This White Church Doesn’t Want Black Members
Those who know me, know that I’m a fairly steady person. I rarely get emotional about anything. This story, though, absolutely ticks me off. I can’t believe as we sit here in 2011…in the United States…in the Church that stuff like this still happens.
A friend of a friend contacted me this weekend. Here’s an excerpt of what he shared:
“I spent the last four months as lead pastor of [a church in the Southeast] and was let go last week for baptizing six black teens into an all-white church. Even though the church leadership assured me that racial integration wouldn’t be a problem during the interview process, a handful of the high-dollar folks revolted and had me removed without the church’s knowledge…”
I rarely get angry, but these actions are so outside God’s design for the church that I’m left repulsed.
Just as a reminder, this is God’s design for people who call themselves Christ-followers:
- “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)
- “So Peter opened his mouth and said: ‘Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.’” (Acts 10:34-35)
- “But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” (James 2:9)
- “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)
- “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.” (1 John 2:9)
I could go on and on, but it’s not worth it. I’m sure the folks who made this decision are not reading my writing. I pray there’s eventually personal conviction and that God’s justice prevails. By the way, it’s in instances like this that I’m glad I worship and serve a just God. My God gets angry too.
In the mean time, we have a very qualified man who is without a job. I’ve never done this, and likely won’t do it again in the future, but I want to help him find a position. He has some strong credentials including a Master of Divinity and a Master of Business Administration. He’s been a senior pastor and a church planter. He also has experience working for one of the top business consulting firms. He’s a leader, a teacher and a strategist. Most important, he’s a man of conviction.
If you have an opening that this guy may be qualified to fill, please email me today. I will send you his resume so that you can consider him for your open position.
I totally agree with you Tony. Thanks for taking a stand for God’s man!
I guess they would not have liked Moses’ wife either. :(
I’m with you! Ticks me off too. If I can help him, let me know. I’ll keep my eyes open. Thanks Tony.
Unbelievable and sad……completely agree with you!
Name and shame the church…It is Christ’s Church and not these self righteous wolves in sheep clothing….Disgusting!!!!
I agree with Richard.
Name the church and location.
I could think of a number in middle Alabama that would be suspect.
I can understand why Christians are hesitant to inflame a situation, but this kind of sickness will only be lessened by exposing it to the cleansing light of accountability. And maybe a little bad publicity that is so well deserved.
It is hard to believe we are alive in 2011 and there are still people who treat others this way. I would not call their church God’s church. God’s church is accepting of all – I will pray that God comes into their hearts and mind that they may see what they are doing is not what God teaches us.
Thank you for sharing this.
Tony,
thanks for having the courage to post this “great sadness.” Cases like this are pretty ease to spot and denounce as sin. I join you in praying that repentance would take place in this church.
I pray that the other “great sadness” we tackle in the church is that 93% of churches in America are mono-ethnic (80% of one ethnic group making up the majority), despite the great majority of churches being situated in multi-ethnic contexts.
Consumerism and the Homogeneous Unit Principle (HUP) divides the American church. We sing and preach “Jesus loves the world” yet we do not reflect the multi-ethnic neighborhood around us in our local churches.
Soon, if not already, our words will ring hollow to a younger generation that attend multi-ethnic schools, shop at multi-ethnic malls. play on multi-ethnic sports teams, and that are in multi-ethnic relationships. They long to experience a church that reflects the world they live in.
Perhaps, the next generation of pastors and prayerful this generation, will read the Bible afresh and see that being a multi-ethnic local church is intrinsic to the Gospel and being a missional people.
Keep up the great work in Christ.
Derwin
This is the very reason God chose you to write the book you wrote, Scott. It’s a truly sad story, but our God has a plan…
Bless You,
Barb
Tony, this is horrific and yet your actions and support for this brother is a glory to the King. I don’t have anything specific, but would love to talk to your friend. I am always interested in helping church planters. Tell him to give me a call. He can contact me through RadicalCHURCHplanting.com email is Marty@RadicalCHURCHplanting.com
Sanctuary Covenant Church in MN (Efrem Smith’s church plant) still has an open Senior Pastor position available. Also, River of Life Church in Cincinatti has an open position. Both are multiethnic congregations looking for like-minded leadership.
I’ll be praying for this brother.
Love the way you are fighting for justice in the face of adversity.
I find this story very disturbing, yet not surprising that this has happened. Having served the Lord in the Southeast I understand what your friends friend has experienced. I saw it happen and do believe God is grieved.
As for his finding a “job,” I believe the calling is right before him. Without sounding crass, his worldly credentials mean nothing. It’s his love for God and others that give him the credentials for serving a community that has been pushed out and excluded from tasting the Bread of Life and drinking the Wine that comes from the fruit of The Vine.
Jesus walked and lived among the marginalized. He called 12 outcasts to follow him. This friend of a friend can do the same. May he go and make disciples in the midst of the turmoil.
