Racial Reconciliation in Apex: So What? (Part 4)

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

In the last blog we discussed the concept of holy folly (going against the grain of popular culture) and some general responses to the Gospel in regards to racial reconciliation including the need to form multiracial, multiethnic congregations as well as living our loud as believers in a theater of reconciliation.

I'd like to share in this final part a few practical suggestions (not exhaustive by any means!) for how racial reconciliation could look and be lived out in our local church. This is the So What? aspect of the challenge to grow in ethnic diversity and Christ-honoring love:

• Craft a mission statement that reflects the need for racial reconciliation in our community.
• Let our music in worship services reflect a variety of ethnic expressions, sounds, and genres.
• Preach and teach on the issue of racial diversity and harmony on Martin Luther King weekend.
• Support and become actively involved in Christ-exalting urban ministries.
• Hold panel discussions with different ethnicities represented to explore in front of our fellowship the experiences people have at Apex Baptist and how we might be more welcoming.
• Hold celebrations with other ethnic churches to worship together throughout the year.
• Help fund transracial adoptions in our congregation.
• Be strategic about where we live. Be incarnational and live where needs are, not where we are the most comfortable.

Let me conclude, as Piper does, with a quote from Shelby Steele:

What both black and white Americans fear are the sacrifices and risks that true racial harmony demands. This fear is the measure of our racial chasm. And though fear always seeks a thousand justifications, none is ever good enough, and the problems we run from only remain to haunt us. It would be right to suggest courage as an antidote to fear, but the glory of the word might only intimidate us into more fear. I prefer the word effort--relentless effort, moral effort. What I like most about this word are its connotations of everydayness, earnestness, and practical sacrifice.

Racial Reconciliation in Apex: Holy Folly (Part 3)

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

In the previous post, we introduced the concept of the local church as a "theater of reconciliation,"and asked the question, "How do we perform our understanding of Christ's cross?" specifically regarding racial reconciliation in Apex, NC. Because Christ, through his death on the cross, has brought near those who were once far off by His blood. How do we live all this out in our daily lives and local church?

In our final post on this issue next week we'll look at some practical suggestions for reconciliation, but here are a few general categories of response to get us thinking (taken from Vanhoozer's Drama of Doctrine):

1. One concrete way to address this issue is to establish multi-ethnic churches. Vanhoozer writes, "In a world torn by ethnic strife, there is perhaps no more dramatic display of peace won by Jesus Christ than the life of multiracial, multiethnic . . . congregations." The three dimensions of theology also come into play here:
2. Prosaic theology leads to lives of believers "engaging in everyday practices that exhibit and foster social, racial, and ethnic reconciliation, especially in the church."
3. Prophetic theology leads to believers making "financial and cultural sacrifices, not to mention moving out of one's comfort zones," as they live in a theater of reconciliation.
4. Phronetic theology leads to believers dismissing the pragmatism of men's wisdom and living as a community of "holy folly" where the formation of multiethnic communities might seem like nonsense and impractical to outside observers.

How about it? Are you up for being a community of holy folly? For making sacrifices for the sake of Jesus? Are you up for being a minister of reconciliation? In your heart of hearts, are you willing for ABC to be a multiracial, multiethnic local church?

The Privilege of Journeying to the World's End

Nathan Stam
Communications/Children's Pastor

We began Reconcile yesterday afternoon and I wanted to share a quick reflection with you based on a book I'm reading entitled CrossTalk.

I quickly forget in my own life what a privilege it is to be a "minister of reconciliation" and to be part of God's mission. A privilege!

One of my favorite books is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. Read the way King Caspian responds and encourages his weary sailors and friends as they debate the pros and cons of journeying to the World's End.

"Friends," he said, "I think you have not quite understood our purpose. You talk as if we had come to you with our hat in our hand, begging for shipmates. It isn't like that at all. We and our royal brother and sister and their kinsman and Sir Reepicheep, the good knight, and the Lord Drinian have an errand to the world's edge. It is our pleasure to choose from among such of you as are willing, those whom we deem worthy of so high an enterprise. We have not said that any any can come for the asking. That is why we shall now command the Lord Drinian and Master Rhince to consider carefully what men among you are the hardest in battle, the most skilled seamen, the purest in blood, the most loyal to our person, and the cleanest of life and manners; and to give their names to us in a schedule." He paused and went on in a quicker voice: "Aslan's mane!" he exclaimed. "Do you think that the privilege of seeing the last things is to be bought for a song?"

We are co-laborers with Jesus our King, and it is a privilege and honor to come alongside him and plead for the world to be reconciled to God! It shouldn't be a duty only, or something that we check off of our list each week. This is no onerous chore. This is a high and holy calling for children who have been adopted into the family of God through the blood of Jesus Christ and his resurrection from the grave!

This is a glorious task! Let us "press onward and outward, expressing our love for others in sacrificial ways."

(If you'd like to get plugged in to a Reconcile Team please contact Tim Shaw.)

Reconcile Begins This Sunday!

Reconcile, our weekly community outreach, begins this Sunday, January 15! We're so excited to have this opportunity to love on our community for Jesus and so far we have around 60+ folks from ABC participating! 

How about you? Would you like to get involved in something special? Here are some FAQs:

When is Reconcile?

Reconcile meets from 4:00-5:00 each Sunday afternoon. We currently have eight teams and your commitment on a team would be for one Sunday each month. That's right: one hour one Sunday a month!

Where does Reconcile meet?

We meet in the Fellowship Hall at 4:00 and then split up from there.

What will I be doing?

When you check in at the Fellowship Hall you'll sign up for various options: emailing, letter writing, note writing, phone calls, visits, prayer, childcare. Whatever you feel like doing that particular afternoon.

Who will we be contacting?

None of these contacts are cold calls. Everyone we will contact has had a touch from ABC or visited ABC previously. We will also be ministering to those in the community who have recently lost loved ones.

Why is this ministry called Reconcile?

Great question! The name comes from Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 5. "That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us." Paul goes on to say that we are ambassadors and that God appeals to the lost through us "to be reconciled." What a calling and a charge! Our hope is that through the ministry of Reconcile we can be a part of peoples' stories as they come to know the mercy and grace found through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

What happens when there are five Sundays in a month?

During that month we will be involved in some sort of community project. It won't necessarily be on the last weekend or on a Sunday, but we'd love for all the Reconcile teams to be involved and anyone else from our Fellowship to come alongside as well. i.e. April has 5 Sundays so we will be organizing Project Reconcile (formerly known as Operation Inasmuch) on Saturday, April 21.

Do you have other questions or would you like to sign up for a team? Contact us here!