You are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28
He himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. Ephesians 2:14
Christ is all, and in all. Colossians 3:11
I write to my white brothers. And I want to ask you to consider this searching question that I also ask myself. Is your church racist?
At one level, the obvious answer is No. People who resonate with TGC tend to align their convictions with the Bible. So the verses quoted above most of us will affirm strongly. The photograph above most of us will find disturbing. It is so blatant. But our strong agreement in these obvious ways only makes the question more worthy of conscientious reflection: Is your church racist? Is mine?
Here are some diagnostic questions I ask myself, to press into deeper insight. Is your church a white church where black people are welcome, or is your church a Christian church where all who love Jesus are equally accepted and equally influential? Are the black people in your church receiving and adapting to your church’s culture, or are they, with you, shaping and reshaping your church’s culture? Are there two circles of belonging in your church? Is there an inner circle of “us” and an outer circle of “them” — the latter belonging too, but not in the same way, not with the same embrace, the same identity, the same “us”? Does the “us-ness” in your church need to be broken and re-created, according to the parameters of the one gospel for all sinners who are standing equally on the same footing before the one Savior of all? Or are the unspoken ground rules for the outer circle more demanding than the ground rules for the inner circle? Do the outer-circle members have something to prove that the inner-circle members don’t have to prove? Is there any emotional aloofness dividing your church, or are you loving every member with the same emotional intensity? Finally, are the black members of your church on the same paths of growth and discipleship such that they too are on their way toward becoming leaders, deacons, elders and pastors? Or is it inconceivable that you could receive, rejoice over and submit to a black lead pastor in your church?
If our churches turn away from questions like these, passively choosing not even to think about such matters, then our churches are actively choosing to reject the clear teachings of the gospel — Galatians 2:11-21 being, for me, the most unsettling and searching text in the Bible to dig out how I really feel about Jesus and his grace. And if our churches choose wrongly, then our churches are heading toward divine discipline. But if our churches have the faith in God, the humility, the honesty, the clarity, the courage, the sheer joy in the Lord to follow the Lamb wherever he goes (Revelation 14:4), then the floodgate of blessing will blow out our old limitations and our unintended but real mechanisms of exclusion. If we will allow the “us” in our churches to be redefined according to the mind of Christ, then our churches are already moving into revival glory.
And we will become living proof that Jesus really is the Prince of Peace.
