Standing in God’s Way of Racial Integration, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Our goal is not the elimination of racism, it's the achievement of diversification. People feel like, oh, I'm not a racist, so I'm totally good on this. God's goal is not just the elimination of racism. See, so congratulations, you're not a racist. You're not anywhere near what God wants you to be. He doesn't want you to stop being a racist. He wants you to be integrated in the church with people of various cultures. Welcome to Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovich. Have you ever looked really closely at a beautiful tapestry? They are beautiful works of art that often date back as early as the third century B.C.

They're formed by weaving together different colored threads to create a complex and colorful picture. And today on Summit Life, Pastor J.D. Greer explains that the church should look like a tapestry, making up a body of believers that is not only colorful but complex and culturally integrated. We're continuing our series titled Scent, and today's message is called Standing in God's Way of Racial Integration.

Pastor J.D. is teaching from the book of Acts, chapters 10 and 11. Are you or I standing in God's way of culturally integrating his church?

I'm gonna give you three things. Why cultural integration is important, right? I'm gonna give you a little theology lesson, and then we're gonna go quick as we always do, but especially quick. You have to put your theological big boy pants on.

Then secondly, why it is so difficult. And then thirdly, I would like to offer some meager guidance here for us as a church. Number one, why the cultural integration of the church is important. God's purpose in salvation is to bring the races back together. God's purpose in salvation has always been to bring the races back together. The plan from the beginning was to bring back together all these divided cultures and races who were going to be united not around their pride but around their common knowledge of God's grace and his salvation. And so you see little hints of this throughout the Old Testament. This has always been God's plan.

They make a court for the Gentiles in the temple. God sends people like Jonah to go preach salvation to the Ninevites. We see the end of all this in Revelation 5 when we see representatives from every tribe and tongue and nation under heaven that are around the throne of God proclaiming together in all their various cultures, salvation belongs to our God.

That's the end. In the middle is the church. Letter B, a multicultural church is a powerful evangelistic witness. A group of people sharing one culture and one history who come together to listen to great music and an entertaining speaker, that is not the manifest wisdom of God. That's called tailgating, by the way.

You do it at football games or for John Mayer concerts or Bruno Mars or whatever. But when you've got a group of people who have little in common except for a common love for Jesus and an experience of grace, that speaks of the power and the beauty of the gospel. Letter C, God is glorified through a beautiful tapestry of cultures.

That's why we pursue it. I'll give you one other biblical thing on this. You know, scholars have pointed out that a lot of books in the Old Testament have a counterpart in the New Testament. So for example, you've got wisdom literature, and then in the New Testament, you've got James. You've got the five books of the law, and then you've got the four gospels. One of the books that has no counterpart in the New Testament, one of the only ones is the book of Psalms. Now, the Psalms was the Jewish hymnbook.

Why was there no counterpart? Why didn't the early church write a hymnbook? Here's why, a lot of scholars say, and I would agree with them. Because God was indicating that no one culture, not even the early church's culture, should write the praise music for everybody else's culture. You see, the Psalms are Jewish. They're Jewish in their meter.

They're Yiddish in their rhythm. And now you've got God being glorified through the multiplicity of cultures, writing their own worship music. So God didn't want to write one manual for everybody. So he gives you the living water and tells you to put it in the cup of your culture. Number two, why cultural integration is hard. Let's talk for a few minutes about why it's hard. Let's start with the first one, letter A, pride. Like I said, our race has become a source of pride for us. You see, we're constantly as human beings coming up with things that we believe make us significant, that set us apart from other people. I'm smart, I'm rich, I went to this school.

C.S. Lewis said, he said, a little thing called the ring. He said, all of us come up with a ring of people that fit inside our ring and everybody else outside of their ring is not as good as us. And so again, it might be where he went to school, it might be how pretty you are, it might be I'm a Republican, I'm a Democrat, just something that gives you this. I was joking with one of our pastors this week because on the back of his car, he's got the little 26.2.

Yeah, I ran a marathon. I'm like, what other thing can you just brag about and it's okay. What if all the people that had 140 IQs just put that in the back of their car, 140.

People that make 200,000 a year put 200K. He's like, well, it's a fraternity. I'm like, it's a ring. It means that you're better than all of us because you ran that.

And I'm just kidding with him because I mean, I get why they do that. But the point is we're always coming up with something that we think makes us more significant than other people that are on the outside. Race is one of the worst of those. And then we begin to have feelings of superiority or inferiority or insecurity with one another. What you've got to see is that all racism comes from fear and insecurity.

I need something that will help me feel worthy and significant because I don't want to obtain my worth and significance from God. Those are the things that all this all manifests. Chris Green, pastor Chris Green last week, the reason we have skin issues is really because we have sin issues.

