examine what it means to be the justice seekers that God has commanded us to be.
Justice isn’t a political agenda, it’s a theological agenda. In this podcast we will examine what it means to do what God commanded us to do through the prophet Isaiah: to “learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause (Isaiah 1:17; ESV.)
2025's Racial Justice Summit:
The Becoming Beloved Community held its 3rd annual Racial Justice Summit in Kansas City on Saturday, November 1 2025. Rev. William Lamar IV. was the honorary speaker, and attendees will participate in various workshops centered around justice and activism in the Greater Kansas City community.
Workshop Topics Included:
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CHALLENGING POLITICAL CONVERSATIONS
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SELF-CARE IN THE TRENCHES
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HOUSING JUSTICE
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REPARATIONS
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ECONOMIC JUSTICE
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GOOD TROUBLE
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FREEDOM OF SPEECH
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LITERACY JUSTICE
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IMMIGRATION
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JUSTICE
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WORKERS RIGHTS
Listen to Rev. Lamar's sermon below:
Films for a Cause
Films for a Cause uses powerful films -- including documentaries, feature films, and children's movies -- to spark meaningful conversation within our community.
Join us for our next Films for a Cause screening on Sunday, June 14th. We will be screening "After the Raid," a 2019 documentary film directed by Rodrigo Reyes. The premise revolves around a meatpacking plant in Grainger County, Tennessee, where 97 undocumented workers were arrested during a raid in 2018.
This screening is in partnership with Rev. Ed and Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation.
We network with local congregations, local community organizers, other Regions & the General Church. Since 2019, we have:
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Financially supported Community Organizing organizations like MORE2, NAACP, and local celebrations of the Civil Rights movement
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Juneteenth 2020 virtual event raising awareness of KC racism, history of Juneteenth, and history of the struggle against racism
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Virtual daily Holy Week justice-centered devotions
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Sent letter to Board of Police Commissioners in KC to request that Chief Smith no longer be allowed to be Chief of KCPD.
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Created and led a workshop on becoming trauma-informed, especially with sensitivity to the traumas caused by racism
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Virtual daily Advent justice-centered devotions
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Wrote grants to empower translation of the Anti-Racism Pro-Reconciliation training into Spanish
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Led the inaugural KC Racial Justice Summit in 2023, incorporating community organizers addressing racial justice in KC, building their bases, empowering congregations and local residents with the theological reasons, resource, know-how, and motivation to get involved in the work.
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Led 3 follow-up groups to go deeper in creating tangible actions based on what was learned at the workshop about racism and trauma
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Virtual weekly Lenten justice-centered prayer times, along with education on fasting
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Sent 4 people to Gamaliel Community Organizing training
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Provided multiple virtual book studies and small groups for our congregations (and even some from across the country) to grow in understanding of racism’s historical and ongoing impacts as well as self-awareness of growth needed in order to be part of the healing.