Last year a group at our church quietly formed what we called a Diversity Study Group. Our prayer was to have some honest and healing conversations.

We desired clarity on what the Bible taught on issues of race and racism. Our prayer was to communicate to the church our findings. We sought to develop a Biblical understanding of racism with the hope it would serve as a guide for Redeemer Church as we seek to better understand and respond to racial unrest in our culture. Our prayer was to provide a vision for how to care for African-Americans who experience pains, fears, and rage as a result of racism. Ultimately, our hope was to equip Redeemer Church to minister better to those suffering from racist experiences. Our efforts produced a document titled “Redeemer Church’s Position on Race and Racism.”

Over the coming days we will share the three pieces of our position paper through our blog. We had originally planned to share the document in connection with MLK Day on Sunday, January 17th, 2021. However, we did not meet on that day because I contracted COVID-19.

We know this document does not address every aspect of this painful issue. However, our prayer is that it gives us a tool to understand as well as minister to others. This project took a lot of work, gracious empathy, as well as courage to share stories and perspectives. I walked away a better pastor and man from the experience. I would like to publicly thank the Diversity Study Group team members for their faithful work. The team included Sarah Lara, Michelle (Elle) Stone, David Sanders, Charles Laws, Chris Klein, Mason Caswell, and myself.

On the day of Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict for the murder of George Floyd, may Redeemer Church be a people who “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15) and hope in “thy Kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10).