In 2020 we are continuing to struggle against a very real and dangerous problem. White supremacy and the racist policies, ideas, and hate that flow from it has plagued the world for far too long. This has come at great costs. It has cost black people and other people of color their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, their well-being, their opportunities, their livelihoods, their prosperity, their peace, and their very lives. It has gone on not only because of the evil intent of the vocal and active proponents of white supremacy, but also because of the silence and complicity of white people. The silence and complicity of pursuing the status quo, of voting into power those who have created or maintained racist policies, of not challenging policies and decisions, of not being “our brother’s keeper,” and of concerning ourselves with only that which promotes our flourishing rather than actively pursuing an equitable society in which everyone flourishes and in particular those who are marginalized.
“At City Hope Fellowship we seek to be a diverse people saved by Jesus, centered on Jesus, and sent by Jesus to extend the hope and fellowship of God to our city.” You’ve probably heard our mission statement every time you’ve come to worship service on Sundays. But, what does this look like for us to pursue this? We exist in the already, not yet. The global church is a diverse people and we seek locally the city and kingdom to come which is beautifully reconciled.
Racial and ethnic divide has plagued our country throughout history, and it continues today. I believe strongly that one of the best ways forward is to look backward in history and understand the forces at work in key moments so that we can see what things we missed. It is through this understanding that we can be equipped to not miss those moments again. One of those moments in Presbyterian church history centers around a man named George Bourne.
At City Hope, we have a lot of college students. And we will miss them greatly over the next few weeks as they are on Christmas break. So I wanted to take a moment to address our students and any college, high school, middle school, or elementary school students about how to walk with Jesus over Christmas break. (Also, this applies to non-students who have some time off around the holidays).
This is part 2 of a series entitled Why Start an Intentionally Multicultural Church?, which seeks to lay a biblical and theological foundation for our vision in planting City Hope Fellowship.
This is one of the key questions we have asked ourselves over and over again about City Hope Fellowship. Over the past two and a half years, I have read, prayed, studied, taught, and written about this subject. And now I want to summarize and share it in a 6 part blog series. My goal for this series is share my heart. And to show our motivation to start a missional and multicultural reformed church in downtown Muncie.
I am constantly telling my children to look both ways before they cross the street. It is necessary, especially with my boys, to remind them often that they have to look in both directions. I need the same advice and I need it just as often. John Stott, in his commentary of the book of Titus says, “the best way to live now, in this present age, is to learn to do spiritually what is impossible physically, namely to look in opposite directions at the same time.” What does he mean by this? And how would that help us live in this present time?
I had an awesome opportunity last night to teach at the Impact Movement on Ball State's Campus. It was such a fun night with a great group of students as we looked at the mission of God to create a multicultural people known as the church and what this has to say about racial reconciliation. Take a listen and see what you think.
