Reason #2: The Church is Racially Segregated

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Good morning, Chapel family. Good to be with you all today. We’re living at a time in history when more and more people are deciding that they are done with church. Some of those people once considered themselves committed Christians, but they’ve become disillusioned and they’ve backed away. Some of those people were never really “in” in the first place. Maybe their family was, or they went through the motions, but now they don’t even go through the motions.

So in this series, we’re looking at six big reasons why people have given up on church. And for each of those reasons, we’re trying to lean in and listen to the critique that people have. In places where the critique is accurate, we’re trying to humbly own that and learn from it. In places where the critique is not really fair, we’re trying to clarify that. But most of all, we’re asking the question: What would it mean for us to represent Jesus really well in this area?

So today we’re going to look at the second reason that many people are done with church, and let me set it up like this: the United States has a problem with racial tension. Fair enough? There are deep-seated issues of mistrust and hurt and anger between ethnic groups in our country, and sometimes that tension erupts in painful ways. It’s a very real problem in our culture. So what does that have to do with the church? Well, for many people who long for racial healing, they look at the church, and they look at Christians, and they just see more racial division—sometimes worse than outside the church. So they don’t see any reason to believe that the church can be part of the solution. And for that reason, they’re done. So that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Today’s Scripture reading is from Ephesians chapter 2, verses 13 and 14. I invite you to hear the Word of God:

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. This is the Word of the Lord.

So let’s talk about three things today: The Problem of Division, The Power for Unity, and The Path Forward. The problem of division, the power for unity, and the path forward.

So, first: The Problem of Division. Tomorrow, in this country, we observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. And back in 1963, Dr. King said something that’s been quoted countless times. He said, "It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is 11 o'clock on Sunday morning.” Ouch. In other words, even though many parts of our society are more racially diverse, church is not. He said that back in 1963. So 58 years later, do those words still apply? Well, if you look around, in many ways our country has become pretty racially diverse. A lot of you experience racial diversity at work, or at school; we see lots of different colors and backgrounds in entertainment and sports. So how about in church? Well, let me give you a few quick statistics:

About 90% of black Christians worship at all-black churches. About 90% of white Christians worship at all-white churches. Sociologists consider a church to be “racially diverse” when at least 20% of its members do not belong to the predominant racial group. Does that make sense? So if the predominant racial group at The Chapel is white, for us to be considered racially diverse, there would have to be 20% of us who aren’t white. (And by the way, because of our amazing Wayne

Campus, and other non-white people at Lincoln Park and our online campus, we meet that definition. But not by much. I think we could do much better). So what percentage of American churches do you think meet that definition of being racially diverse? 5 to 7%. In other words, the vast majority of American churches are not places of racial diversity.

So in many ways, the church has remained more racially divided than the rest of society. That’s just the reality. So this is one of those areas where I think we, as Christians, need to own that. We need to admit that we’re not demonstrating racial reconciliation nearly as well as we could. I hate admitting that, but I think it’s true. Now, some people might say, “I don’t see that as a problem. If people are more comfortable worshiping with others from the same ethnicity, why make an issue of that?” Good question! And here’s the reason. Actually, two reasons.

First, it matters, because our country is rapidly becoming more ethnically diverse. Despite the racial tension, the U.S. is quickly becoming a country of minorities. Tim Keller recently said, “The future of Western culture and Western society is multi-cultural.” So if Christians want to influence the world going forward, we can’t remain isolated. We need to find ways to reach across ethnic barriers.

But most importantly, this matters because God cares. God cares. That longing for racial unity that many of us feel—that’s a God-given thing! And even though churches have struggled to get this right, the Bible presents an amazing vision of racial unity. In the book of Revelation we get a little peak of the demographics of heaven—look at this: After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language… Is that not awesome? The demographics of heaven are breathtakingly diverse! So if that’s the way it is in heaven, doesn’t it make sense that our churches reflect the same thing?

And that brings us to the second point: The Power for Unity. I am absolutely convinced that the most powerful force in the world for racial reconciliation is the gospel of Christ. And I say that for a few reasons.

