Ethnic Identity Under Christ's Authority

And he says, "Look, you know how they are and if they keep coming in here like that we going to be in trouble." I told him, "Well you better keep winning more Blacks to Christ then so we outnumber them." And he said, then he said, "Well I'm leaving." And I said, "Bye." Because I can't let you dictate to the kingdom of God.

Now maybe you had some bad experiences. Maybe you had some negative experiences. Okay, we'll work with you but while we work with you, you can't dictate to the kingdom. And so what we have a lot of time are race-baiters who want to dictate to the kingdom and we cannot allow that. I make that clear in our church. That will not be allowed here.

So I think a mist in the pulpit is a fog in the pew so I think to get rid of this fog in the pew we got to change this mist in the pulpit so that the pulpit is strong but that the Bible will rule. Now, secondly of all, you have got to be open to not stereotype as well. You can't just say, "Don't you stereotype me while I stereotype you."

Now all of us that that erupt, to call me, I'm as old as you are you know and you're going to call me boy. Okay, so now my defenses go up okay 'cause I've now stereotyped him as a racist. I've stereotyped him you know in every way possible because he called me boy because that was a slave terminology where the slave owner who was 50 years younger would call an old Black man, older Black man boy. Okay so I'm hearing that.

Okay but then in the same conversation while I'm feeling all this erupting inside me, a younger guy, an older guy came in and he called him boy too and he was White. That automatically calmed me down on the inside because I saw he was being consistent. He wasn't just doing that to me but my natural reaction was that. So give an opportunity for clarity. Now maybe you're right, maybe they are still racist and maybe they are still carrying that old way of thinking, but maybe that's how they are or maybe that's all they know. And why don't I give you the benefit of the doubt until you prove otherwise and not allow my history to automatically color and code you.

I may feel because of what your granddaddy did, because of what your daddy did and because of how I suspect how you are given that, I may hold you hostage to that. And I've got to say, “I release you,” because until I release you I hold me hostage too, to unforgiveness, which means we can't make progress. So there's forgiveness, there's looking at character and then there is now rebuilding of relationship because reality is there's a new generation out here. There's a generation, a younger generation who don't hold any of this. Then there's the older generation who hold some of this because of history and I've got to now be able to engage you and we improve like iron sharpening iron, one another in this process.

We can begin to engage. We can begin to hire staff that can relate to people who are in our community. We can begin to have events with churches serving together like we talk about the adopted schools working together. So we're creating the environment where it could happen naturally. Doesn't have to be forced, it can be very natural. And so when we go to a community and we get all the communities together, we get 50 churches together we've got some communities where every school has been adopted by the churches in that community and they loving on each other because they're serving somebody else. And that's why the serving somebody else becomes critical because now it's not just me and you, it's us for them. And when it's us for them, reconciliation is not happening while we're improving the life of someone else.

The White man is not making you do that. He's not forcing you into that position. That's a convenient out. In slavery when we did not have laws on our side, the community on our side, the government on our side, the broader community on our side, our families were a lot stronger. We were a lot more unified and we made a lot more progress. We're going through regression right now and a lot of that is because of decision-making we are responsible for.

So don't give me this that you know, when the Cowboys play – you know I was traveling with the Cowboys for a long time. My son Jonathan's taking over for me now but when the Cowboys play there are 11 other people trying to keep them from making progress. And they can't change that. They will never be able to change for 3 hours, 11 other people trying to do them in. Their job is to get in a huddle and come up with a plan that overrides it. And so since some things may not change, may not change in your lifetime or you know the defense keeps shifting and you don't know what's coming next, your job is to come up with a plan that overrides that. And our God is a great coach and he's got a great playbook. He's got a great plan and we have in the past overcome it and now we need not to regress. We have regressed as a people and much of that is our fault.

The gangs are family. They're wrong kind of family but they're challenges and men gravitate to the challenge. And so the church, we've got to remove the femininity out of church when it comes to reaching men. Every now and then when my wife's doing something, she asks me to hold her purse. Now I'll hold it but it doesn't feel right. It just doesn't feel right. And a lot of times church doesn't feel right to men because it doesn't have its masculinity tied to it.

And so we've got to attract men by calling men to manhood. And when you call men to manhood and they can stick out their chest and feel like okay, this is for me, you know then it rises to a whole other level and that's what we're seeking to even equip minority churches to do.

But you know what was interesting when you did that year after year after year, which is what happened. I mean I think I played 12, 14 years total before my legs said not doing this anymore. But you got to know the guys on the other team. You in some cases were ministering to a guy. There was a short, stocky African-American guy who was at West Dallas. He played for the West Dallas team who inevitably when we played I was lined up against them. He could block me out of a rebound with – get away fly.

You know, but he was such a great guy. And we would chat afterwards and engage with each other and that camaraderie, that shared engagement, I mean people think sports is trivial but sometimes sports can accomplish a lot. Built a team spirit that went into that community where people were coming out from both sides. And of course the great part of that story is they planted the school. Some of the kids went on to college. They were the first in their families to go to college. They built families. Some have come back to teach in the school so they can give back to the area that they've come out of.

Our big thing is adopt a school and I need to explain why. Because in that school you have kids. Those kids have parents; that's family. Church, school and family make up community. And you never run out because you have new kids and new families coming all the time. So that's why that but doesn't have to be that. The other thing is that nobody disagrees with education, kids and families. So you got something that the community can accept. It doesn't polarize anybody. So you come up with something that allows you to minister together but ministering over something that is a priority to this minority pastor’s need because he always has to facilitate himself to you so you're now facilitating yourself to him and recognizing his leadership in the process.

And I think that new in this new generation there are a lot of pastors who want that. There are a lot of churches that are now becoming somewhat integrated so you will find now an open hand and an open heart. Take advantage of that. Don’t dismiss it. At the same time, train your people to be accepting of it, okay based on what Jesus wants not based on how they feel. And that's why you are the leader.