So I was reading this great article about race and church, in response to yesterday's CNN article (read it here) - which is a topic that must be discussed and figured out for tomorrow's church - but it brought to light an issue that is a great starting point for this blog. The article, by Sondra Shepley, ended with this statement,
"what might be the greatest challenge to whites who want to lead on church integration – if you want to lead you are probably going to have to learn how to follow and serve. We progressive types may even have to learn the radical implications of terms we do not often use, like “submission." Yet this is the way of Christ modeled through his earthly incarnation." (original post here)
Here’s what hit me, if we are going to discuss areas of the church that need to be fixed, like integration, political involvement, practical theology - whatever, we must start from a position of submission. This blog is dedicated to discussing and refining what could be and what should be for tomorrow's church. None of us have it figured out, neither do you. So stop pretending and start submitting. Life is not just black and white - nor is the bible. There are vast grey areas that we must navigate ourselves through. So for those who write, those who read and those who leave comments - we must all humbly recognize that we don’t' know everything, otherwise we wouldn't be taking part in this blog. And our submission is to the greater cause, to the Kingdom of God - my perspective of theology and church will vary from yours, but together we can refine, exhort and better one another. Together, through submission, we can take this simple blog idea and dream about bettering this human institution and making it more on earth as it already exist in heaven.
Please do not pretend that your view on politics, church methodology or church planting strategy is the end-all, be-all. Humbly remember that the reasons you believe something is true are probably the exact same reasons another thinks theirs is true. It is our collection of experiences of church, the joys, the pains and the dreams that make us united. We have all been frustrated by the church, changed by the church and all want to see the Church of tomorrow be what she should be - a loving, moving force in this broken world.
Please join me and the other contributors on this journey.
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3 comments:
I read the CNN article. Very interesting. I serve at Healing Place Church- inner city campus. We call it a Dream Center like the one in LA. because we do all the community outreach stuff too like them but not on there huge scale. I sent the article to the pastor of our campus. We are white led but our congregation is mostly black.
Sounds like a very interesting article. I'll have to look it up.
Kevin, living in South Africa this post has major relevance. The church I go to is multi racial and what a blessed place. I feel that without God`s Hand, we would not be where we are now. God so obviously used Nelson Mandela as a pawn in his incredible plan. Without his intervention, we would just be another African country in severe turmoil.
How fortunate are we?
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