Blue Christmas Service

This 40-minute virtual Blue Service offers a gentle, reflective space for those navigating grief during the holiday season. With intentional space and facilitation, we will honor the complexity of loss while holding space for healing and hope. Whether you’re mourning a loved one, facing a difficult season, or simply seeking solace, this service invites you to pause, breathe, and be held in community. Our Blue Service features guest facilitators, Rev. Dr. Rae Karim and Rev. Lee Ivey, III, LMHCA. 

Speakers: 

Rev. Joselyn Spence, LPC, ATR, RYT serves as the Director of the NBA’s Mental Health and Wellness Initiative. In this role, Joselyn works to design and implement programs that promote holistic wellness across all NBA programs. This work is done through the creation of learning resources for clergy and community leaders, addressing the needs of pastors in a variety of ministry settings, sharing the stories that help to eliminate stigmas related to mental health and wellness. She is passionate about mental health care, holistic wellness, communal care ethics, and spirituality. As a holistic wellness specialist, she has worked at the intersection of these passions to develop research and provide empathic care to all she is called to serve.

A creative thought leader & visionary with a gift of words, Rae Karim pours lived experience into her work. This gift allows her to be an Amazon best-selling author, sought-after writer, poet & speaker. She is a two-time history maker, as the first woman & person of color to pastor non-Black churches in Indianapolis, IN & Honolulu, HI. Rae is also a certified grief coach and founder of Good Grief Now!™ a national 501c3 and full-service grief support organization that helps grievers successfully navigate their grief journey and helps grief supporters be effective and efficient in their efforts. In all she does, Rae empowers & transform lives, and is committed to ensuring she ignites courage on purpose for purpose. 

Born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, yet cultured by many journeys, Rev. Lee Ivey III, LMHCA is inspired by a person’s audacity to heal out loud. In a world where masks are, at times, protective and necessary, Ivey seeks to create a space where a person feels emboldened to present their truest self in a therapeutic alliance that is judgment-free and acceptance-filled. Ivey discerns the intersection between faith, mental health, and clinical sexology to reveal the ways that discouragement has become ingrained in our identity. Ivey desires to walk audaciously with you in your healing journey! Lee’s therapeutic interests include church hurt, trauma, microaggressions, generational healing, sex therapy, discouragement, passivity and aggression, grief and loss, and expression.