A mixture of churches came together Sunday for the Racial Reconciliation Worship Service held at the Word of Faith Christian Center on Wisconsin Avenue in Vicksburg.

The service, which was hosted by Mission Mississippi, began with a variety of songs performed by members of the Word of Faith Christian Center, Crossway Church, Triumph Church, Highland Baptist Church, House of Peace, Church of the Holy Trinity, Faith Christian Center and Triumphant Church.

The Racial Reconciliation Service consisted of a blended choir and congregation of the churches in attendance.

“This is what Heaven is going to look like,” said Rev. Reggie Walker pastor of Word of Faith Christian Center. “So we want to get it straight here while we can.”

Walker said the group was brought together through the Mission Mississippi organization, which is a group that works on breaking religious barriers between denominations, ages, genders and races.

“Mission Mississippi is an organization and their mission is changing Mississippi one relationship at a time,” said Walker. “That’s with God and going across racial denominational lines. We have pastors participating in the church, male and female, black and white, Baptist churches, Episcopalian churches, nondenominational churches. So it’s more than just people like you or me. It’s purposely being with people who are not like you and breaking out of your comfort zone.”

The organization hosts events throughout the year to fight racism. Each year, the organization has a racial harmony picnic, joint worship service, a lunch with fellow Mission Mississippi members and a Day of Dialogue.

“For our Day of Dialogue, we select a certain Saturday and get all of the churches’ members together,” said Walker. “We make it so that it is a round table discussion and no one has to be ashamed or worried about saying the wrong thing. We want everyone to be comfortable enough to speak their minds.”

The Mission Mississippi Organization has chosen October to celebrate its annual month for racial awareness. This October, all participating churches have been working hard to bring awareness to communities.

“The Racial Harmony Picnic has passed but this service is held once a year and we usually vote on a venue as a board,” said Walker. “We choose either a predominantly African American church and have a Caucasian speaker or we select a predominantly Caucasian church and have an African American speaker.”

The organization hosts the Racial Reconciliation Worship Service once a year in a different church each time. The service was held at the Word of Faith Christian Center, Sunday and included members of the Presbyterian, Episcopalian, nondenominational and Baptist churches.

The congregation consisted of all ages, genders and races.

“Mission Mississippi’s motive is intentionality, so you intentionally make an effort to form a relationship with someone who doesn’t look like you,” said Walker. “So it forces us to be comfortable in an establishment that maybe not everyone has grown up in. It shows us something different than what we are used to experiencing.”

During the service, an offering was taken up to support the Mission Mississippi organization and afterwards Apostle Linda Sweezer encouraged the audience to stand and embrace someone different or new.

The blended choir then sang a song of how the congregation should not give up because of the good to be done in the city. Shortly after, Pastor Terry White of Crossway Church in Vicksburg was introduced as the speaker for the night.

White delivered the message from the book of Matthew Chapter 25, which he felt was inspired by a seminar professor who taught and spoke lectures directly from the Bible.

White then proceeded to stress to the congregation the importance of taking risks.

“When you take on an aptitude of riskfulness, your faith for God becomes warped,” said White.

White related the message to the story of the Prodigal Son’s actions.

White questioned the congregation on the risks the church has taken for God.

“What risks have you taken for God,” said White. “The institutional church is the last group to take risks, we are supposed to take the risk of taking responsibility instead of placing blame.”