May 2, 2025
One That Finds Unity Irresistible …
The most compelling principle of the Restoration Movement has always been our commitment to live in the tension between truth and unity.
Articles for tag: Racial Reconciliation
The Solomon Foundation: Investing in a Movement and a Future
The Solomon Foundation is absolutely committed to the churches of the Restoration Movement. . . .
June 20, 2023
Let’s Talk About . . . ‘Between Mercy and Me’
"Between Mercy and Me" is a Christian drama that explores issues of race, urban renewal, and relationships between Christians living in the same city, worshipping in nearby churches, but living in entirely different worlds. . . .
August 10, 2021
After Tough Year, MACU’s President Anticipates Brighter Days
Mid-Atlantic Christian University has had to cope with a lot during the past year or so: COVID-19, a partially collapsed classroom building, protests after law enforcement shot and killed a Black man in its hometown. We spoke with MACU president John Maurice about those challenges . . . and the year ahead.
May 1, 2021
We Were Made for This
How your church can build on your pandemic compassion with both spiritual justice and social justice.
May 1, 2021
SPOTLIGHT: Hikes Point Christian Church (Louisville, Kentucky)
An All-Nations Kind of Church Hikes Point Christian Church is a 22-year-old congregation on the southeastern edge of Louisville. The church meets in a building that originally was home to Southeast Christian Church. Located just outside of downtown Louisville, the Hikes Point neighborhood has changed significantly since Southeast Christian built its first home there decades ago. Today, a growing number of residents in the immediate vicinity are Latino or Hispanic. Many of them speak only Spanish. Ten years ago, Hikes Point began offering a free back-to-school clinic that provided basic medical care, haircuts, certain other services, and academic supplies. Every
June 15, 2020
Four Important Questions to Advance Reconciliation
By Larry Griffin, LaTanya Tyson, and David Fincher (The column about racial justice, equality, and reconciliation was written by three Christian college presidents. Larry Griffin serves as president of Mid-South Christian College, Memphis, Tenn.; Dr. LaTanya Tyson serves as president of Carolina Christian College, Winston-Salem, N.C.; and Dr. David Fincher serves as president of Central Christian College of the Bible, Moberly, Mo., while also leading the Association of Christian Church Colleges and Universities.) As presidents of Christian church colleges that serve the Restoration Movement, we lament the examples of injustice and division that have sadly become too commonplace in America.
June 10, 2020
Crossroads Resumes In-Person Services, Formally Launches Online Campus (Plus News Briefs)
Compiled by Jim Nieman and Chris Moon Crossroads Christian Church, Washington Court House, Ohio, formally launched an online campus on Sunday, the church’s first weekend back with in-person services after shutting down their building in mid-March due to the coronavirus. “We did an online poll and found 35 percent of our people said they will not return to in-person church until the fall,” explained Adam Lynch, lead pastor of the church, which has been sharing recorded services online for several weeks. “Knowing that almost half of our growing church is going to be watching online, we decided to livestream and
June 3, 2020
Churches, Colleges Respond to George Floyd’s Death, National Discord
Christian churches and colleges across the country have called for prayer, dialogue, and reconciliation in response to outrage and demonstrations over George Floyd’s death while in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25. Among the many examples: • Dudley Rutherford, pastor of Shepherd Church, Porter Ranch, Calif., had a conversation with several leaders in the black community, most of whom attend Shepherd regularly, about topics that included Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the current state of our country. (View it at the church’s Facebook page.) • A dozen staff members of Crossroads Christian Church, Corona, Calif., spent about
July 22, 2019
Righting the Wrongs of the Past
By Jerry Harris I’m a product of the suburbs. I grew up on the west side of Indianapolis in the early 1960s, part of a post-World War II migration from urban areas to planned neighborhoods that sprang up from what were formerly farm fields surrounding big cities. There were a number of reasons for this great migration. Ex-servicemen had access to loans to pursue the American dream, so they moved out of apartments in the city and purchased their own homes on their own land in burgeoning suburbs. The availability of automobiles and creation of the interstate highway system encouraged
June 12, 2019
Pantano Recognized for Racial Reconciliation Efforts
By Jim Nieman Glen Elliott, lead pastor with Pantano Christian Church, Tucson, Ariz., represented PCC Sunday as they received the church of the year award for racial reconciliation from the Racial Reconciliation Community Outreach Network in that city. “I’m so grateful to be a part of a church that embraces racial equality & unity,” Elliott wrote on Facebook. Pantano has been working toward racial reconciliation for many years. “Back in 2013 a small group of black and white pastors agreed—some reluctantly—to meet to better understand each other and see if we could address this in our community,” Elliott shared with
Daryl Reed: Building Bridges for the Next Generation
