I spent the latter part of last week with Reggie McNeal and 40 or so other Christ Followers in some “God conversations”. Reggie called it the Unconference which was quite appropriate for the time together. One of the conversations was to look at our current culture/world and dream of some “Epic Wins” where the church could lead. An Epic Win would be something so wonderful that only God could pull it off. Of course, we imagined the day when every knee would bow and every tongue confess Jesus. What an Epic Win that will be! But it seems as if there are other broken places God wants to redeem. And these places could be redeemed if the church were mobilized not only for salvation redemption, but the redemption of the rest of life.
I thought of several issues that would be potential Epic Wins, issues that the supernatural hand of God must redeem: hunger, poverty, war, the economy, marriage. But one particular issue stirred deeply in my soul- racial harmony. My heart and mind say the division prompted by racial differences is far greater than we realize. And unless there is an intentional and spiritually driven effort, we will see the divide deepen. And the church of Jesus Christ must not only lead the way, but make the sacrifices to see it become a reality that “red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight”. O God, make it so.
After sharing it with Reggie and my buddy Marshall Blalock, I began to ask God how I could be an instrument in His hands to facilitate racial harmony in the US and world. If God would use His Church to lead the way in racial harmony, it would be an Epic Kingdom Win where only God could be praised for the solution. We would be the blessed peacemakers Jesus called us to be in Matthew 5.
But where do we start? Of course, to pray for racial harmony would be a good start, but learning to live with my brother or sister from another tribe will require more than prayer closet praying. We who follow Christ must take the initial steps across racial or cultural differences to become friends with people from a different ethnic or cultural background. We must bring others into our world and step into their world as a learner, a student. We must eliminate all the qualifications for “brother or sister” status other than Jesus, and become a student of those who are the same kind of different than me.
What do you think? I would love to know your thoughts, and I would apreciate your praying about this with me. Pray especially that I would know what the next steps are for me personally and as lead Pastor of Riverbluff Church. Send any thought to cbradford@riverbluff.org
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