I'm just returning from a week of vacation with my family so this is the first opportunity I've had to share my thoughts on the shooting deaths of nine people in Charleston, South Carolina. My heart broke for what happened, and, as with most people in our country, I am grieving. I am grieving the lives that were lost. I am grieving for the sheer evil that exists in our world. I cannot fathom the depths of evil that would cause someone to go into a church and kill people who welcomed him in to study the Bible with them.
The temptation is to treat this as one isolated incident by a mentally unstable person. However, this incident is indicative of the deep racial tension in our country. The tension is not just in South Carolina or the South in general. The racial divides run deep in urban, suburban, and rural areas across the country. There are deep racial and socioeconomic divisions in the city where I live, Pittsburgh. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I understand that our world faces an enemy that seeks to kill and destroy through the evil of divisiveness.
So, what can we do about this? Yes, it is important to pray. Every church in America should grieve and pray during worship services this weekend. Beyond this weekend, though, followers of Jesus Christ must commit to being transformational change agents in our spheres of influence through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. God's redemptive mission is all about reconciling relationships. When we become reconciled to God, we also become reconciled to the people that we interact with. In other words, Christians should be leading the way in our culture when it comes to racial reconciliation. Unfortunately, we are often the ones dragging our collective feet in our society.
The gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to heal and transcend wounds of division that are hundreds and even thousands of years old. As a white pastor in an urban environment with many different ethnic groups and classes of people, I am committed to living a lifestyle of reconciliation. I am committed to leading our church toward reconciliation. We will not just be praying about it this weekend during one worship service. We will continue to do the hard work of racial reconciliation on a daily, weekly, and yearly basis as the Holy Spirit leads us. I feel that this is a lifelong calling that God has given me, and I am praying that God will continue to reconcile people together in our cities, states, and in our country in general.
The temptation is to treat this as one isolated incident by a mentally unstable person. However, this incident is indicative of the deep racial tension in our country. The tension is not just in South Carolina or the South in general. The racial divides run deep in urban, suburban, and rural areas across the country. There are deep racial and socioeconomic divisions in the city where I live, Pittsburgh. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I understand that our world faces an enemy that seeks to kill and destroy through the evil of divisiveness.
So, what can we do about this? Yes, it is important to pray. Every church in America should grieve and pray during worship services this weekend. Beyond this weekend, though, followers of Jesus Christ must commit to being transformational change agents in our spheres of influence through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. God's redemptive mission is all about reconciling relationships. When we become reconciled to God, we also become reconciled to the people that we interact with. In other words, Christians should be leading the way in our culture when it comes to racial reconciliation. Unfortunately, we are often the ones dragging our collective feet in our society.
The gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to heal and transcend wounds of division that are hundreds and even thousands of years old. As a white pastor in an urban environment with many different ethnic groups and classes of people, I am committed to living a lifestyle of reconciliation. I am committed to leading our church toward reconciliation. We will not just be praying about it this weekend during one worship service. We will continue to do the hard work of racial reconciliation on a daily, weekly, and yearly basis as the Holy Spirit leads us. I feel that this is a lifelong calling that God has given me, and I am praying that God will continue to reconcile people together in our cities, states, and in our country in general.
