Becoming Learners

On Sunday November 15 Pastor Ron Perry of Truth Point Church is coming to help our congregation to think biblically about race, racism, and racial reconciliation.  We decided that the shooting of Corey Jones provided us with the opportunity (and need) to address these topics head on.  Below is the text of an email I sent to out church this morning.

I have found that one of the hardest phrases for people to say is “I don’t know.” Sometimes it is hard to admit our ignorance because we don’t want to look badly in front of another person. Other times, however, it is difficult for us to admit our ignorance because we don’t realize we are ignorant. It is this second type of ignorance I want to address.

Over the past 10 months the elders and deacons of our church have been discussing John Piper’s book Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian. In this book Piper seeks to explain and expose the problem of racism and points us to a biblical view of ethnic harmony that is rooted in the Gospel.

It has been a hard 10 months for us in many respects because we’ve had to learn so much. It has been a hard 10 months because for all of us our ignorance was exposed at various times and in various ways. It has been a wonderful 10 months because together we have been able to admit our ignorance. It has been a wonderful 10 months because we have been able to grow closer together as friends. The end result is that we are much closer to each other in our understanding of race, racism, and racial reconciliation than we have ever been. The reality, however, is that we still have a long way to go.

I believe that one meeting in particular was the turning point for us as we wrestled through these questions. And what happened in that meeting is the impetus for what we are trying to do going forward.

One of our conversations happened not long after the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. In the midst of that conversation we were challenged to put ourselves in the “shoes” of an African-American we know. We were challenged to admit that if we are not African-American we are on some level ignorant of what it means to be an African-American in our country.

This means that the most important posture we can have when it comes to matters of race is the posture of a student. It is a posture that admits what we don’t know. It is a posture that is even willing to admit that we don’t know what we don’t know. It is a posture that is comfortable admitting ignorance, but is unwilling to remain ignorant.

We believe that the Scriptures are an incredible resource that should shape our thinking about these questions. We also need to see that godly African-American men and women are a wonderful resource to help us think about these questions.

This is why we have asked Pastor Ron Perry from Truth Point Church to come preach and teach on November 15. Pastor Ron will help us by pointing us back to Scripture. After the service he will do some more teaching and we will have plenty of time for Q&A.