By Melissa Wuske “I’m the grandson of a preacher,” says Daryl Reed, “so I always had it in my mind that it’d be cool one day to be a preacher.” When it came time for college, however, “I really didn’t want to go to any preaching school or seminary, because . . . I thought I was still too cool for that,” he laughs. This isn’t a story about youthful overconfidence, though; Reed was following the example of earlier generations of his family, and now he’s helping subsequent generations of young people live it. “My grandfather was a reluctant preacher,”
January 3, 2019
Building an Integrated Church
A Minister Speaks about His Experience in Building a Multiracial Congregation By Andy Daniell Most Restoration Movement church leaders I’ve talked to, both online and in person, say they desire to build more integrated, multiethnic congregations. They see advances in diversity in other parts of society and think their congregations are lagging behind. Bible verses such as Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:11, and Revelation 5:9 and 7:9 suggest the church should lead in such efforts. And so it is dismaying that surveys consistently show only about 5 percent of Protestant and nondenominational congregations have a “minority” group—be it black, white,
January 3, 2019
Cloud Church: Space for Diversity, Relationship, and the Kingdom
By Mel McGowan Imagine you’re rearranging your office. You move your desk to one corner, your bookshelf to another. You move the lamps around to get the light just right. You adjust the couch so you can see your guests better. At the end of the day, you look around with satisfaction that all your office furniture, equipment, and supplies are in the right places. Why is this so important to us? Because the furnishings of our offices are tools that facilitate things like ideas, hard work, and skills. It should come as no surprise, then, that your sacred space
January 3, 2019
The Value of Another Person’s Story in Resolving Racial Conflict in the Church
“Jesus treated everyone as important, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, or class. Are we not to do the same?” By Matthew McBirth As I see it, the relationship between two Jewish characters and their families in Chaim Potok’s novel The Chosen illustrates one of the primary causes of racial conflict in our communities. The plot (in short): Reuven and Danny grow up in different sects and communities, and Reuven strongly objects to how Danny’s father raises his son in virtual silence to prepare him to be his community’s next leader. When Danny and his father do speak, it’s
January 3, 2019
Racial Reconciliation: Strides in the Right Direction
By Michael C. Mack Most of us can agree on a few facts about racial prejudice, division, and conflict. It’s real. It has existed in our culture and in our churches in the past. It persists today. And it will likely continue to be an issue for some time. Thank God, it will not exist in Heaven. I think we’d all agree it’s wrong. It’s unbiblical. It’s definitely not Christlike. Most of us know the Bible verses: Matthew 28:19; Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11; 1 John 4:8-11; Revelation 7:9; and others. Many of us know something I didn’t. Most Restoration Movement
January 3, 2019
Christian Standard Interview with Fred Gray: Preacher, Lawyer, and Civil Rights Warrior
By Jerry Harris HE’S A QUIET southern gentlemen, but he wields the law like a warrior. He is fueled with a deep conviction to his calling in life. Though he is nearly 88, his recall of facts and names is instantaneous. He is friendly . . . able to distinguish lines that separate the arena of ideas from the God-given value of every human being with whom he comes in contact. He’s among the last remaining champions of the earliest days of the civil rights movement; he is the one who brought the heavy weight of the law to bear
January 3, 2019
Heroes
By Jerry Harris What are heroes? Heroes are people who stand up against insurmountable odds with little or no hope of success. They are people who refuse to give up, even when it’s contrary to the warnings of friends, loved ones, and common sense. They are people who don’t think about how they’ll be remembered, but take action in the moment because they feel the rightness of a cause . . . and the necessity of it. They risk it all for that one chance, that impossible opportunity to make the difference. They are selfless in that moment of
August 11, 2018
The State of Racial Reconciliation in the Church
An interview with Sonny Smith, lead pastor of Detroit Church By David Dummitt In a February 1957 message for the National Council of Churches’ observance of Race Relations Sunday, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, Racial segregation is a blatant denial of the unity which we all have in Christ. Segregation is a tragic evil that is utterly un-Christian. . . . Every Christian is confronted with the basic responsibility of working courageously for a non-segregated society. The task of conquering segregation is an inescapable must confronting the Christian Churches. King’s bold words speak to churches today as clearly
June 28, 2018
Red and Yellow, Black and White
Relentless Church Answers the Call to Create a Multiethnic Congregation in North Carolina By Justin Horey David Jones is white. He grew up in the South, went to Bible college in the South, and married his high school sweetheart. Rafael Gonzalez is of Puerto Rican heritage. He grew up in the Northeast, excelled in high school football and basketball, and came to faith in Christ at age 28. Joy Bey is African-American. She grew up in South Central Los Angeles, was saved in a Pentecostal church, and served in overseas missions before spending five years on staff at a
