Mark 5:35-42
While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why bother the teacher any more?"
Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, "Don't be afraid; just believe."
He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, "Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep." But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum!" (which means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"). Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.
At the first sign of a fatal cultural shift, our inclination is often to cut and run. It is easier to exercise our skills in triage than it is to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit in us to resurrect our dying culture. Some people, some communities, some cultures—we claim—are too far gone. We fail to realize that the moment we abandon our culture, we leave it increasingly more vulnerable to its own ills.
Rather than nurturing intelligent discourse between us and the world, we—the Church—have silenced ourselves.
Because silence often communicates compliance, we at Talitha Koum have surrendered the fear of voicing our dissent. We believe that it is time for the Church to refrain from silence and to instead offer ourselves as one collective voice for change.
There are a multitude of issues on which we do and will disagree, but our differences need not create more dissention within the Church. We believe that our greatest strength in our diversity is the ability to challenge each other, to allow iron to sharpen iron. In commiting to a common vision, we will work together to challenge ourselves, our churches, and our city—Cincinnati—to awaken to the truth of the Gospel.
Consider this publication as a practice in raising our voices. We hope that, together, we will be loud enough to reach beyond our immediate circles of influence into a city that is drowning in hopelessness and is desperate for another option.
We at Talitha Koum are cultivating our collective voice. We are speaking loudly, listening carefully, and then re-examining ourselves and our churches. We have a lot to learn from each other and there are a multitude of things that God is speaking to us that this city needs to hear.
We aim to communicate effectively in wisdom, humility, and good conscience. We will be respectful to each other, but always speak in truth. In love, we will extend the grace of our Lord to those outside of the Church, for the sake of the Gospel.
Talitha Koum invites you to wake up and join in the conversation.
