For Such A Time As This: Organize and Resist

by Alexis Tardy

Join us on Monday, Jan. 26th at 6:30pm EST for “Organize and Resist: A Call to Action”—a gathering for Alliance and THRIVE churches to share strategies and tactics they’ve learned in fighting against ICE as well as preparation for cities who have not encountered ICE but can still gain strategies for their congregation and communities. Please come with your stories and learnings to share in this gathering.

ZOOM LINK FOR “ORGANIZE AND RESIST”

“Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked. “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

2 Kings 6:13-17

Dear Alliance Pastors and Congregations,

Recently, my pastor preached from 2 Kings 6:13-17, from the title, “God Has You Surrounded.” He preached that even when you are surrounded by those who want to demean, destroy, capture, or ruin, God has them, and you, surrounded. The prophet in this text—Elisha—implores God to give his servant the supernatural eyes to see beyond what he could already see. What the servant could see was a seemingly innumerable army with horses and chariots surrounding the city—specifically to kill him and Elisha. But, what he doesn’t see is that the innumerable army is surrounded by an innumerable army. It’s not that the danger isn’t real, it just doesn’t have the last say.

Renee Nicole Macklin Good was mercilessly murdered by ICE agents in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026. Renee was acting as a legal observer for the ICE protests taking place against the crackdown by the Trump administration. Recent video shows a masked (they’re always masked) ICE agent shooting into Renee’s car three times, with her car consequently losing control, swerving into other parked cars. Reports share that Renee was seen slumping over her steering wheel, bloodied. A 37-year-old mother, she did not survive her injuries.

As we collectively know, this is not the first murder by ICE. In 2025, ICE broke a decades-old record with 32 people dying in ICE custody. At least four people had been killed in ICE custody ten days into this New Year. We are also aware that most of those who have been killed have been people of color and immigrants, which often doesn’t get nearly as much attention. But for Minneapolis, as is the case for many if not all cities, it was already a city on edge before the killing of Renee Good, then it was set ablaze.

This past week, I was grateful to meet with the antiracism committee of University Baptist Church, an Alliance congregation in Minneapolis pastored by Doug Donley. They shared with me their witness—what they were seeing and hearing in the streets themselves, from neighbors, from congregants—and agreed to allow me to share their stories with the Alliance. Minneapolis is a community under siege—one congregant who saw her neighbor, a father, taken by ICE agents; high school students are literally being tear-gassed and parents are being forced to decide whether to allow their children to go to school or learn from home; people’s homes are being broken into with battering rams; helicopters are purposely flying low and shaking homes of congregants, causing PTSD by itself; and, like other cities under siege, ICE is kidnapping and disappearing folks en masse.

Minneapolis is under siege but not defeated. They’ve learned not just to resist but how to resist this era’s militarism, particularly from the murder of 46-year-old George Floyd in May 2020. “Organize, organize, organize” was Pastor Donley’s response. He shared they have learned to watch their friends in other cities like Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Charlotte for tactics on how to respond to ICE. Even if it seems like a drop in the bucket, they’ve cultivated the discipline to boycott corporations that fund injustice. And the antiracism committee emphasized the importance of fighting for and alongside the most vulnerable, like immigrants who work in a meat-packing plant in Wilmer, MN or other immigrants in small cities all throughout the country.

“We are not alone—we are brave, we are feisty, we are resilient.” Pastor Donley shared this with confident assurance but also from a place of deep knowing that only comes from experience. Howard Thurman, African-American mystic, theologian, civil rights leader, and prophetic voice, as well as mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote about Jesus and the Disinherited. He wrote for “those who stand with their backs against the wall”. He encourages, “Wherever [Jesus’] spirit appears, the oppressed gather fresh courage; for God has announced the good news that fear, hypocrisy, and hatred, the three hounds of hell that track the trail of the disinherited, need have no dominion over them.”

Although Minneapolis, and many other cities, are under siege even as we speak, I believe they are also surrounded by a God who is a God of the oppressed who sees and hears us, who will not be mocked, and who will surround us with the flames of justice so that we are not consumed.

Alexis Tardy joined the Alliance staff in the summer of 2023, working with our THRIVE cohort, and stepped into her new role as the Manager of Congregational Relations and Organizing. Before returning to Indianapolis in 2020, Alexis led as the Program Director at Faith and For the Sake of All, where she organized trainings and workshops to end racial disparities in Saint Louis. While in St. Louis, Alexis was deeply impacted by the protest in Ferguson following the death of Michael Brown, Jr. As a consultant for Urban Strategies, she mentored youth and worked with families and community leaders in Ferguson, Missouri. Alexis earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, a Master of Divinity degree from Eden Theological Seminary in Saint Louis, Missouri, and a Doctor of Ministry in Womanist Preaching degree at Memphis Theological Seminary. Alexis is deeply committed to justice and Black and Latinx families while working toward equitable communities.

ZOOM LINK FOR “ORGANIZE AND RESIST”