The Church's Role in Racial Reconciliation

Group: Thank you.

And so we're always pressing up against that reality and 1 of the ways that we really push on reconciliation is because we're in a deeply broken neighborhood, 90 percent have single-parent homes, 90 percent of the pregnancies end in abortion, we're pushing our White brothers and sisters who are in that particular context who may be middle upper class or come from a rural area that if you're going to become a part of the church don't become a part of the church as a missionary opportunity but actually come up under the leadership of ethnic minorities and be in community with people that aren't like you on the mission of the gospel and see us engaging our neighborhood, prison, school pipelines, all those different types of things as gospel issues, not merely social justice issues, but central gospel issues that the church as a whole is hitting up not just Black people so that's huge for us.

You know I think being Oak Cliff and down in the southern sector of Dallas, living in a relatively homogenous community with other African-Americans for us it looks like creating partnerships so that we can engage with other churches and other organizations to have these dialogues and to provide these relationships because if they're not here then how can we really promote and push for reconciliation if we're not being intentional about living in diverse community?

And I think about the singles that I have and the Bible studies that we've done where we're inviting other people to engage in this dialogue, especially of the current cultural climate. How do we talk about this together and then how do we act together? Because I think it just can't be a conversation. That conversation needs to lead to some sort of action for us to push towards this biblical ideal of diversity and really unity.

And so it's us pressing into that, it's us finding ways to serve together, have conversations, so we've done that with another church in our city. We've had our men spend like 4 weeks together and talk about the history of racism in the country, talk about just the dynamics in our city, and then talk about what's the game plan? How do we move forward in addressing this issue in real ways?

The Black Church historically has been a place of hope, it's been a place of encouragement, it's been a place of collaboration; it's been a place where the Black Church historically has had a heavy influence in this community. It wasn't just a place where I heard the gospel. That pastor was a father figure, that pastor was engaged in the community as a community leader, he was free to speak –

I think sometimes we – the Black church has sometimes been devalued because of its approach to ministry, because of its emotionalism in things, but that doesn't mean that from my experience and from what most of us understand the Black church has always had a strong commitment to the gospel. And so I think understanding our commitment to the gospel has been through and through and stands today.

So I've had a little bit of an experience with what it is to be marginalized just because but it's not quite the same experience for someone here; it's still not the same. And I think sometimes that's underappreciated. Elizabeth what would you – how would you help us understand better?

So I think people in this conversation about race, "I'm not racist. I'm not prejudiced," but really the dynamic of what does it mean to live in a society where economic, social, psychological benefits might not come to you based upon the color of your skin. And this biculturalism that as an African-American I have to have to be able to engage in a dominant culture that might not value my church experience, might not value the dynamics in which we present the gospel or preach or just some aspects of the Black church experience that are very reach in tradition and history.

And so I think really to understand what it means to the experience of a Black person in the church is really to understand the experience of what it means to be Black in America and there really is just some truths of what that dynamic racially looks like for us that we have to unpack to really be able to put on the table an understanding that everybody can have of how can we correct some of the things that aren't I'd say appropriate or correct some of the directions that we're going as a country that really aren't reflecting who Christ is.

So when you have those 2 different timelines going on and then we've only had maybe 40 years, maybe, it's like telling somebody, "Start a marathon, you start running first, and you get 17 to 20 miles into the marathon," and then you say, "Okay, you guys start running. You've got an equal opportunity to run but you've got to catch up with them." You're never going to catch up. And so what the Black church been has been an Imago Dei equalizer. And so I think that what the Black church has served to do is bring gospel dignity. That's why titles are important in the Black church. Titles are not a pride thing at its root. It's really when you are out at the street or at work an older Black man had to address a younger White man as sir and nobody called him sir. So when he got to the Black church he was Deacon, he was Reverend, he was Sister, he was Brother and we dressed up as a way to say, "I'm blue collar during the week but this is where I have my dignity and value."

And so for me that's what the Black church has done. It started from your youth, your junior usher, and all of it is focused on pointing towards – because you don't have to teach us total depravity. We already know total depravity.

The issue now is dignity. The gospel brings dignity and so for me that is the major contribution of the Black church period.

And the great – some of the greatest conversations I have go like this: sometimes an Anglo will walk into this conversation and say, "Well I'm tired of having this conversation. This always puts my back against the wall to have this conversation," and I love my African-American brothers and sisters who say, "I never get to leave the conversation. I live the conversation."

And most people don't get that. They just don't.

So help us think through how we can work better together. What are some of the things? You've alluded to some of them, but let's develop that a little more. What are some of the things that you're seeing or stretching towards to try and bridge this gap and to help the understanding and to move from conversation to action? What are some of the things you see the church is needing?

