The first reason why I’m planting a racially diverse church in Cincinnati: it’s biblical.

The second reason is this: The world wants racial reconciliation, but only the gospel can deliver it. Everywhere you look, from corporate advertisements to college promotional materials to fashion magazines, it is clear that people want to see a diversity of faces in the imagery. Martin Luther King, Jr. did our country a great service by helping to expose racial hypocrisy. He was (perhaps naively) convinced that white Christians would rush to his aid but most didn’t.

During the civil rights era, our country has come a long way to give all people of various races equal opportunities for advancement. Everyone is clamoring for it. You can’t watch the evening news without seeing it in the advertisements, or hearing of someone being sentences to probation and “diversity training,” or a story about someone violating political correctness with a “gaffe.” In fact, one of Joe Biden’s most recent gaffes involved referring to Obama as an African American who is “clean” and “articulate.” The world loves racial diversity.

But churches have long remained segregated.

I’m not advocating universal racial integration of churches. But I am saying that those who desire true racial reconciliation can only find it in the gospel. Here’s what I mean. The gospel tells us that we are all in desperate need of redemption for our sins. We have a common disease (sin) and a common enemy (Satan). Regardless of race, everyone on planet earth has this problem. Furthermore, we all have, as Pascal famously stated, a “God shaped vacuum” in our hearts that can only be filled by Jesus Christ. Our deepest longings and our highest aspirations are fulfilled in Him.

As such, Paul stated in 2 Corinthians 5 that Christ has given us the “ministry of reconciliation,” where men urge their fellow men to “be reconciled to God.” Our reconciliation to God entails new allegiances, new familial relationships, new identities based on our spiritual commonalities rather than our physical differences. Being reconciled with God should naturally lead to being reconciled to fellow children of God.

Can anything other than Christ deliver this reconciliation? Of course not. Worldly reconciliation can only be achieved through pluralism. “Diversity” becomes an idol we bow to and standards of right and wrong are made to serve this idol. As a result, it doesn’t matter what you think or how you live, as long as you demonstrate “tolerance,” which is code language for pluralism.

The gospel insists that everyone is sinful, and only Christ is worthy of universal honor. Revelation 5 highlights the 7-fold worthiness of Jesus, who is worthy to receive “power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”

Jesus crushes our common enemy and unites us under his glorious rule. That’s true reconciliation, and only the gospel can deliver it.

The number one reason why I’m planting a racially diverse church in Cincinnati is simply this: It’s Biblical. I’m not doing this because a focus group survey revealed a “market niche” for a racially diverse church. I’m doing this because I simply cannot escape what the Bible has to say about race.

All the way back in the very beginning of things, back when God spoke to Abraham and made a covenant with him, God promised that Abraham would be a blessing to every nation on the earth (Genesis 12). And then God gives us a flash forward glimpse into the future, when Jesus is praised in heaven precisely because he “ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” God’s worth is demonstrated by the diversity of His admirers.

Between these two major events in the beginning of all things and at the end of all things, God gives us the biblical story of redemption. He begins with one man, who becomes a family, which becomes a nation, through whom comes the Messiah, who is the blessing to all nations. Some of those nations were dreaded enemies of God’s people.

Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles fought their own racial conflicts in the early church as well. In Acts 2, “devout men from every nation under heaven” accept the gospel and believe in Jesus. A few chapters later in Acts 6, we find that “a complaint by the Hellenists ?arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in ?the daily distribution [of food].” There it is; racial discrimination. The minority group responded with a peaceful protest and the apostles appointed a racially diverse group of deacons to oversee food distribution. The result? “The word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly (Acts 6:7).”

The ministry God has given to us as Christians is labeled the “ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5).” We are first reconciled to God through Jesus, but then are reconciled to each other through Jesus.

In Jesus, God has broken down the barrier walls of hostility between the races, creating “one new man” in place of the two (Eph 2). The “mystery” of the gospel is not merely that non-Jews are part of God’s kingdom. That message is as old as the Bible itself. The “mystery” that Paul speaks of in Ephesians 3 is that there is no master race; every person derives his worth and forgiveness through Christ directly. Gentiles are just as worthy and have equal access to God through the Spirit. That, however, was a mystery.

Many Jews feared what a Gentile church would look like. Perhaps they wondered to themselves, “what if we don’t like their music? We don’t like their preaching. They are too noisy and out of control. Their theology is weak. They need to be circumcised and obey the Law of Moses. ” Perhaps the Gentiles wondered, “why are they having such a hard time simply obeying Jesus’ command to love their neighbors? We love Jesus as much as they do.”

Peter also draws Paul’s rebuke for cultural and racial prejudice in Galatians 2, where Peter favored “certain men from James” because of their cultural heritage. In Galatians 2:14, the true problem with racial division is revealed: it compromises the gospel. When Paul rebuked Peter, he did not rebuke him for breaking the “no racism” rule; Paul rebuked him for not living “in step with the truth of the gospel.” In essence, racial division in the church tells the world that Christ is good enough to save us, but not good enough to unite us.

We American Christians owe a lot to the apostles for standing their ground against racism. Because of this, we Gentile Americans are a part of the Kingdom of God. We Gentile Americans can look at Acts 2, Acts 6, Acts 15, and see the story of the oppression of a minority Christian group and identify with them as my people. The Judaizers lost control of their version of Christianity, the thing they feared most.

That’s probably a similar fear many face about a racially reconciled church. White people might fear losing their music, their traditions, their comfort. Black people might fear losing their unique and wonderful spiritual heritage through assimilation with the dominant culture.

