This was scheduled to post on Monday Jan.19th, sorry it is a day late.
I have long been haunted by a comment that is attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King, "The most segregated hour in America happens on Sunday mornings." Dr. King was looking at the cultural influence of the Church and commenting on the fact that as a whole the Church had systematically failed in bringing about some of the things promised in scripture, that we are a new creation in Christ where background, social-economic standings, and race do not mater; we are all Children of God through faith in Christ and He is weaving us together in a new culture that is different from the world. But the Church in the USA had done the opposite of that as a whole (not to say some individual churches we not doing great things); the church was supporting the idea of separate but equal in not in words but at least in deeds.
Almost 50 years later Lecrae said this is still true of U.S. Church culture. The church is not leading the charge of racial integration, we are sill living in segregated church bodies. Maybe even more so today, as many churches have picked up on marketing to a certain niche of people, we have churches for all types of sub-cultures; cowboy or hipster, seekers or young professionals, suburban or urban; sub-section upon sub-section that makes us feel more divided instead of united.
THIS REALLY BOTHERS ME! I long for a church where people from every background, worship together as Jesus creates a culture like promised in Galatians. I long for the day when people of all colors worship God through a lens where all are equally heirs of The King (which we are) in one body and Spirit. And I questioned why this is so hard to find in our modern day church. Why are Dr. King's words still relevant today?????
What I didn't realize until reading a book recently is this may be something that is hardwired in me because of our story walking the the process of adoption. I have spoken with Renee and several friends who are pastors and pray for me about my heart for a multi-ethnic church. It was Renee who was reading the book Adopted for Life by Russell D. Moore when she said, you have to read this book....this sounds so much like what you have been talking about! And it is like the author has peered into my heart, here is a long excerpt that I so identify with, I want to plant a church like this at some point in my career....
We're all designed for community-for brothers and sisters. That's why feminists speak so much about how powerful "sisterhood" is. It's why terrorist cells refer to their "brothers" who are readying themselves, too, for the revolution. It's why members of fraternities or sororities on college campuses name themselves "brothers" or "sisters". We all find brotherhood, for good or for ill, whether it's in a labor union, an international peacekeeping organization, or the Ku Kulx Klan. We'll identify ourselves by who is "one of us"-part of our "tribe". Unfortunately,this brotherhood is skin deep.
Our Churches fall for the same thing all of the time. We can buy Bibles in niche editions- in the colors of our favorite sports teams or with study notes custom-made for our demographic group, whether we're recovering alcoholics or single mothers or theological intellectuals. We order our worship services around our age groups, with music designed to remind each generation of whatever was playing at the youth rallies of their college days. Our congregations are made up of people who look, talk, and think just like we do. And it never occurs to us that this is the same type of unity the world has to offer. Even in our churches, we seem to identify ourselves more according to the corporate brands we buy and the political parties we support than with each other.
Our adoption means, though, that we find a different kind of unity. In Christ, we find Christ. We don't have our old identities based on race or class situation. The Spirit drives us from Babel to Pentecost, which is why "the works of the flesh" Paul warns about include "enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, distentions, divisions, and envy" and so forth (Gal. 5:19-21). When we find our identity anywhere other than Christ, our churches will be made up of warring partisans rather than loving siblings. And we'll picture to the world an autopsied Body of Christ, with a little bit of Jesus for everyone, all on our own terms (1 Cor. 1:12-13).
What would it mean, though, if we took the radical notion of being brothers and sisters seriously? What would happen if your church saw an elderly woman no one would ever confuse as "cool" on her knees at the front of the church praying with a body pierced fifteen-year-old anorexic girl? What would happen if your church saw a white millionaire cooperate vice president being mentored by a Latino minimum wage earning janitor because both know the janitor is more mature in the things of Christ?
If we had fewer "white" churches and "black" churches, fewer "blue-collar" churches and "white-collar" churches, maybe we'd see better what Jesus tells when he says we've come into a new household with one Spirit, one Father, and one Christ.
TO that I say AMEN!
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