Letter B. Cultural, here's the second reason this is hard because cultural preferences run deep. Let me give you what I call the great white myth. The great white myth was that when we as white people repented of our racism, then all the black people would come rushing back into our churches, thanking their lucky stars they could worship with us again.

That was the great white myth. And what we learned is that a lot of black people preferred black worship and a lot of white people preferred white worship. What God wants is a multicultural church and the measure of a multicultural church is that sometimes you feel uncomfortable. Because whenever people do things outside of your culture, you feel uncomfortable.

A lot of times we say we want multiculturalism, but we really don't. And by the way, that's not just true in the church, it's true everywhere. Because the Bible says that man looks on the outward, but God looks on the heart. We've all got cultural preferences, they become sin when we put too much value on them.

And by the way, if you just happen to be one of those people that feel justified right now for your kind of lazy disengaged posture and worship, that's not a worship style, that's sin. Okay? So don't hear that. Letter three. Or number three, how the summit church must pursue racial integration.

How the summit church must pursue racial integration. I have 12 suggestions. I know. I know. But there are 12 disciples, so one for each of them. All right?

These will move quick, I promise. Think of this like a manifesto. Number one. Number one, our goal is not just the elimination of racism, our goal is the achievement of diversification. Our goal is not the elimination of racism, it's the achievement of diversification. People feel like, oh, I'm not a racist.

So I'm totally good on this. But I'm not a racist. I'm not a racist. I'm not a racist. I'm not a racist.

I'm totally good on this. God's goal is not the elimination of racism. Not just the elimination of racism. It's the achievement of, God's vision to Peter was not, Peter, stop being a racist. The vision was go to Cornelius, eat with him, worship with him, do life with him.

See? So congratulations, you're not a racist. You're not anywhere near what God wants you to be. He didn't want you to stop being a racist. He wants you to be integrated in the church with people of various cultures.

Number two. Each of us must elevate his or her third race. Each of us must elevate his or her third race. Your first and your second race do not disappear. Like I said, God is not colorblind. But the third race becomes weightier to you than any distinctions that come from the other two races.

Give you a good example of this? The Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul said a very curious thing in 1 Corinthians 9, that you might tend to read right over, but you got to think about what he's saying. But listen, Paul, who was a Jew, said, to the Jews, I became a Jew. To the Gentiles, I became a Gentile. To the Jews, you became, how does a Jew become a Jew to the Jews? He is a Jew. Here's what he means.

Listen, his Judas, if that's how you say it, his Judas was so light to him that he took it on and off like a hat. What that means is that my Caucasianness, if that's again what you say, it's part of who I am. But I ought to be able to take it on and off like a hat because it's just not that significant to me.

God created it. I'm grateful for it. Grateful for a lot of things in my culture, my history, my past.

But I take it on and off because my third race becomes more weighty to me than anything in my first or second race. Number three, realize that it's not just about the music. Music matters, but there are a lot of things that matter a whole lot more. And I say that because we will never be unified because we find the perfect blend of music. Because let me tell you what I've learned, lo, these many years, it ain't ever going to be perfect for everybody. All right?

Which leads me to number four, realize that it is about the music. All right? Just being honest. Because this seems to be the biggest sticking point.

It's what always gets brought up. So let me just break this down for you as well as I can. I'm going to stick really closely to my notes because I want to say this exactly right. There are some people here who feel that those of us who were not expressive in worship, we are not connecting our posture of our hearts to our posture of our bodies. And we're not giving to God what he is due and we're not showing God's worth to a watching world.

Always compared to a football game. You yell your head off at a football game, but you show zero excitement for God. And to that concern, I say valid. Right? Then there are some who feel like aggressively, quote, charismatic worship leaders play on emotion, building crowd dynamics, and then unjustifiably labeling that the spirit. Somehow the spirit of God always goes with a musical crescendo or shouting.

Right? And to that concern, I say valid. Loud music, shouting, and charismatic leadership can get a crowd worked up regardless of the subject matter. And unbelievers particularly are very skeptical of emotional moments they see as contrived, especially when you label that God. When you call what you call God, they'll say it's just a specially staged musical manipulation that you could achieve regardless of what you were talking about.

