When we hear the word “racist,” we think of KKK members, the “N-word”, or the recent comments made by Clippers owner Donald Sterling. A racist is someone who doesn’t like people of other races. Typically in America it has been seen as a white person who doesn’t like black people. When the topic of white […]
Why do we talk about race at our church?
I never heard a sermon that referenced race while growing up in church. What does race have to do with people coming to know Jesus, anyway? Or what does it have to do with the Bible? When I talk about race in sermons at Crossroads, I think these are thoughts that go through the minds […]
Is the Church unified in Jesus or layers of race, ethnicity & culture?
We began a sermon series in 1 Corinthians a couple of weeks ago. Week 1 on the first chapter went off fine. I talked about how the church at Corinth was a squabbling, quarreling church and that Paul was writing this letter to them to teach them to be united Christ and to get along […]
Homogeneous Churches are Mutated (& Crippled) Bodies of Christ
I preached on the Church as the body of Christ last Sunday, using 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 as my text. It’s a familiar text and familiar metaphor to many Christians and it typically leads to one of a few quick interpretations. One being how Christians play different roles in the local church, some being good at […]
(Reverend) Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy
The thing I find most compelling about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the thing that is most overlooked about his mission and his legacy is that he was the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In an age where pastors are pushed to the outskirts of relevancy in popular culture, we celebrate a day named […]
“The Butler” and other recent movies on helping understand racism
Jen and I just got home from watching the star-studded movie The Butler: The thing I’m struck most about the Civil Rights Movement is how recent it was, yet how my generation and the generations younger than mine have such limited consciousness of the things that went on, and how these things have shaped American […]