19 Jun This Is Why We Are This Church

Probably like many of you, I was shocked to wake up to read what is borderline unthinkable: a man walking into a church and shooting the very people who were praying with him and for him.

It’s obviously horrible in every sense of the word—a crime against African-American people, against Christians, and against human beings. It tears at the fabric of our collective sense of safety, of “right and wrong-ness”, and at the fabric of our nation.

If there is a dim silver lining to any of this, it’s that it forces us to wrestle with ideas of right and wrong, and of race and of what kind of people we want to be.

Inevitably, when bad things happen, I turn to my children and say, “This is why Daddy preaches the Gospel. It’s for this, and for hearts like these that I do what I do.”

And in the midst of this, let me say this to you:

This is why we are the church.

And, just as importantly,

This is why we are this church.

I know a number of people have asked, “Why are we doing these Gospel and Diversity classes? Isn’t it enough to be in church together?”

And the answer is, it’s not.

I believe God has made us a multicultural church, not to pat ourselves on the back and feel good about it, but to give us an opportunity to be a light and give an answer when no one around us seems to know what to do or how to fix much of the brokenness in our nation.

To be honest, if you missed our last “The Gospel and Diversity” meeting, you missed out.

At the end of our two hours together, after we had processed the material, heard from the people at our tables who are not like us, and tried to really listen to one another, specifically around the topic of the shooting and then riots in Baltimore, there was such a sense of unity, amazement, and gratitude at what God was doing in our midst.

One woman who was there, got up, and in tears said, “I have never been prouder to be a part of my church than this moment right here.”

Personally, I choked back tears all night at the beauty of what was happening:

God’s people from all kinds of ethnic backgrounds leaning into a difficult conversation in order to hear, not just to be heard, and doing what most people don’t want to do, and likely have never done.

These kinds of things change us. They shape us, and they make us better equipped to give an answer, similar to what Phillip gave to Nathanael in John 1, when Nathanael asked, “Can any good come out of Nazareth?”

And our answer to the question, “Can any good come of the ongoing racial issues that plague our country?” can be the same as what Phillip gave:

“Come and see.”

Come and see what God is doing in this church, and why we believe He has called us to persevere in developing a muscle that He can bring to bear on our city—our next “The Gospel and Diversity” meeting is in about a month, on July 24.

In the meantime,“speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves”, as Proverbs says, and be a voice for those who need it.

And pray. God, do we need Christians to pray. We meet every Friday morning at 7 am, and met this Friday, to pour out our complaint to the Lord, not just on social media. To be honest, I have little patience for people who post, but won’t pray, and our Friday morning prayer meeting is one way to express the value for prayer I know we say we all have—it’s not the only way, but it is a good one. Let’s be people who pray and have our hearts tuned to God’s.

And, finally, let’s gather as a people to worship together this Sunday and proclaim there is something bigger than our pain and our nation and this world. Let’s gather to sing and to shout and to hold and to believe that what we have in common is greater than what we don’t. That has been the testimony of the true church throughout the ages and it will be true of ours, by God’s grace.

With love and faith and hope in my heart,

Morgan