What in the World is Racial Reconciliation Sunday?

Racial Reconciliation Sunday and the ERLC Bulletin Insert

Well, I saw a tweet from the ERLC. I do follow the ERLC. I want to see what they're up to at all times. And apparently, if I was not aware of this, maybe you were, but apparently this coming Sunday is Racial Reconciliation Sunday.

Now I'm not the biggest guy on special Sundays, you know, Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, Mother's Day, Father's Day, all these special Sundays. I'm just an old school kind of, you know, old fashioned, hey, this is the Lord's Day.

You know what I mean? We've got 52 holidays on the calendar. And in each one of them, we get to sing songs to the Lord, offer prayers to the Lord, praise the Lord, be with our church family, take communion, commune with the creator of the universe, the creator of all things.

That's enough for me. But you know, some people like these special Sundays. I'm not saying that you've got any problems if you do or not. Just not my thing. But this one in particular caught my attention because it's, of course, it's made up.

They're all made up, obviously, but Racial Reconciliation Sunday is a thing, apparently. And they are offering a free, that's a good price, downloadable bulletin insert for use by your church on Racial Reconciliation Sunday.

So I just thought it might be fun to take a look at this live on the air. I have not seen this. Maybe it's good. Maybe it isn't. They offer it in color as well as in grayscale. That was very nice of them to offer it in a few different, you know, maybe your church doesn't really print color, you know, they don't have the budget for it.

Hey, that's nice that they did that. So I'm going to choose the color version because that's the kind of guy I am. And yeah, so here we have a picture of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now, I, like I said, I have not seen this.

I have not read it. But I was prepared to be, I was prepared that I might need to be sedated a little bit for this one. So I do have here a very delicious Imperial Red IPA by Oscar Blue's Brewing Company.

Idolatry, MLK, and the Question of Christian Heroes

Why? I mean, I suppose I suppose it's better than a, you know, a violation of the Second Commandment. But why in a Christian bulletin for a Christian worship service, is there a picture of a non Christian?

In fact, not even just a regular non Christian, because like, you know, it's one thing to put a pagan in there. But this is a person who denied Christ, active heretic, like not someone who, who never professed Christ at all.

I mean, that's bad enough. This person pretended to be a Christian and but denied the Lord of the Bible. So why? Why do they insist on on showcasing this man? The idolatry is just unbelievable. But there's Martin Luther King Jr. and he's on racial reconciliation Sunday.

This is the Lord's Day, my goodness. I just told you I'm a little old fashioned, but I don't have a problem with you if you're not. But this kind of thing is so, imagine if I had Gandhi. Why not just put Gandhi back there?

Or, you know, why not put James Cone? I mean, James Cone was a professed Christian, I mean, why not? Better yet, I mean, there was a lot of professed Christian Nazis, let's put a few Nazis on there too, why not?

I mean, they had good socialist programs, didn't they? I mean, they cared about their neighbor in some ways, I suppose. I mean, I just don't get this. I mean, this would, why? They do it to trigger me.

I think that's what it is. I think they do it to trigger me. But I will not be triggered today. Nope, nope, nope. So racial reconciliation Sunday, here's what it says. It's got a quotation from Ephesians, a Christian standard Bible that is the new hotness.

So let's go ahead and read it. For he is our peace who made both groups one and tore down the dividing walls of hostility. In his flesh he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace.

He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. Very nice passage, very nice passage. Not talking about racial reconciliation, but you know, I like seeing scripture, at least there's scripture here.

Here's what we have here. So this is by Jamal Williams, intentionally cultivating multi-ethnic churches. Hold on a second. I need a sip. In 2016, when I was called as lead pastor of a predominantly white church nestled in an inner city with half black, half white demographic, I saw this as a unique opportunity for a vibrant church in the SBC to model reconciliation and the unity of the spirit.

How did this happen? I want to know. How did this happen? I've been told that the SBC is extremely racist. How is it that a predominantly white church called the black pastor, I've been told that whites will not submit to black leadership.

How did this happen? I don't know, but let's move on. Pursuit of diversity is not an easy path. Not only does it challenge heart level issues of prejudice, but it challenges lifelong preferences regarding music, expressiveness and services, preaching style, and more.