First, the example of Jesus. When you look at the life of Jesus, here’s what you see: first of all, he crossed the barrier from heaven to earth to get to us. And when he was here, he consistently crossed ethnic and cultural boundaries to reach people with the love of God. He reached way beyond his Jewish community to include Samaritans and Roman soldiers and other foreigners. He made his Jewish contemporaries very uncomfortable with how ethnically diverse he was. So if we’re going to be like Jesus, we’ll follow that example.

But also, we need to understand the cross of Jesus. Look at Ephesians 2, verse 13: 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Paul is talking to Gentiles—non-Jewish people. And he says, “You used to be far away—you didn’t have a relationship with God. But now you’ve been brought near.” How? By the blood of Christ. On the cross, Jesus willingly let himself be separated from his Father—he experienced the full force of judgment that our sins deserve—so that we never have to experience that. He got pushed away, so we could come near. So Paul says to these Gentile people, “You’re in! Because of what Jesus did for you on the cross, you’re forgiven and accepted and loved by God!”

And then, in the next verse: For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. What “two groups” is he talking about? Jews and Gentiles. See, at that time, it was common for Jewish people, and even Christians who were ethnically Jewish, to look down on Gentiles. To stay separate from them. And Paul says that Jesus has now made these two groups into one. He’s removed the racial prejudice. Because the way

that Jewish people and non-Jewish people connect with God is exactly the same way. It’s not based on ethnicity or race; everyone comes through the cross.

And when we let that sink in, it’s broader than just Jews and Gentiles, right? The gospel removes any basis for prejudice or superiority or exclusion toward anyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re Asian or Hispanic or black or white; everyone is equal at the cross of Christ.

Matt Chandler said: “If we have any shot at legitimate racial reconciliation, it cannot be driven by white guilt. It cannot be driven by the need to feel like we need to rescue or pay back. It must be built upon, pushed forward, by the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Amen.

The first-century church really got this. Look what it says about the leadership team of the first-century church—Acts 13:1…Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. This was one of the most diverse leadership teams ever assembled! Paul and Barnabas were Jewish, but they’d been raised outside Palestine. Manaen grew up in the household of King Herod. Lucius was from Cyrene, which is in North Africa. And Simon called Niger was most likely a black African. That’s a pretty diverse team, don’t you think?

Pastor David Prince said this: “The Greco-Roman world stood in awe of these people who formerly hated each other because of ethnic distinctions, who now loved each other as family and worshiped and served together in the name of Jesus. They knew the members of the church of Antioch were disciples of Christ because of the way they loved one another.” What a beautiful picture, isn’t it?

I experienced this when my family lived in Latvia back in the mid-1990s. There was lots of bad blood between ethnic Latvians and Russians, because of what the Soviet Union had done to Latvian culture. But in the church where I served, every week we saw Latvians and Russians worshiping and serving alongside each other in the name of Christ. When The Chapel was sending teams to Rwanda, I saw something even more amazing: it was only a few years after the genocide, where a million Tutsis were massacred by their Hutu neighbors. But in the churches, I saw Hutus and Tutsis worshiping and sharing life, because of their common bond in Christ. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

Some of you are thinking, “Well, why doesn’t that always happen? If the gospel is so powerful, why are so many churches still so segregated?” And the answer is, because we’re stubborn. And we’re fearful. And frankly, it’s more comfortable to be with people who look and think just like we do. But when we take the gospel seriously, there’s something that becomes more important than our comfort zone.

And that leads to our third point, The Path Forward. What does all this mean for The Chapel? That’s a question that’s been on my mind a lot recently. I’ve been praying about it; I’ve been speaking with other leaders about it. And here’s one of the things I’ve realized: The Chapel can’t do everything. That’s kind of obvious, right? But it’s important to remember that different churches are positioned and equipped by God to help in different ways. So that takes some pressure off: God doesn’t expect us to suddenly become the United Nations, and single-handedly solve the problem of racial disunity in North Jersey. But here’s the question: what does God expect of us? How has he positioned us?