And so how do we continue to bring awareness? I think there is – the culture is a lot more aware that something is wrong now than maybe they were a couple of months ago. And so how do we bring information? How do we bring podcasts and documentaries and books? There's a lot of great material that's been written on this to understand the dynamics of what it means to live in a racialized society, what it looks like to have privilege, what it looks like to really deconstruct some of these systems, what is systematic racism I think because if you can't see it then how do we bring it to your eyes.

The other thing that we've instituted is an opportunity. We have a conference called Frequency Conference every year. Within it this year we called it _____ Church it and in it we had racial IQ workshops you know so that Blacks and Whites could begin to learn – because you'd be surprised there are African-Americans who don't believe there is systemic racism still. And so we had those racial IQ workshops and invited those folks in so that people could get developed in that framework.

The other thing we had a service together and that type of thing. Now we've started something called the _____ Church Think Tank where now we're working through how do we developed professionals in every area. We have psychologists that are talking about the post-traumatic stress of African-Americans and how to work with that and how to train Whites to leverage their privilege for gospel means to bring systemic change in communities. So those are just some of the things we're working on and trying to see if the Lord is going to continue to blow on it.

And so in chapter 3 – of course in chapter 2 he says in verse 1, "Teach with a core of sound doctrine," and then he tells you all these different things that are sound. And in verse 1 it says serves basically your city, your civic authorities, and then it talks about because you were lost and then it goes into regeneration, all of this, and God being the ultimate philanthropist by saving us. Then he goes into teach our people to learn to engage in meeting pressing needs in order that we may not be found unfruitful.

Beautiful outwork and right there in that passage for me that's a core passage for us in thinking about what are the pressing needs. So if you've got Twitter you might –

And so I think that right now the church as a forth-telling prophetic opportunity to begin to reinvigorate as prophetic – I'm getting into what I'm going to talk about later, but reinvigorate as prophetic voice again to show the world that we do think something's wrong and we do think that we have contributed to it and we want to help be a voice and practitioner in helping evade everything that we've helped create.

by asking who's my neighbor when he's really asking aren't there some people I'm not responsible for?

So I'm going to let you describe the current environment as you see it. So what is the current environment as you see it and then we'll go gently into this?

And so I think to reduce people to a kind of 1-line narrative isn't right I think because we – several people are doing that for African-Americans but to realize that there were dynamics that were expressed in this political campaign and that people feel are you in support of that or are you in support of me as an African-American.

And so I think the real dynamics is that some people have felt left behind and felt that they weren't stood with when it really mattered. And again the issues are complex, we cannot reduce them or simplify them, but really it is we've been having these racial reconciliation conversations, we've been talking through this stuff for years, and when I ask you or need you to stand with me from our perception and our experience we feel that we were left by ourselves.

I get that and I think that the church is actually put in a challenging position as a result of that to show that in the midst of the prioritization that many did undertake that the people who feel excluded and left out are not left out and forgotten. We actually – there's something that needs to be done. So how do you keep hope alive?

And so it's like – I call it not owning your own junk. You push it off and you say, "Well they're doing this," and sometimes the suggestion is, "And what they're doing is worse than the problem that we have," and you wash your hands and you walk away but that's not a Christian response. The Christian response is to own your own junk, it's to recognize, "We fall short here. We're not supposed to be like the world. We're not supposed to be like the things that we're complaining about. We're supposed to be different and distinct and we're supposed to be building in a positive direction. We're supposed to deal with the places where we fall short and bring them before the Lord and work on them."

And it seems to me that getting into the conversation and having the conversation at least to some degree from the Anglo side is to recognize that the way to respond is not with a, "Yes, but here's the problem on the other end." Now I've got to own and deal with the stuff that I can own and deal with. Does that make sense?

And so for us it really involves 1, helping to inform our conversation, helping to bring together – we brought together our men, we sat down around round tables, and we sat down and we talked. He talked a lesson on systematic racism and then we had discussion around what is that. And then we talked about what does that look like in our city and talked about the poverty, talked about the lack of opportunities, and then we talked about, "Okay, what are our next steps?" We identified about 10 key next steps and we're going to commit 2 or 3 of those around those, 1 being around the economic issues, 1 developed around the mass incarceration system, and 1 around just deepening our relationships.

But again I think respectfully push knowing that you're pushing against pain. But I think you have to push and ask – if you think we're victims, act like victims, ask those questions because those things need to be on the earth.

And it's kind of like, "Great quote, changed my mind," but then when you look at what being a living sacrifice looks like from the rest of that passage, this is this whole conversation. It's a passage of empathy, I mean as the centerpiece of what it means to be a living sacrifice in the context of relationship with the body. And I think that that right there has to be – 1 of the things – and I encourage even African-Americans, like for us I can tend to become apathetic and say, "I'm sick of explaining Black people to White people." You know I'm just being honest.