I’m white. I can use AirBnB instead of hotels when I travel. I can drive around wherever I want without fear of getting pulled over for no reason. I can shop in stores without being followed by employees or security. My culture is always the dominant culture surrounding me. I never have to assimilate to […]
Interview with Tyler St. Clair on Planting a Church in Detroit, Fundraising as a Black Man & much more
Noah Filipiak interviews Pastor Tyler St. Clair about his upcoming church plant on the NW side of Detroit, the neighborhood Tyler and his wife both grew up in. Tyler’s target location is one of the “bad parts” of Detroit, with all of the symptoms of urban poverty ever-present. After being guided to plant in other […]
Justice Conference Presenter Racially Profiled, Arrest Threatened at Chicago Hotel
I attended The Justice Conference in Chicago this past weekend–two days packed with biblical teaching on helping the poor, racial justice, human trafficking, and much more. You can get a good snapshot of the conference by perusing #Justice15 on Twitter. With the gravity of the topics discussed, I found my mind brimming with subjects I […]
What Growing Up White Taught Me About Race
I’m 32 years old and I grew up white. I was raised in a suburban town of Dayton, OH where nearly everyone was white. The Dayton area follows the pattern of most metropolitan cities in America: urban core made up predominantly of people of color, particularly African-Americans, where the most recorded crime and the worst […]
What does the New Testament Church say about our segregated churches?
Ephesians 2:13-16 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its […]
What would Old Testament prophets say about our segregated churches?
I have felt a lot like one of the Old Testament kings recently when it comes to Scripture and the injustices in my land. I feel like Josiah when the Torah was accidentally found during a repair job at the temple (2 Kings 22). Generations of doing things a certain way, now confronted with God’s […]