Thanks for bringing awareness… Unfortunately this is a very sad reality for many places.
I’m sorry Tony, I didn’t catch it, what was the name of the church? :)
The leaders in any church who would allow such flagrant disregard for the Word of God obviously aren’t standing on the level ground at the foot of the Cross. Shame on them.
I’m with Scott. If you want it to change, you need to call them out. The southeast has quite a few churches…
Sorry. That’s not how I roll. I don’t want to harm the solid folks that may still be connected to that ministry. My God is big enough to take care of this situation. I still believe prayer works.
We always seem to disagree, sorry about that.
If I were this pastor, I’d speak with a civil right or employment attorney to see if legal action is called for. If the church employs more than 15 people in any way, including the band, than they likely violated federal employment laws. (Civil Rights Act, anyone?) Depending on the state, they may have also violated some state employment laws. As much as churches would like to believe they are exempt from all laws the courts don’t agree. (And this would hardly be a frivolous lawsuit, which Paul warns against.)
Not withstanding the legal issues, this is immoral and deviant behavior that doesn’t deserve to be protected. Put this dude on CNN.
This describes the essence of what sins of commission are: they knew this was wrong and they did it anyway. When in seminary, I read a great book that helped me understand how to begin where I am to dismantle racism. No Partiality : The Idolatry of Race and the New Humanity by Douglas Sharp.
I have no words to express how upsetting this is to read. I can’t believe this is happening in the 21st century. Thank you for sharing and for calling them out and for defending this man who chose to do the right thing. Praying he finds a position where his gift and heart to reach others can be fully realized.
I love this Tony! U show justice on both sides. Calling out for help for now unemployed Pastor and at the same time protecting those who are innocent in the congregation. That is “how u roll”! AWESOME! And I so agree, what a disgrace to Christ followers to have a “brother” reject another on the basis of race. Very sad. I guess it goes to show that there’s nothing new under the sun. They did it in bible days, and it’s still being done today. :(
Ridiculous. Unbelievable.
If this church is part of a denomination maybe it would be good to contact the local and national associations to see about speaking to the current leadership about this problem…about this sin.
Not connected to a denomination.
Why is this so surprising to everyone?? Racism is alive today and always will be. The problem is that people just let things happen. It’s time we took a stand and get the word out about what happened. By doing nothing you are actually increasing the racism
I can remember the exact moment that I decided the church I grew up in was full of people who “[had] the appearance of godliness” but didn’t truly believe the Gospel—when a friend brought one of his football buddies to church with him, an 11 year old black kid, and after a Sunday service full of glares and whispers, was instructed never to bring him back.
And that was the moment I decided I was done with Church, with Christians, with the whole charade. God, in His grace, brought me back, taught me that wasn’t Church, and those people likely weren’t Christians, and that I’m just as guilty of all manner of evil-doing and wrong thought and sin.
But it still gets under my skin.
A secondary issue to point out is polity. How is it that “a handful of the high-dollar folks” are able to revolt to the extent that he could be “removed without the church’s knowledge…?”
Really sad and disgusting. I don’t want to believe this is still happening but unfortunately its a sad and broken world.
Thank God that He doesn’t show favoritism and is just.
Thanks, Tony.
Preach it! It’s time for this nonsense to end!!!
Is God not also big enough to handle this through prayer if you’d chosen not to tell anyone about it?
Larry – we are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus, a voice for the voiceless – yes prayer is good but we are also called to DO SOMETHING! Slave trade ended 200 years ago because people prayed AND put their faith in action. Faith woithout WORKS is dead!!
Definitely a sad example of what the church is supposed to be about.
It’s time for leaders in the church to put away their fears and traditions in favor of the reality of the church. We go to games, the mall, the beach, and school together but we can’t show the love of God IN church?
I, for one, am wanting to change the course of the church. My neighbors, no matter their race, deserve to experience the life-changing love of Christ in an atmosphere that looks and feels just like heaven
I’d like to invite some of the passion to be directed at prayer for these teens. While we know the pastor was removed, there’s no telling what happened to these teens. Pray for them to find a church community that embraces them and shows them the true love of Christ. Pray they are not hardened by this church and instead see that there are those who love them without regard to skin color.
Emily and I were just talking about that. Thanks for raising that point.
Thankfully, the teens have an awesome youth pastor and others who care about him. I attend this church and when I heard this news I wanted to tackle these old folks. It is rare to find a church where those who are in leadership positions aren’t just the ones who are white and have a lot of money in their pockets. I’m seriously considering writing the pastoral team about disciplining the ones that oversaw this pastor’s firing. These people should not get away with this.
A Martian visiting this planet and seeing what we do would not comprehend how it ties in to what we say, and would dismiss what we say about the grace of God as fantasy.