To that concern, I say valid. We need to listen to and be influenced by each other. In general, we need to grow at the Summit Church in our expressiveness in worship, especially if we're going to reach people from other cultures. And we also need to be aware that outsiders, particularly unbelievers, are very sensitive to what we call spirit moments in worship that are little more than group hysteria. Such group hysteria can be fun for us, but it makes unbelievers feel really uncomfortable or feel like we've lost our minds, something that Paul explicitly warns against in 1 Corinthians 14. Thus, we want to be exuberant in worship, and we want to put the glory of God on display. We want to engage with God directly as we worship, but we also have to be sensitive to do things decently and always in order, 1 Corinthians 14.40, because that's a command, which means sometimes reining in our emotions as an act of deference to those that we are trying to reach. And I also want to say, I got to acknowledge this, that sometimes there are genuine theological differences that shape our worship that have nothing to do with cultural preferences. For example, we do not believe in or practice loud tongue speaking as a part of our worship services if it's not accompanied by an interpreter.

That's not culture, it's 1 Corinthians 14, and that applies to all races and all cultures. So what we've got is we've got our Bible open, and we've got a posture of humility toward one another, and we say, let's learn from each other, and let's reach our community together. Number five, we need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

You just need to make that more, write that down. It's like, this is going to be one of the new credos of the Summit Church. Number six, we got to prioritize diverse leadership, like they did in Luke 13 or Acts 13.

That's just how it goes. We want those on our stage and in leadership to send a welcome signal to all races. Now, one of the things that people always bring up when you start talking about this, I've heard it a lot, is they say, well, that's tokenism. You just put in, listen, I've read a lot about this, I'm not saying I'm an expert, but tokenism is two things. Tokenism is, A, when you have no intention of actually giving away authority to people of other races, but you simply want a pretty face in front of it to make you look like you are.

That's tokenism. B, when you put an unqualified person in a position of leadership simply because of their skin color. That's different than what we are doing in intentionally pursuing racial diversity, because we are asking God to give us qualified leaders from every race, whether it's Latino, black, white, Asian, Arab, we want to reflect the beauty and the diversity of the church in every possible way. Number seven, pre-Revelation five, racial diversification has its limits. Pre-Revelation five, racial diversification has its limits.

I say this because I want to help you and me manage our expectations. If for no other reason, language puts barriers between us. And that means that certain outreaches are best done sometimes on homogenous grounds. Athletes, a lot of times reach athletes are the best. Professors reach professors.

Latinos reach Latinos. That's not wrong. You say, no, no, no, everything has got to be multicultural all the time. That's like expecting people to act mature in Christ before they've even been saved.

We just can't do that. Even corporate worship has its limitations. We have to adapt to our context and the amounts of the kinds of people that God has given us to reach. The church is a sign.

That's all that it is. It's not the actual fulfillment in Revelation five. We'll never get there like we're going to get into Revelation five. We're a sign, which means as much as we can, we pursue cultural diversity while balancing it with all the other assignments that God has given to us.

Number eight, multi-cult, this leads to seven leads to eight. Multiculturalism is not our primary goal. Gospel proclamation is. Multiculturalism can never become the primary goal of the church because the great commission is to make disciples, not diversify the earth. There are times, see, I say this because there are times when we're not going to do things as fast as some of you would like us to do them. And the reason we're not going to do them as fast as you would like for us to do them is because we're trying to lead people to Jesus, which means including majority community people around us. And if I could just say this humbly, for many people, multiracial diversification has taken on too much weight because it becomes the one telltale sign of whether or not your church is any good.

Multiracial diversification is one of the things that we pursue at our church, but it would be unwise and unfaithful for us to do undue damage to other parts of our mission in order to accomplish that one. Number nine, this is a really important one. Each of us must devote ourselves to humility and patience. We got to devote ourselves to humility and patience. Humility means we got to be quick to hear and slow to speak.

Patience means that we're going to say a lot of dumb things to each other. But we're family, y'all. You say dumb things in your family and you keep moving, right? When it happens to my family, every Thanksgiving, they're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe they just said that. And you just keep going because we're committed to each other and we're not like, well, I'm offended, I'm leaving. It's just we're family. We're going to have to learn to teach each other in humility and patience.

Number 10, nine leads to 10. Let's give the benefit of the doubt whenever we can. Let's give the benefit of the doubt whenever we can. I talked about this a few weeks ago, but we should assume the best about others' intentions until they prove that we're should assume the best about others' intentions until they prove that they have bad ones. And I would suggest to you that we need this principle on this issue, maybe more than any other. One of our campus pastors told me that there was a lady who, her race was non-white, and she was complaining to him that she's really having trouble getting connected here at the Summit Church.

And the reason she speculated was because she was not white. So our campus pastor said, well, are you volunteering? No. Are you in a small group? No. Have you gone to starting point? No.

It does not matter what color you are. If you have not done those three things, you are going to feel disconnected from the Summit Church. And postulating one problem is not helpful because you're not given the benefit of the doubt. See? It's like a friend of mine says, if you're terrified of snakes, and when you walk in the woods, everything looks like a snake.

