A Time to Lament, Learn and Love
In light of recent events, our leadership team wanted to share our thoughts as we shepherd you, our church family, through such a weighty and difficult season. As we engage the current cultural climate (and acknowledge the larger historical narrative of racism in America), we are encouraging you to respond in three specific ways:
Lament - First, we’re encouraging you in the ancient, biblical practice of lament. Lament is an agreement with the heart of God about the radical disparity between the way things are, and the way things are supposed to be. We lament the murder of George Floyd, and all those who have and will experience racial injustice alongside him. We lament and declare that this is not only deeply grievous, but fundamentally antithetical to the heart of our God who made all people in his image. God not only made all people in His image, but made each person to uniquely, beautifully image Him. And that the African-American experience in our nation has been something other than that - as being seen and treated as a something rather than a someone who bears God’s image. That underlying worldview has led very tangibly to the tragic events of the past weeks not restricted to George Floyd and we lament. We want to plead with you not to rush somewhere else other than lament. An image bearer lost his life - that should always grieve the hearts of the people of God as this grieves the heart of our God.
Learning/Listening - Second, we want to encourage you to enter into a deep and extended season of learning and listening right now. Our fear is that for many there will exclusively be a momentary rush towards activism and social-media posting, without really doing the work to understand the tragic history that has preceded the events of the past few weeks, as well as the deep, long, sustained work ahead to really produce change. Below you will find some resources we’ve put together surrounding ethnicity and the gospel, and we pray you dive into them.
Love - Finally, we pray that your life is marked by gospel love in this unique moment. Sometimes love carries associations with being passive or inactive. We don’t think that’s true, as we don’t see that reflected in the life of Jesus. If you’re unmoved in this season we would challenge you to examine what is going on in your heart. Here are God’s words surrounding the first murder in history - “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:10). If you are unmoved in response to an image-bearer’s murder, your heart is different than God’s heart. Love moves us to burden and action. And that’s some of what we want to explore and learn how to do better in the days ahead.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Grace, Justice & Mercy: An Evening with Bryan Stevenson & Tim Keller
Equipping the Next Generation to Embrace Gospel Diversity | Jackie Hill Perry
How (Not) to Talk about Race | Walter Strickland, Miguel Echevarria, Matthew Mullins, and Missie Branch
What about the Minority Experience do White Christians Often Miss? | D.A. Horton
Practical Ways to Pursue Racial Reconciliation | The Village Church
The Color of Compromise Video Study (Also available to stream free with Amazon Prime Video)
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