Hey Guys and Gals, I could really use some input on a challenge I am facing in the realm of this discussion. We are in eastern NC. We have a history as being totally white (birthed in 1918). I have been here as Senior Pastor for 21 years. We have grown from 70 to 1500 in that time. We have been through all the battles, …going from traditional legalistic holiness to contemporary life giving,… from formal to casual, from inward focused to outward focused, …from people leaving other churches and bringing their agenda to discovering who God wanted us to be and standing there,… AND In the last 5 years we have gone from 100% white to 85% white 13% black and 2% other ethnic groups. I deeply desire a multi-racial church.
Here’s the challenge: Our African-American attendees/members are increasingly expressing a desire that our worship music be more diverse. I asked them to freely and fully express to me exactly what they are talking about. They have said that they want more of this kind of music (http://youtu.be/vi1oAnzRDfM). Our church’s music style is this (http://youtu.be/sgaPev02Y5M).
THANK YOU for your input on the best response to this challenge!
There is a worship leader named Zachary Kale that can help you. He is the worship leader at Forest Hill Church in Charlotte and has a passion and great ability to do what you are looking for. Here is the church website. http://www.foresthill.org/
Thank you Bryan!! I will definitely check it out!
Look up Derwin Gray, he’s in your area (Charlotte Area). He’s a Pastor whose church I featured in my book about church diversity. You can find him above in this comment section.
Hey Scott …. THANK YOU!!! Is it Zachary Kale, worship leader at Forest Hill Church in Charlotte? http://www.foresthill.org/
I will definitely get your book!
Sinful!
Tony,
Your post has prompted me to right a post of my own – An African-American Pastor, A White Church, And A Growing Latino Population Have Come Together http://wp.me/pVReH-194.
After hearing your story, I just felt the need to tell the story of Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell, GA and our baptism service this week that included African-Americans, Caucasians, and Latinos.
Your post made me sick.
Brian
Absolutely awful!!
I would guess that 95% OF Christian churches are color blind.
It’s a shame that there are still a few out there that have NOT heard the gospel yet, and are still living with their pride and bigotry as examples of how much God has grabbed a hold of them.
Tony,
Thanks for passing the info along. I also appreciated knowing about Brian Dodd’s example above. I had a recent conversation with Rudy Rasmus, wondering if there are any examples of African-American leadership of mostly anglo or multi-cultural churches. As horrible as your story is, it’s good to know there are examples such as Brian’s, in the southeast no less.
As a follow up, this is from the guy that was let go:
“I just wanted to clarify that the majority of the church was unaware of my situation. It was just the actions of a small group, so the church’ is mostly innocent.”
Keep praying for everyone involved. For those of you who replied with specific opportunities, thanks for initiating the connections.
Yes. It is usually a small powerful group within the church who initiate this kind of action. Most folks in the church are kind and supportive of the pastor (or they wouldn’t be there), but these kind folks are often clueless about the behind-the-scenes power structure that can destroy a ministry. I never learned to stand up to such evil. That was my downfall.
This is heart breaking,and I love the scripture backing up the fact that racism is dead wrong!!
I’m really mad at this. I’m really tired of people giving the bride of Christ a bad name. It’s like they’re calling her names and raping her. I think this is how Jesus felt when the temple leaders kicked out the gentiles so they could make a profit on unfair money exchanging. God doesn’t like people being excluded from his presence.
So….the church sinned……by removing a pastor for righteousness. Be sure your documentation is in order, and then…..I think this church should be called out by name. Their action has been publicly harming to this pastor. It’s sin. They should be reproved and held accountable, lovingly, graciously, but firmly and publicly.
Tears fall as I read this! As a woman, black woman, who lives in the south married to a white man, this grieves me..Me and my husband know this all too well.
I’m not surprised. I was ousted from a church a few months after I officiated at the wedding of a lovely African American couple in “our” sanctuary. The fact that I am a clergywoman also played a role in the decision. Such prejudice is both blatant and subtle. I am now retired and seriously struggling to find a way to use my spiritual gifts, education, and experience to strengthen the church…Following Jesus is not always easy. Sometimes it leads one outside the institutional church.
Deuteronomy 23:3 No Ammonite or Moabite may be admitted to the congregation of Yahweh.
Matthew 15:21-26 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
Tony,
I’m with you on this one too. It’s really hard to believe that there are still churches out there that will behave in this way… I mean that they are even still alive, literally. Oh, and way to go… helping this pastor out. Keep up the good work.
The Bible teaches that it is the love of money that is the root of all evil. The behavior of these few high dollar members truly exemplifies this passage of scripture. There is a silver lining in all of this though–they don’t have enough money to pay God off!
This story reminds me of Matthew 8:28-34 where Jesus casts the demon out of the man & into the pigs. Jesus does a great work, but the people ask Jesus to leave.
Sunday morning around 11:00 AM is the most Segregated time in America. It started out that way and will remain that way.