Now, listen, let me finish this, and then I'm going to say something really important. We've got to give the benefit of the doubt. And you say, well, what if you give them the benefit of the doubt, but they do have bad motives? What if you give them the benefit of the doubt, but deep down it really is?

Listen, the Bible says love covers a multitude of sins. And one of the ways that we change each other is not by crying foul and political incorrectness at every possible point. That's not going to change.

It's not going to change our society. The way God changes is by showing grace. Listen, listen, there is racism in our church.

It is wicked. It is sinful. Some of you have experienced that, and I am deeply, deeply sorry.

But I know that we can go so much farther if we give each other the benefit of the doubt whenever we can, and we overcome one another's evil with good, and when we fall short. Someone was asking, a few of our non-majority pastors, we'll call them, if they'd experienced racism in our church. And some of them gave a few examples, but what struck me was that these pastors had a difficult time coming up with examples. Why?

Because they just aren't looking for it everywhere. Now, I realize that there are people who have experienced actual things, and I'm not minimizing that, but I'm just saying, listen, these guys are happier because they've risen above the sin of racism that is in all of our hearts, and they called us all up to a higher level. Pastor Rodale, one of those says this, if I am secure in who I am in Christ, then I'm not as offended by everyone who might think less of me, and so I won't be as sensitive. Number 11, this is an important one too, acknowledge that your sinful flesh is racist. John Owen said it this way, the seed of every sin is in every human heart. And until you recognize that, you're just blind to your blindness.

You got to acknowledge that the problem starts first here, that that is in your heart, not in somebody else's heart. You hadn't got past it, it's in you. And that means you adopt a posture of humility and repentance.

Martin Luther said, all the Christian's life is repentance, which means I'm continually before God. Listen, it's in me. And I need you to be patient with me. I need you to forgive me. I need you to bear with me because I recognize that my sinful flesh, every sin, the seed of every sin is in every human heart. And I got to acknowledge that, and I've got to ask for your grace and forgiveness. This is not something I'm instructing you. I'm asking us if we can do it with one another.

Number 12. Lastly, some of you should consider this a calling, like a call to missions. We're all called to missions in one sense, but some of us more specifically are called. Some of you need to make this a central part of your ministry focus, to leave your community and enter another right here in Raleigh-Durham. Let me use this moment if I could, to acknowledge that we have some people in our church from other races who have entered a mostly white church.

They are pioneers who should be celebrated. We should be grateful for them because they are a gift to us because they are helping us be a better reflection of the beauty of the gospel to our community. Some of you are called specifically to this. Now, a calling is just a specialization and a responsibility given to all Christians.

So having said that some of you are specifically called, we all must intentionally form relationships with people outside of our comfort zone on all sides. I love how Pastor Chris said it last week, don't go to multicultural events, live a multicultural life. We have a chance to demonstrate real amazing unity in a way that magnifies the power of the gospel. Are you in on that mission?

Let's show the world what love truly looks like. You're listening to Pastor JD Greer on Summit Life. One of the biggest themes in Acts is the idea that every believer is called to be on mission. But I think sometimes when we hear the word mission, we think it's for the pastor or the youth group or someone else.

But that's not the case, right, JD? What you come to understand is, yeah, the word mission applies in a special way to those that go cross-cultural. But in another and maybe even more fundamental sense, all Christians are sent to live on mission.

We always say that the question is no longer if you're called into mission, the question is simply where and how. So what we've done is we've created a companion Bible study to go along with this series. This Bible study will take you deeper into the pages and the stories that are there in the book of Acts and show you how they apply to you. Now we're offering part two that covers chapters nine through 28 and beyond. I want to make sure that you have a chance to get volume two. It's available right now at jdgreer.com and there's a few copies of volume one still left if you can find out there how you can get that one if you missed it.

Just get them both. We want you to be able to study the book of Acts and to have it transform you like it's impacted us. So just go and get either of these at jdgreer.com. Being a missionary in your everyday life might be a pretty foreign thought, but to help you get a better understanding of what it means, the Summit Life team has created a Bible study that complements this series and answers some of the questions you may have about being a missionary right where you live. It's volume two of a personal Bible study called Scent, the book of Acts. It's more than just a book study though.

It's actually designed to help you discover your own personal role in the Great Commission. If you missed volume one earlier this spring, it's not too late to get that as well. We'll send you a copy as our way of saying thanks for your support of this ministry. Ask for Scent, the book of Acts study guide, when you give a suggested donation of $25 or more today by calling 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220.

Or go online and request your copy at jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Bidevich inviting you to come back tomorrow when Pastor JD explains why some people seem to suffer more than others. That's a question that we've all asked at one time or another, so be sure to join us Thursday on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.