search for faith

Is it or can it be God’s church if we are the ones defining who and what it is to be because we are to afraid to break out of our boxes. White church has done innumerable harms to the Black church and it is time that the White church accepts responsibility. It is also time for the Black church to stop relying on the pain of the past as its measuring stick for the present. It is obvious from our sordid history that USAmerica is built on the oppression of one group over another. Our attempt to create what the White church saw as religious utopia has resulted in a distorted and plastic rendition of what our creator envisioned. God has been patient with us for centuries and it is time that we stop lying to ourselves about how we have created church. Church is to be a place where all that accept the challenge of Christ can come and be fed and in turn feed others. It is also a place where we are to worship God. What God wants the church to be is a place we can all express our love and devotion to God in a way that shows how deeply God’s love has changed our lives.

When we allow our church to be our own reflection we have succumbed to the evil that resides within us all. The scripture teaches that nothing will prevail against Christ’s church, not even the gates of hell. Maybe what we have created is not the church of Christ but our own feeble attempt to make something that we think will please God. Maybe that is why the church has lost its voice in our culture. Maybe the church that we so willingly describe as Black or White is exactly that. We have left God out of our vision and ask God to come and repair something that God can’t claim as his. As we face a changing future, a place where dominance is being eroded and the ones in the dominant position are running scared can’t we begin our creation anew?

If White church and Black church are built upon lies whether imposed or not shouldn’t we seek to build a church that can bear the name of Christ. A church where each person is valued because they are created in the image of love-which is God. Can we achieve this goal in a culture that is unwilling to apologize for the sins of the past? Can we achieve this goal in a culture that is unwilling to seek answers regardless of the costs? At times I think it is impossible. Yet, God has given each person who accepts his challenge to be transformed the tools they need to overcome our desire to seek the path of least resistance. If we are to embody the essence of our savior we must be willing to build anew. Black church and White church must be willing to create a church where the God we all claim to love and follow is allowed to speak. And when that God speaks we must listen and respond no matter the costs.

When Jesus asked his disciples to leave everything behind he meant exactly that. What we have created is a church that can not or will not understand the radical nature of that challenge. We are called to change the world in which we live. Change it with our lives and our words. Part of that embodiment must be the creation of the church of Jesus Christ, not a White church or a Black church. Until we break free of the shackles of our church-created in our image-we are destined to a life that will never understand the abundance of which Christ speaks. Zechariah 2:1-5 says,

That is the church we should be about, not the plastic mimic that is built upon our fear. God must be the glory of the place we call church. Then we will be able to begin again. Then we will begin to build a church that expresses God’s image of church not our own. Then we can build a church where all people will fit not just those whom we are comfortable with. May God grant us the courage and desire to build this church, a church without walls that allows a place for everyone.