It’s all about perspective, really.
How you see the world will determine how you interact with it and with people.
If you believe people are good, valuable and worthy, you will treat them accordingly.
If you believe people are inherently bad, evil or worthless, you will treat them differently.
What’s happening in our country is significant for this time and this place, but it is much more than that, too.
The outcry against oppression, racism and treating people differently because they are different from you has become a global outcry.
At the same time, the issue of racism is a pretty complex one just like reacting to the current protests, demonstrations and riots requires a complex response. In other words, I can full support the protests without supporting rioting, the destruction of property, the vilification of good cops or the defunding/disbanding of police.
To say that the Civil War or the Civil Rights Movement ended racism in our country is to be culturally blind at best and outright racist at worst.
Modern day tragedies like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery continue to show us that real racial problems still exist.
But we are we to do about it?
Starting this Sunday, we have several special guests joining us for a conversation about race that is focused on revealing truth, seeking justice, offering love and experiencing healing together.
Pastor Troy Brand from Orchard Park SDA Church will be with us this Sunday, June 14th to talk specifically about the true history of race in America Post-Reconstruction.
Pastor Marcellus Barnes from GracePointe Church will be with us Sunday, June 21st to talk about loving our neighbor as we take a deeper look at The Gospel and Race.
Our friends from Kingdom Partners, Oliver and Pam Richmond and Jefferson Herring, who joined us for part 1 of a conversation on race last fall will be with us on Sunday, June 21st to talk about what we all see and how we respond.
During each service, you will have an opportunity to interact via Facebook Live to ask questions, make statements and engage with our guests as we seek to come to a better understanding of our brothers’ and sister’s own experiences in this time and place.
As the church, we have an opportunity to rise to the place that the church should have always held, the place of reconciliation and healing that can only come through Jesus.
I hope you will join me and will invite some friends, too.
Pastor Mark