A critique of “A Color-Blind Denomination”

Todd Benkert, a white brother, wrote an article on race relations and his friend, Raymond Dix, a black Pastor, wrote a thoughtful article critiquing it. Both articles are worth a read. In the comments on Pastor Dix' article Todd made an astute observation that has a practical application to the matter at hand:

"sin issues are not solved in the abstract."

I agreed and added a few lines to his observation:

Jim Pemberton February 26, 2012 at 10:11 pm
 
“Sin issues are not solved in the abstract.”

Great observation. I’ve often heard abstract truths offered as solutions to practical outworking of sin. I may have given some myself. The abstract is the foundation for practical solutions, but we don’t do anyone any favors unless we also come across with something practical we can use out of it.

“In our focus on Jesus we must strive toward unity in Christ in real and concrete ways.”
Amen. And I would add that it’s a long time coming. Most people toss only the abstract in the ring because they don’t really want to deal with the problem. It’s like they say, “See? I have the solution. Now I’ve done my part and can wash my hands and go back to my comfortable life while you have to figure the practical out on your own.”

For the matter of race relations, if we are serious about it, it requires actually developing relationships cross-culturally. Friends are friendly, but also know, trust, and love each other well enough to deal with each others’ sin.

Preaching About Racial Diversity in Mono-Ethnic Contexts

From a recent Desiring God article:


Preaching About Racial Diversity in Mono-Ethnic Contexts from Desiring God on Vimeo.

It may be enough for some Christians to hold fast to the faith in an ethnically homogenous setting where severe persecution prevents them from getting outside of their context or extreme poverty limits their education. However, there is no excuse for not being involved in cross ethnic or cross cultural ministry when we have been tasked by Christ with fulfilling the Great Commission locally and around the world.

I have often wondered what prevents many Christians of different ethnicities from worshiping together or belonging to the same church. Perhaps the answer could be found when we consider this recent article by Russell D. Moore (HT: Jeff Spry). An excerpt

Thankfully, we don’t hear as much about “worship wars” these days, but I wonder if that’s because of growing maturity or if it’s simply because we’ve so segregated ourselves into services and congregations that reflect generational and ethnic and class-oriented musical commonalities. Maybe we need to reignite the wars, but in a Christian sort of way.

What if the war looked like this in your congregation? What if the young singles complained that the drums are too loud, that they’re distracting the senior adults? What if the elderly people complained that the church wasn’t paying attention to the new movements in songwriting or musical style?

When we seek the well-being of others in worship, it’s not just that we cringe through music we hate. As an act of love, this often causes us to appreciate, empathize, and even start to resonate with worship through musical forms we previously never considered.

This would signal a counting of others as more significant than ourselves (Phil 2:3), which comes from the Spirit of the humiliated, exalted King Jesus (Phil 2:5-11).  It would mean an outdoing of one another, in order to serve and show honor to the other parts of the Body of Christ. And, however it turned out musically, it would rock.

I think this applies to our brothers and sisters in the church the next street over who otherwise happen to believe basically the same things we do but just worship a little differently. We've segregated because we are more concerned about worshipping with a style that we can be comfortable in rather than enjoying the fullness of worshiping God through the discomfort of fellowship with brothers and sisters who we love in the Lord.

A Black President for the SBC

Regarding the possibility that Dr. Fred Luter may be the first black president of the Southern Baptist Convention, some good discussion and comments on this post at SBC Voices:


reformedsteve February 10, 2012 at 6:35 pm
 
It would make a bigger statement if no one mentioned his skin color and simply said, “we voted in the best candidate.” Saddly that won’t happen. We’ll just pat ourselves on the back for being diverse. The goal shouldn’t be”historic” presidencies, but effective presidencies.


Dave Miller February 10, 2012 at 7:26 pm
 
Steve, maybe in the future we will get there. But a convention that sided for the majority of its history with slavery and racism electing a black president is too momentous to be ignored.
Hopefully, the second time it happens and the third and the fourth, it will become less of a big deal.

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bill February 10, 2012 at 8:03 pm


Fred Luter is a quality step in the right direction after so many missteps over the past decade.
Unfortunately, people will forget that and focus on the fact that this will be the first African-American President of the Southern Baptist Convention.


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Andrew Wencl February 11, 2012 at 9:53 am

The election of an African-American SBC president would be a historic moment in the SBC. I would have a lot of high hopes for the future, including increased involvement in SBC life from many of the dually-aligned, predominantly Black churches in our area. Maybe it would also let us see some of our racist white churches leave the convention.

Some of these comments have somewhat made me think. Do we really want anyone to run unopposed? Would you feel better if his challenger was also African American? What does that say about us? Does it betray a fear that a white candidate would likely beat a black one? Does it mean we care less about one’s specific vision for the SBC than we do for a man’s personal characteristics?

Everything I’ve heard about Pastor Luter has been positive. I recognize his election to the SBC Presidency would be historic and could have a lot of benefit, and I currently have no reservations about voting for him. But I’m also willing to consider any godly man with a vision who would put himself forward for that position. Couldn’t a white president promote unity and diversity? What would the election of a Hispanic president do for the sake of unity and solidarity with that growing minority? How about a Korean, Chinese, or other Asian president?

I’m all for this guy, but I don’t think we should hope that no one would challenge him. It might just be there’s another godly man, black, white, or other, out there with vision who could take the SBC in a God-glorifying direction just as well, if not better, than Pastor Luter.