Everything is Backwards

No, racial reconciliation isn’t dead, but perhaps Christians need to talk about the topic differently.

God has put in my heart a dream of a multi-racial church in the heart of downtown Cincinnati. In that previous sentence, there’s about three things that people have told me are foolish ideas. I have been told that (1) Cincinnati is “rough soil” for church planting, and (2) downtown Cincinnati is especially difficult, but to be (3) multi-racial is just plain out of the question.

I believe that God can and will do it, however. And right now, God has answered my prayers of raising up a core group of Christian leaders who want to see the same thing happen downtown in Cincinnati. But I have been beating my head against a wall trying to figure out how to make our group more ethnically diverse.

Yesterday, I met Alvin Sanders, the Chief Diversity Officer for the Evangelical Free denomination. He recommends talking in terms of simply “reconciliation” rather than the more emotionally charged “racial reconciliation.”

He told me that the racial reconciliation conversation is dead. Christians should be talking about how God is in the business of reconciling all things to Himself, not merely races. I agree with him, as I have argued here.

He wrote about this recently:

So let me define racial reconciliation from my perspective. To begin, the Duke Center for Reconciliation defines reconciliation as God’s initiative, restoring a broken world to God’s intentions by reconciling “to Himself all things” through Christ (Colossians 1:20): the relationship between people and God, between people themselves, and between people and God’s created earth.

It is important to note that racial division is but one of many forms of brokenness found in our world that needs to be reconciled. Therefore, reconciliation in any form is the mission of God in our broken world.

The church is the only institution that has been supernaturally commissioned to practice reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:16-21). In fact, Jesus told us that a blessing follows as we engage in bringing peace to divided situations (Matthew 5:9).

The only way reconciliation-whether racial or any other type-will become a priority within a church is if it is viewed as a mark of the gospel. Oftentimes, churches resist stressing reconciliation, offering up the explanation that they are focused on fulfilling the Great Commission.

My response is that it is impossible to fulfill the Great Commission without fulfilling the first and second greatest commandments-which, together, are a call to reconciliation (Matthew 22:37-40). Reconciling brokenness of all forms to a world dominated by political, cultural, racial, and ethnic conflict is a witness to the superiority of the authentic Christian life.

It is ironic that as I type this, many national news outlets are reporting that minorities as a whole will outnumber whites by 2043 within the United States. History has proven that with these demographic changes will come numerous racial incidents and ethnic tensions.

The church must have a uniquely Christian response to these demographic changes that reflects the love of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, we will be viewed as just another powerless institution.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day. He knows a couple who is about to get married and who has a debt burden from college that exceeds $100,000 between the two of them.

That’s a bad place to start a marriage.

Are these Ivy League graduates or med school students? No. They’re graduating from Cedarville with degrees in education and English. To put it in perspective, my first home in Louisville cost my wife and I less than $100,000 and we mortgaged that amount for 30 years. Our monthly payment was around $850 per month. This makes perfect sense when you’re purchasing an asset that appreciates in value  over time, like a home. But that is a crazy amount to pay for degrees in education and English from a small Bible college.

With this kind of sticker price, is this worth it? Most people go to college because it’s what you do in order to secure a decent job and better lifestyle in the future. College is supposed to do two things. First, it is supposed to educate and train you to contribute to society in a particular field (prepare you for a vocation) and second to indirectly recommend you to potential employers by awarding you a degree.

If employment does not await the graduate with sufficient income to offset the debt burden, then the college education becomes an obscenely expensive venture that will not propel a person’s career.

The Bible says that “the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender” (Prov 22:7). College is supposed to lead to a good career. A good career is supposed to produce freedom and financial independence. This freedom can then, in turn, be used to serve God and the financial affluence given to advance Kingdom causes.

But when colleges are charging $100,000 for degrees that lead to careers that pay in the $30,000 price range, the student has enslaved himself to a life of financial slavery.

Yeah, we changed the name of the church. I don’t like to backtrack and change decisions already made, but this one needed to happen. We originally named the church “Center City Church,” because it indicated our commitment to downtown and I liked the way it sounded. But this name was assigned even before we lived here, and we didn’t have a feel for the city yet.

Besides, with existing entities in Cincinnati such as “Center City Collision” and “City Center Properties” and “Cincinnati Center City Development Corp.,” it just sounded like a religious version of a name already well worn. Besides, I prefer a name that marks us in some spiritual way rather than a geographic way.