The Bible says that perhaps both races have made idols out of their cultural religious preferences and allowed them prominence over the gospel of Christ.

Can we worship with Fred Hammond instead of Matt Redman? Can we get used to “Amens” and “Hallelujahs” throughout church? Can we get used to preaching that is louder than we’re used to? Can we worship with acoustic guitars? Can we enjoy a quiet moment of sober reflection in a worship service?

That’s the number one reason why I want to build a racially diverse church. Racial division in the body of Christ diminishes God’s glory in our lives, and I want no part of that.

Racial unity in the body of Christ tells the world that our common allegiance to Jesus is greater than any potential division. It glorifies God.

Now that we have the number one reason out of the way, I have nine other reasons that are more practical in their orientation. These will appear in the next post.

[Acknowledgment: many of these insights are the result of studying Spencer Perkins, Chris Rice (not the singer), and Tim Keller.]

I recently hosted a team of about 20 high school students from Spartanburg, SC, who were here to help me canvass the city, take surveys, and get a better grasp on the spiritual climate in Cincinnati. I made the surveys and specifically asked questions regarding race.

When asked to describe Cincinnati in one word, one lady named Mrs. Owens responded “racist.” She also said racism is the greatest problem facing the community. Margaret is African American and she said the racial problems in this city are 98 out of 100. Another African American man said 89 out of 100.

When white folks were asked the same question, they were clearly more optimistic. Bethany said racial tension is 20 out of 100, Carol gave it a 25, Matthew a 60, and so on.

I have asked that question also to many of the local people that I have met here, and the white folks all tend to think that the problem is “overblown” and the so-called riots were a “joke.” Media hype and sensationalism, they say.

Regarding the riots, Kweisi Mfume said that the riots were caused by, “more than anything else, 20 to 25 years of neglect, of frustration, of profiling, of a second-class feeling in Cincinnati. White citizens and black citizens for all that time have been pleading for somebody to take a look at what was going on there, to respond. That didn’t happen. … All of this just bubbled over, but not because of this one incident, because of a number of incidents like this over the years.”

The answer to the perception disparity can possibly be attributed to a collective refusal to acknowledge the problem. Sylvester Monroe says that we have a “growing national proclivity for avoiding even the discussion of race. But by shunning racial issues and ignoring history — including fairly recent history — we make America’s most intractable problem that much more difficult to solve.”

Here’s the landscape: most people avoid discussions of race. It belongs in the junk drawer of untouchables such as politics and religion; the feelings are just too raw. Christians have outsourced any racial ministry or even discussion to liberals who deny the Bible and see racial equality in the same light as gay rights.

Here’s the bottom line: white people don’t have to feel intimidated in a room full of other whites. White people don’t feel targeted by the police. White people live in the majority culture and issues of race can be sandwiched in between discussions of our favorite films and whether or not NAFTA is a good idea.

For black folks, it is a daily part of their lives. There is no escaping the fact that they live in as minorities in a culture where they tangibly experience racial hostilities.

So let’s cut the crap. White people can say racial issues are overblown because we have the luxury of ignoring it. African Americans live it everyday, and the ones I’ve met in Cincinnati universally agree that there’s a major problem.

Do we not have a responsibility as Christians to address this?

First, ministry is going to be difficult and we will likely face opposition.

Second, God has given me a great wife and family and our home would be a place of sanctuary and rest.

Ironically, Satan has reversed these assumptions and attacked my strongholds. We have yet to close on our house here, meaning that we are living here but not allowed to really settle in and make it our home. Our mortgage company has been uncomfortable with the fact that our income is from support, thereby increasing the paperwork and difficulty in completing this loan. This has caused incredible frustration and stress because we can’t really settle in, which, in turn, has caused a great burden on our family and marriage. It doesn’t sound like a big deal when I type out this paragraph, but it has been some of the most difficult weeks I can recall.

But the area where we expected the most trouble has been going very well. We have been greeted with open arms by many people in the community and everyone we talk to seems geniuinely excited about our vision for starting a church in this city. God has even blessed us by providing some friends who have a similar desire for Cincinnati, like this guy, and we are working together at building this church.

Its been awesome to network with people in the city and discover just how many people want to see a thriving downtown church plant.

So Satan has conceded the progress of the church for now and gone after our home. We are now praying that our closing on our house will be complete in the next 2 weeks so we can finally make this house a home and start using it for ministry.

Next week I have a team of young people from Georgia coming to Cincinnati to help me do pretty much whatever I tell them to do to help me get a church going. They will spend the week doing survey work and “decoding,” which pretty much means learning everything they can to help me become more of a Cincinnati insider.

Priority one is to locate and develop a core group. I’m not a lone ranger. But since God didn’t send me here with a team, I have to trust him to provide the team for me here.

So my first step is to try to meet with as many people as possible over the next couple of months and share with them the vision for this new church and challenge them to be a part of a core group. At the same time, I want to be sharing my faith with neighbors and other people I meet along the way as well, and trying to make friends in the city.

The second step will be to gather the people together that seem interested into some type of a core group. We can dream together about the needs of the city and how to best bring the gospel to bear on those needs. Hopefully, the core group will continue to grow as the core group networks with their friends and so forth. We will meet monthly to discuss what a church is and probably work through a book together on understanding racial issues.

Before we can start hosting people in our home, however, we need to finish getting the house ready. I think I’ll get back to work on that right now.