We face significant challenges in this journey, but here are a few things we've tried to do to overcome obstacles. Wow. So we're talking about music style, preaching style, expressiveness and worship.

These are questions that, that, that I would say, I mean, this should be answered, um, you know, very carefully and very, and, and very, uh, thoughtfully and all of this kind of stuff. Preaching style.

I mean, you know, styles are, you know, they can be kind of interchangeable, but who's to say, I mean, if you've got a white congregation, a majority white congregation, well, why, why shouldn't the, the, the, the, the music styling, the preaching styling, the expressiveness and service, whatever that means.

Does that mean dancing? Cause that's a regulative principle problem if it means dancing, but if it means just like, you know, raising your hands or bowing your heads or something like that, well, you know, these are, why do you have to change it?

That's what I'd like to know. I mean, unless you're changing it for a specific reason, but it seems to me that diversity is not really a good reason to change that necessarily anyway, shepherd people towards diversity.

Becoming a multi-ethnic church is a journey when it comes to the issues of race. People are in different places on that journey. Each person in your church has a story that shapes how they view the world in the pursuit of diversity.

It is imperative that you gently shepherd your people to understanding that diversity is actually at the heart of the gospel. Okay, really interesting, interesting. Listen to people. Part of shepherding people is having one-on-one conversations with them.

I've had people send scathing emails and threatened to leave the church, but instead of sending them our theological position paper on racial reconciliation, I've invited them to come into my office so I could listen to them.

I've seen the eternal value in having personal conversations with people about diversity. Yeah, I agree with that. That's actually pretty good advice. Talk to people. Because this is one of the biggest criticisms that I've had of the whole Matt Chandler scandal and stuff like that.

When I say scandal, I mean his MLK 50 conference speech, which was a scandal in and of itself. But yeah, one of my biggest problems there was just the mockery of the people who left his church. And he's like, oh, they're just fools.

Those are just fools. Because they weren't woke enough. And this is actually pretty good advice by Jamal, this number two. Ask for grace and forgiveness. Many of the challenges we've had to overcome are the result of the man in the mirror.

Sometimes we've gone too fast or too slow. We've spoken too strong or too soft. I sin and offend members just as they sin and offend me. We all must depend on the same Savior, and we should be quickest to repent and ask for forgiveness.

Multi-Ethnic Churches as an Apologetic

One of the greatest apologetics in the next 20 years will be multi-ethnic, multi-ethnic churches. Um, is that a typo? Is that a typo or am I understanding what that's supposed to mean? One of the greatest apologetics in the next 20 years will be multi-ethnic, multi-ethnic churches.

As cultural divides continue and likely deepen, I believe people will ask why, when they look at our churches and see blacks and whites, Hispanics and Asians, young and old, women and men, rich and poor, standing, living, laughing, weeping, walking together.

So yeah, I mean, that sounds like a nice vision and all, but that's just not really what the ERLC is really doing in these churches. The ERLC is doing a lot of very bad things. People aren't laughing and weeping and walking together due to the ERLC's efforts.

The ERLC has people at each other's throats, has people throwing accusations of white supremacy and whiteness and racism and prejudice without any evidence. The ERLC has been a force for evil in racial reconciliation.

Now I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that before the ERLC's focus on this, things were headed in the right direction. In fact, even here, you see Jamal Williams, he was called as a black man to a majority white church in a city.

Things were going pretty well in my opinion, I mean, otherwise how could that have happened? Now the ERLC gets involved and they have their MLK50 conference and they're venerating Christian heretics on their bulletin inserts and people are starting to ask questions.

I mean, yes, Martin Luther King Jr. did some brave things, but I mean, he wasn't a believer. Why have a conference about him? And he also did a lot of very bad things, and I'm not talking about the adultery and the rape and all that stuff, that was bad, but I'm talking about socialism and that kind of stuff.

Yeah, I don't know, I mean, the ERLC seems to really be a force for the opposite of racial reconciliation, the opposite of unity. I mean, all you got to do is look at the last few years to see what has happened with the ERLC, that people are more divided than ever, and I think this is by design, I really do think this is by design.

So thanks for the insert ERLC. This is actually not terrible, not as bad as I thought it would be, it's pretty bad, but not that bad. But yeah, you ought to take a pretty good look in the mirror and see what the results of what you're doing actually are.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful, God bless.