Thus, we have renamed the church “Christ the King Church.” Here’s our main reasons why:

1. It just sounds good.

2. It indicates a strong theological conviction that we share. Jesus is king and he wins.

3. Center City Church is a name with a geographical identity; Christ the King is a name with a theological identity.

4. It is fluid. I informally surveyed a number of people for their reaction to the name. Some thought it sounded Catholic or Lutheran, some thought Pentacostal, some thought African American.

I like that, because it means that people who become a part of this community from various backgrounds can have a church with a name that sounds comfortable and familiar to them.

We have also added the tag line, “a baptist community.” In an era when most church plants are eschewing denominational names, we have chosen to embrace it for a few practical reasons.

1. We are not ashamed of what we believe.

2. We do not want to be embarrassed by those who have generously provided funding to get us started.

3. The baptist tradition is a historically recognized faith tradition. We are not inventing anything new or progressive here. In fact, what we believe is very ancient and full of the beauty of tradition. We inherit the tradition of the English Puritan Baptists.

Ed Stetzer (church planting genius) says that a good church name is not going to get someone to visit your church. But a bad name can keep a person away. Thus a church name may not attract people but it certainly shouldn’t keep people away.

His scientific research has shown that Christians typically think that their denominational name is more negatively perceived by those outside the church than it actually is. After polling people inside and outside a particular faith tradition, he found that far fewer were turned off to the denomination’s name than what people on the inside thought.

Tradition (such as the word baptist indicates) implies stability and longevity. My goal and prayer is that this church would be the community that buries me and my family when we die and continues to have an impact on Cincinnati for centuries.

Since my blogging has been scarce the last few months, I thought I would take the opportunity to post some ministry updates for those who check this blog periodically for that purpose.

Recent Activity

The last few months have been a whirlwind. I moved to Cincinnati in July of last year, and have spent the last eight months getting settled into our home, finishing seminary online, enjoying the arrival of my new son Owen, and meeting scores of new people in my effort to start a new church in the downtown area.

I have devoted so much energy to these chores that I took a blogging break. That break is over and the blog is on.

By the Numbers

Here are some numbers: Laura and I have hosted in the neighborhood at least 100 different people (we’ve counted) in our home for meals or other events since we moved here. That’s one way to make new friends: you feed them. That’s an average of more than three families per week in our home for the past 8 months. That’s not bad, considering the fact that we didn’t know anyone in Cincinnati when we moved here. The Bible places a high value on hospitality, so we have been putting that into practice.

We have been gathering a core group of people to join us in starting this church. God has blessed us with a group of people who have joined us that we are really thrilled to be working with. These people love Jesus, believe the Bible, and want to be a part of a Christ-centered community.

We have been hosting and leading a Bible study on the book of Galatians since January. We started out with six people, which was about 12 the next week, and now around 25. We’re running out of room in our basement and so we have the pleasant problem of figuring out what to do next.

We haven’t asked anyone “sign on the dotted line” yet, but we’re praying for a core group of at least 40 people to join us before we start weekly worship services.

The Plan

My goal over the next few months is to continue to grow this Bible study into a core group of committed people who want to live their lives on mission for Jesus together in the city. Many of us already live downtown or close by, but some are considering moving to downtown as well. If we are to launch a weekly worship gathering in September, as I anticipate, we need to have a few systems in place ahead of time.

The first system will be the most important piece of our overall evangelistic strategy.

The life of the church will be in the city groups (aka missional communities). These city groups will be much, much more than a small group but a little less than a house church. The city group leaders will be responsible for not only leading a weekly gathering, but also to shepherd and pastor their group. This means that they will need to be outreach oriented — they will be assigned the task of demonstrating the love of Christ to their neighborhoods. This can be as simple as keeping the neighborhood clean and crime free, or hosting people in their home, or something else. They are a mini-church within the larger church. And they are also a mini-neighborhood within their larger neighborhood.

For the larger church, we need to have the basic logistics covered, such as a meeting space with a pleasing aesthetic, accessible, with ample parking, in the right neighborhood, and at the right price. We could rent a space in a school or something for three or four hours a week, or possibly lease a commercial space. Every place we have looked at so far has some limitations, so we’re continuing to pray for the right place.

Additionally, we need to be organized with our management of finances, membership, music, childcare, and so forth. Once you start a Sunday worship service, they never stop. This means that many hours of the week will be devoted to this gathering, so I want to make sure we’re ready for it.

