I am praying for Donald Trump, and not simply because he may be the next president of the United States of America. I have struggled with bitterness in my heart toward this man. Every time I see his face or read his comments, I find myself wishing that he would just go away. I keep […]
On November 25, 2014, the newscasts broadcasted that the St. Louis County decided not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson over the death of Micheal Brown. While I was sitting in my bedroom in St. Louis, I recall reading a post from NFL player Benjamin Watson on Facebook that soon was shared more than a […]
What do you think of when you hear the question: For whom did Jesus die? The answer seems rather obvious: for the world. John 1:29 says, after all, that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. As a result, many interpreters assert Jesus died for the entire world […]
“….by any means necessary”: Those words hung in the balmy June air of a New York ballroom some 52 years ago. Spoken by a man born Malcolm Little, known to posterity as Malcolm X. My suspicion is that many Christians aren’t very familiar with the work of Mr. X. He was a firebrand public and […]
“We want our church to look more like heaven” is a well-intended sentiment that I hear many white Christians and church leaders make regarding their desire to have ethnically diverse churches. Unfortunately, however, in the ears of some ethnic minorities, this statement often serves as code for “we want ethnic minorities to attend our churches […]
Throughout Church history, there have been many conversations about the mission of God (formally known as missio dei). Evangelicals have taken a hard stance on the mission of God, while not applying a robust or holistic approach to God’s mission. Ultimately, conservatives have notoriously been known for having a missional focus of “saving souls”, while […]
When it comes to hip hop, controversial topics are not spared. No matter the topic, from politics, sports, race, or religion, hip hop goes head on with these topics unapologetically. Many hip hop artists aggressively state their opinions on a variety of subjects in their music in hopes that they will strike the listener’s conscious. […]
Two weekends ago, I had the privilege of lecturing and preaching in an inner city church in Minneapolis, MN. My lecture focused on reconciliation and my sermon focused on election and predestination. This dear congregation and its leaders are intentionally pursuing multi-ethnic ministry in the very heart of one of Minneapolis’s most diverse inner city […]
Society is a complex conglomeration of shared traditions, memory, pain, and history. You often find tension in a society when an outside force challenges any one of those things, and the inevitable questions then follow. Is society an ever-changing blob that can configure to the time and people that make it up? Or is it […]
I had the honor of presenting at the 2016 Together for the Gospel conference on the A.R.C. of Racial Reconciliation. It was part of a breakout session I did jointly with Ligon Duncan, Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary. In it, I explained the essential elements of all genuine racial reconciliation. A = Awareness The phrase […]
I’m just going to say it. I believe one of the things that has hurt the economic and vocational future of young urban Christians is the misapplication of contextualized suburban theology. Let me explain. My statement isn’t a castigation of suburban theologians. I’m simply making an observation from my own personal experience and the experiences of […]
“What are you” is a question that those of us with a multi-ethnic, biracial, or transracial heritage have heard at some point and time in our lives. We often hear this question because we appear to some to be ethnically or racially ambiguous. On other occasions, however, the question is asked because others want to […]
As with many things in Christian history, the cultural climate and cultural trends often determine the direction and the vocabulary of the American Christian movement. We’ve recently seen evidence of this with the different versions of the worship wars, as churches have moved from traditional to contemporary worship. We’ve witnessed this with emergent church and […]
On Friday afternoon, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I stumbled upon a post shared by a friend who challenged the prejudiced rhetoric of Dr. James White’s post. Whenever there is a social media post, story, or an incident involving race, as a person of color, I must do a racial cost-benefit analysis. […]
In one of the most famous chapters in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he asserts, “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3). This statement occurs with a series of assertions about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, as a sharp confessional summary of matters of first importance regarding […]
Jesus died to reconcile all things and all people to God and to one another. He states in Luke’s gospel that he came to preach the gospel of peace to the poor and the captive (Luke 4:18-19). Ephesians emphasizes that (1) Jesus died to reconcile Jews and Gentiles (everyone who is not Jewish) to God […]
The execution of 9 African-Americans at a Wednesday bible study in Charleston, S.C. over the summer sent shockwaves throughout the U.S. Once it became clear that white supremacist thinking was the reason for this terrorist attack, many Americans from different races cried out against white supremacy and its residue. This outcry was exacerbated when images […]
Many agree Americans live in a racialized society (a society that attributes certain characteristics to groups of people for the purpose of racial hierarchy and racism), that we live in a country whose national origins cannot be separated from the evil ideology of white superiority and black inferiority, and that the U.S. still (in many […]
In this article, I used African Americans as an example, but this applies to every racial, ethnic, or social group. I love being African American, because of the community. If you walk into an African American barbershop, you immediately feel the effects of how close the culture is. Most of the time, you will simultaneously feel […]
The various challenges that our country faces reinforce the hopelessness that many Americans feel right now. However, Romans 8:18-25 teaches the hope of future glory has conquered the present sufferings in creation. Context of Romans 8:18-25 Romans 8:18-25 is part of a tightly constructed argument that Paul is making in Romans 5-8. Romans chapters 5-8 […]