And here’s what I believe; and this is so exciting to me: I believe God has uniquely positioned and equipped The Chapel to demonstrate the reconciling power of the gospel to our community by living in deep friendship and unity with our Latino brothers and sisters in Christ. Let me say that again: I believe God has uniquely positioned and equipped The Chapel to demonstrate the reconciling power of the gospel to our community by living in deep friendship and unity with our Latino brothers and sisters in Christ.

Now: of course that’s not the only kind of racial unity we’re interested in—of course not! We love seeing people of all races and backgrounds come together in the name of Christ. But again, we can’t specialize in everything. And there are a few reasons I feel this is where God is leading us to focus.

First, the changing demographics of our country and our region. Look at this chart—this is from the United States Census Bureau. In 2020, Hispanics made up 19% of the U.S. Population. That’s a pretty big portion. But just wait. In 40 years, Hispanics are projected to make up 28% of the population. And as we all know, the Hispanic community here in North Jersey is particularly strong. So it makes practical sense to join hands with this growing part of our community. Last week I was speaking to Raul Burgos, who’s a pastor in Elizabeth, and he said this: “If the American evangelical church doesn’t learn to embrace the Latino church, and do it in a healthy way, the future is not good.” I think he’s right.

But let me get more personal. Here at The Chapel, we have a long history of relationships and trust with our Latino brothers and sisters. About 18 years ago, we started the Wayne Campus with a group of Spanish-speaking people from The Chapel, and countless people have been reached through that ministry. We praise God for Pastor Victor and the other leaders from Wayne Campus. But here’s the burden on my heart: most of the time, it feels like we’re two separate churches. Right? There’s not much collaboration between campuses; there aren’t many relationships between campuses. I’m so happy we have the Wayne Campus, but it isn’t doing much to address the race problem in our country. And I really believe we’re missing out on something. We—the Chapel’s leaders—believe it’s time to lean in and work together.

Now I’ll be completely honest: we’re not exactly sure what that means! But it always starts with listening. So last week, I sat down with some people from our Wayne Campus, to help us begin the conversation. I think you’ll appreciate what they had to say. Listen…

RUN VIDEO OF RACIAL UNITY PANEL (8 minutes)

I’ll say it one more time: we don’t know exactly what this will look like going forward. It’ll probably involve more racially mixed mission teams—this is part of the team from our last Colombia trip. It’ll probably involve more serving locally together, and worshiping together. We don’t know exactly, but we feel like God has given us a tremendous opportunity, and we don’t want to miss it. So we’re going to take this next year to pray and listen and trust that God will show us our next steps. If you want to be involved in this with us, let me suggest three things you can do.

First, pray. Join us in praying that God will show us concrete ways to demonstrate unity. Your prayers are really, really important.

Second, listen. Just like I did with that panel, do some listening. Find a person of a different ethnicity from you, and just ask them: what’s it like to be you? Have you experienced prejudice? What do you love about your culture? Listening shows respect, and it shows love.

And then finally, study. There is a new small group study starting at The Chapel this spring. It’s based on a book called Be The Bridge by Latasha Morrison. We actually started the first group in the fall, and it’s still going. So we’re starting another one this spring; it’s led by two mixed-race couples from The Chapel, and it’s all about living out the gospel’s call to racial reconciliation—really powerful stuff. So if you’re possibly interested in being part of that, go to our web site, click on “Connect,” and join the group called “Be the Bridge.”

Let me close with this. Earlier we saw just a little glimpse of heaven, from Revelation. I’d like to close with that full passage. Listen to this…

9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

11 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying:

“Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”

Can you even imagine? Worshiping our great God, standing shoulder to shoulder, in fellowship and love with people of every conceivable race. If that’s what’s waiting for us in heaven, I just think we should get a head start on it now.

Well, Jesus went to the cross to break down walls and bring people together. So the perfect way to end today’s service is to come to the cross and receive communion together. Let’s take a moment to prepare our hearts for communion.