The Team

The leadership team that is currently in place and committed are my friends John and Liz McEwan, and Ryan and Teriea Kupiec. We are a diverse team, to say the least, but all of us are sold out for the gospel. Once we solidify some of the core group members, our leadership team will undoubtedly grow.

The Name

We changed the name of the church to “Christ the King Church.” The explanation is forthcoming in a separate post.

My Family

Without question, the focus of spiritual attack on our church has been our family. This was a tough adjustment when we moved our family here, without friends or a church family to call home. It took us six months just to find a babysitter so Laura and I could get out of the house together. We are trusting God for the safety of our children and recognize that He loves them more than we do.

Conclusion

I am learning a lot about myself, the church, Cincinnati, and how best to love and serve this community. I realize also that I am not starting a church here. I have spoken to many people who have told me that they have been praying for this type of church for years.

I thought I was coming here to plant a church. But God has been planting this church for a long time.

I am merely the one who has the joy of leading it.

Definition of a Christian Hipster:

Christian hipsters like music, movies, and books that are well-respected by their respective artistic communities–Christian or not. They love books like Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ron Sider, God’s Politics by Jim Wallis, and The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. They tend to be fans of any number of the following authors: Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, Wendell Berry, Thomas Merton, John Howard Yoder, Walter Brueggemann, N.T. Wright, Brennan Manning, Eugene Peterson, Anne Lamott, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Henri Nouwen, Soren Kierkegaard, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Annie Dillard, Marilynne Robison, Chuck Klosterman, David Sedaris, or anything ancient and/or philosophically important.

Christian hipsters love thinking and acting Catholic, even if they are thoroughly Protestant. They love the Pope, liturgy, incense, lectio divina, Lent, and timeless phrases like “Thanks be to God” or “Peace of Christ be with you.” They enjoy Eastern Orthodox churches and mysterious iconography, and they love the elaborate cathedrals of Europe (even if they are too museum-like for hipster tastes). Christian hipsters also love taking communion with real Port, and they don’t mind common cups. They love poetry readings, worshipping with candles, and smoking pipes while talking about God. Some of them like smoking a lot of different things.

Christian hipsters love breaking the taboos that used to be taboo for Christians. …

HT: Josh Reitano

You can purchase the new U2 Album, No Line on the Horizon, for $3.99 at Amazon.com.

Let’s hope the old adage, “you get what you pay for” isn’t true in this case.

HT: Josh Reitano

I have written four previous posts over the last few months on the top 10 reasons to plant a racially diverse church in downtown Cincinnati. Here’s a recap of the first four, and the remaining six reasons as well.

1. Racial reconciliation is biblical. Every society has its own racial tensions to deal with. The early church had the Jew/Gentile tension. We have the black/white tension. We apply the same biblical principles to both.
2. The world wants racial reconciliation, but only the gospel can achieve it.
3. Change needs to begin with Christians, like me, dealing with their own racial pride in order to love their Christian brothers of other races.
4. Racial reconciliation cultivates a missionary mindset.

The remaining six reasons are more practical than theoretical, so they require less comment.

1. Cincinnati is about evenly divided between white people and black people. Any person who is called by God to be a missionary to a city, as I am, cannot single out certain people as more favorable to hear the message of Jesus. Part of my calling is to tell everyone about Jesus, not just the white people.
2. A reconciled church is a powerful witness to the community. Reconciliation should begin in the church. When that happens, it stands out as a monument to the greatness of the God we serve.
3. This is a great time in our country’s history to deal with this issue. I was working toward this goal long before Obama was elected president, but his election does affect the way people think of race. The most powerful man in the world comes from a race that has been oppressed historically. This alone can open new avenues of dialogue that were more difficult before. We should be able to discuss racial issues a little more freely now.
4. A church that is mono-racial has isolated itself from the insights and spiritual vitality of other Christian communities. White Christians can learn a great deal from black Christians, just as black Christians can learn from white Christians. I want to learn biblical insights from people who read the Bible through the lens of a minority class. What verses and concepts stand out to them? I’ll bet you they are quite different from the ones that stand out to me.
5. Church plants are the Research and Development arm of the body of Christ. We try new ideas and take bigger risks because we have nothing to lose. If I’m not willing to try this as a church planter, what larger church will take the risk?
6. I want to pave the way for future churches to do the same. Hopefully, our mistakes and our successes can be a learning tool for other churches who want to embrace racial reconciliation.