What I Meant To Say

The Color of the Kingdom

By February 5, 2018 No Comments

I Love You

In my haste to speak about the importance of diversity in the church and racial reconciliation, I may have failed to assure you of my love. I love my family. I love my friends. I am incredibly grateful for my education and for the opportunities given by a number churches in which I have ministered and been ministered to. I especially love LifeChurch. LC is my home. LC is my family. And I am proud. Not everyone has my story. Not everyone is as blind to the struggles of minorities in America. And not every minority has the exact same struggles. I believe that my responsibility, though — as a Christian — is to make “their” struggles, “my” struggles. The moment I differentiate “them” and “me” is the moment I need to repent. Politics aside, if I ignore the pain and suffering and anger of my brothers and sisters of a different race, how can I call them family? How can I say I love people if I have made my mind up about them before ever meeting them, walking in their shoes, or listening to their voices? How can I claim to love God and be a disciple of Jesus without showing compassion, and without humbly learning from those who are not like me?

Prophetic Voices

My wife has had the most prevalent voice in my life in the areas of race and diversity. But too often her words have fallen on deaf ears, and a hard heart. Still, she has persisted to speak —and even more graciously pray, and wait for me to catch up. In many ways she still waits. I am thankful for her.

l wish I could share what I have heard, learned, struggled through, felt and been convicted of over the years. Yet, my novice voice can only speak of the shallow waters in which I have tread. If face to face, personal interaction is your style, Rachel and I would love to share a meal with anyone who longs to continue the discussion. (Seriously, just let us know)! In the meantime I offer some other voices who have impacted me (most recently) during my journey to a fuller understanding of the gospel and God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. (There is an exorbitant number of links in hopes to make these voices as accessible to you as possible).

Books

Reconciliation BluesEdward Gilbreath

The Next EvangelicalismSoong-Chan Rah

Disunity in ChristChristena Cleveland (Recommended to me by Liz Klassen… Also, read this blog post 7 Stages of White Identity)

The Black Presence in the Bible Walter Arthur McCray

Tears We Cannot StopMichael Eric Dyson

Media

Race and the Church – Catalyst Atlanta 2016 — A Panel discussion about race.

Verge Network — A YouTube channel worth subscribing to.

Humble Beast — A YouTube channel (and organization) giving artists opportunity to spread the gospel in our modern world and to our culture.

The One and Only JesusPropaganda — Spoken word about who Jesus is.

Tell Me the Good NewsJackie Hill Perry — Spoken word about her experience with the gospel.

Facts Lecrae — Song about being black in the white evangelical church.

Come and Get MeLecrae — Song about how people question (with unsubstantiated reasoning) the sincerity of his faith.

About the Artists

Above, I included a spoken word from both Jason Petty (Propaganda) and Jackie Hill Perry that are not specifically about race. These two artists (along with Lecrae) have impacted me greatly in the area of diversity but also my faith in general. They are brilliant and talented, and the range of their voices extend from middle aged white guys like me and Currey to young pregnant girls contemplating abortion to inner city street folk looking for a fix. (JHP is especially influential speaking on sexuality in the LGBTQ conversation). I cannot promise that you will like their style, but I believe they are modern day prophets reaching the masses. I encourage you to check out their music and look them up on youtube. (Here are a couple of my favorite songs from them: Propaganda – Gentrify, Andrew Mandela. JHP – I Just Wanna Get There, The Solution.)

Rocking the Boat

Below are a couple spoken words more sharply focused on race and America. I challenge you to listen. You may disagree with them. You may even be offended by them. But before you write them off, understand that this is a brother and a sister in Christ and their voice matters just as much as yours.

20 YearsPropaganda

7 Things I want to Say to America – Jackie Hill Perry

Leave a Reply