Episode 011: The Church and Race

For this week’s podcast, we’re joined by Pastor Derwin Gray of Transformation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina for a conversation on race, diversity, and leading multiethnic churches.
 

Episode 011 – SHOW NOTES – Derwin Gray – The Church and Race

We believe that the church is God’s primary vehicle to transform the world, and for us, being multiethnic is intrinsic to the Gospel…

Theology is for ecclesiology… God wants a family… and this message isn’t preached… we’ve stripped the Bible of its context and we wonder why we struggle with discipleship…

A homogenous church would have been unthinkable to the Apostle Paul… God’s fulfilling his covenant with Abraham must be a front burner issue or we are going to have an underdeveloped view of the gospel…

When racism is rarely preached in a church, you can believe that a lot of racism is [present] in that church…

I have a pretty good name in Charlotte, and I thought, “If I get treated this way, imagine how people who don’t have my privilege will get treated, constantly…”

I think the church is the answer… our Sermon on the Mount ethic needs to shape how we live and move and breathe…

We as the church must become a classroom to teach the world what love looks like…

Here’s the thing: we haven’t been taught how to do this… we need churches that know how to do this to teach other churches how to do it…

You can’t cultivate a multiethnic church if you don’t lead a multiethnic life…

You can’t be a consumer and play on a team, but you can be a consumer and be in the church… in the church we’re actually designing our services for you to consume, and so no wonder we struggle with it!

QUESTIONS FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM

• Do you believe that the gospel speaks to racial issues? Why or why not?
• Is your church homogeneous? Why?
• What can you and your church do to begin to move towards a greater engagement with racial issues and greater ethnic diversity?

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Derwin Gray – The HD Leader