Dear the Church...#georgefloyd

If you do not claim to know or follow Jesus Christ please tread lightly as some of this may not make sense to you.

In light of the recent tragedy of George Floyd and the ongoing chaos in Minneapolis and now across major cities, I would like to invite you as a representative of the church to think about this with me.

Jesus said "You are the light of the world" - Paul said "You are an ambassador of Christ" - Jesus said "You will be my witnesses...to the ends of the earth" - God said "We will make mankind in our image...to be fruitful, multiply and rule over the earth" Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life, nobody comes to the Father except through Me"

In light of these expectations, what do we do with George Floyd, racism, whiteness etc. How is our online social media presence helping? Are we being the light of the world? Can we do anything as a suburban white person?

The race issue has been framed by the media/social media in such a way that we feel hopeless and a general sense of powerlessness and that sucks...but is it true? Even in light of a white suburban church with minimal ethnically diverse relationships.

My observation, is that we The Church lack the courage or skill to facilitate the light. I am observing well meaning people post and communicate their sadness and desire to be in the conversation on line, but what does that do? Raise awareness? Yes. But are you using real light or are you using a counterfeit?

The Church is the hope/light of the world, and the world is on edge. Regardless of your past, if you have yielded to the Lordship of Christ, We have a responsibility to follow Jesus into this brokenness and reflect Him.

So why does it feel so emotionally challenging? Because it is. Here are two reasons why, and a few practicals that I am doing to engage the light. Would you join me in them?

• We, within the Church are more influenced, than influencing.

We the church have developed normal rhythms where we spend more time being influenced by external (entertainment, news, conventional wisdom) than we do by the Bible. Think about your last week. How much time did you spend in the Word of God? How much time did you spend being entertained? How much time did you spend watching the utube's or the facebook machines? That may be why we can feel so unable to do anything.

Paul wrote in 2 timothy chapter 3 that in the last days men will have a form of godliness but deny it's power. Perhaps that applies to us. Go and read it for your self. Its 2 Timothy 3.

It's nice to post things on social media and express our concern. In some cases it's needed. But what if it's us appealing to our network some level of solidarity with hurting people but not actually helping anything? It's a counterfeit comfort. I would suggest that is us trading our identity as a Son or Daughter of God with our identity as a white privileged American. It makes sense that your white privilege needs to feel bad and go to the background, it doesn't make sense for the man or women of God to go to the background.

Allowing ourselves to be influenced by media, over the Word of God I would suggest is sin. And it's us throwing away our responsibility to be the light, and as a result culture's character and morality declines. Racism is the context today, but mental health, porn, degradation of women, human trafficking, political corruption, fatherlessness, abortion, are all still out there...

Are you feeling outrage over George Floyd? You should, murder is heinous, and people should mourn.

The world was in need of light before George Floyd, and will be in need after these protest and riots fade. If we are feeling outraged, and don't know what to do, that is on us Church. The Word of God is actually quite clear. Have you read it? Have you allowed it to be your influence? You can see some practical's at the bottom of this read, but that will only sustain you for a moment if you don't read the Word and experience God yourself.

Let's not be a counterfeit light, by claiming online to stand in solidarity and engage with the pain but not bring the fullness of God with us. The world needs God for this sin issue.

• The second thing that makes this so hard is that we believe this is a political problem.

Culturally, this has been framed in the news going from President Obama and change and an amazing country, to now Donald Trump empowering racists. It's fine if you currently believe that. However, I would ask if you know a single racist person.

I would suggest we have been culturally hoodwinked, and are now looking for a 'racial savior' via a political revolution.

What is the government really going to do? Fix everything? I understand that the American government has historically had laws that have enabled racial segregation and in-equality. And I understand that the government can address those. However, at the end of the day the government is made up of imperfect people at best, corrupt people at worse. And the government's job is not to be the light of the world. That's ours.

Addressing the government's role is an article for a different time. This is to re-iterate that it's the Chruch's job to be the light of the world.

Therefore your job is not political reformation

The disciples', as well as the nation of Israel, were looking for a political savior. Under the thumb of Rome, the Jews were interpreting prophesy about the Messiah as a political reformation freeing the nation of Isreal into independence.

Jesus was not a political reformer - Jesus is the Savior

What happened? I would direct you to Peter's revelation of Jesus Christ in Matthew 16. "You are Christ, the Son of the living God" to whom Jesus replied - you right, and on this revelation I will build a Church and get this...The Gates of Hell Will Not Prevail!

Jesus modeled with His life a Kingdom and reformation, that touched politics, but was of Divine Nature. He modeled heaven on earth and a Kingdom of influence that moved beyond one generation's challenges. His power coming from His connection with God, was and is able to influence eternity. It has an impact on today's challenges, however, the purpose of Christ and His followers was to connect people back to God. He invited His followers to be participators in this Kingdom, and to take up the Family Business of reconciling heaven and earth. Are we?

reconciling heaven and earth

Please do not hear me minimizing this pain. I have limited experience and limited understanding of the depth of the pain caused by American racism.

But Church we have to Be the Light of the World!

I will leave you with a few practicals that I am engaging everyday...

• Get on your face before God
  Not one time, but everyday. The same fear and dread built by your media consumption can be annihilated by the presence and power of God's joy and peace. But it's not magic. It come's from you choosing to boldly go to the throne room every day.
  In addition to your personal joy/peace the power of prayer is lame to a hurting world when we say we pray but we do not actually carry around with us the power of heaven. Prayer is partnering with God in seeing what He is doing and pulling the divine strategies and wisdom to earth. It's not pithy lip service...unless it is...

• Repent
  If you put trash in you get trash out. When you get into God's presence you see yourself rightly. You may have some racial sin, and the world needs a Church that has the courage to repent and change. It's at the core of the Gospel, and yes its for everyone else, but you are powerless if you yourself are not building a consistent lifestyle of repentance.

• Preach the Gospel
  Racism is the context to our nation's current upheaval. People's desire for reformation is legit - and we should pursue real change. But a reformation devoid of the Gospel will be followed by sin. The context might change from racism to something else. We the Church have got to provide the only thing that provides permeant change - its the blood of Jesus Christ. Preaching is hard. Communicating solidarity and compassion is good and right but is useless when not paired with the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ and the call to repent.

To close this down - Church let's turn the light on. Our nation is in chaos, pain is spilling out, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the solution. Political reformation will follow the Gospel. We as individual's just have to make courageous choices.

Would you be careful with how you communicate your concern and desire to help? Social media is so easy to make us feel like we are doing something, but so easily has a form of godliness completely void of the power of Cross. Lets take our pain into God's presence, especially the feeling of helplessness. I believe if we do that we will bring the peace that transcends understanding, the wisdom of heaven, solutions for problems, but especially...

the courage to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