CHRIST ABOVE CULTURE SEMINAR - SESSION 1
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HOUSEKEEPING MATTERS
HOUSEKEEPING MATTERS
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THE GOSPEL AND RACIAL HARMONY: Session 1
THE GOSPEL AND RACIAL HARMONY: Session 1
I. FOUNDATIONAL THOUGHTS
I. FOUNDATIONAL THOUGHTS
A. MY STORY, THE BOOK AND CHRIST ABOVE CULTURE MINISTRY (CACM)
A. MY STORY, THE BOOK AND CHRIST ABOVE CULTURE MINISTRY (CACM)
1. Tell my story as a paradigm: show how my life is God’s purposeful experiences for this ministry: Make myself the poster child of this content
2. How CACM was born
a. Going around the country speaking on this/training
b. This should be a book: wrote and finished it in 2005
c. Published it 2016
3. Purpose of CACM
"Equip and come alongside individuals, churches and organizations to realize and maintain a gospel centered vision for racial and relational unity."
"Equip and come alongside individuals, churches and organizations to realize and maintain a gospel centered vision for racial and relational unity."
b. Seminars
c. Global Glory Partnerships
d. Christ Above Culture Institute
i. Starting January
ii. 10-month training program
II. THE PRIORITY OF A SHARED LANGUAGE
II. THE PRIORITY OF A SHARED LANGUAGE
A. The Problematic Use of the Term “Racism”
A. The Problematic Use of the Term “Racism”
In 1962 Webster dictionary defined racism as
“a doctrine or feeling of racial differences…, especially with reference to supposed racial superiority, inferiority or purity….” (Webster dictionary, 1962)
“a doctrine or feeling of racial differences…, especially with reference to supposed racial superiority, inferiority or purity….” (Webster dictionary, 1962)
IN 2014 HERE IS HOW IT IS DEFINED
“any program or practice of racial discrimination, segregation, etc.,... a program or practice that upholds the political or economic domination of one race over another or others” (2014)
“any program or practice of racial discrimination, segregation, etc.,... a program or practice that upholds the political or economic domination of one race over another or others” (2014)
B. The Ambiguous Meaning and Use of the Term
B. The Ambiguous Meaning and Use of the Term
1. Racism as The Race Card
1. Racism as The Race Card
2. Racism as the Unchanging Standard
2. Racism as the Unchanging Standard
3. Racism as Power
3. Racism as Power
THOMAS SOWELL CONCLUDED:
“[W]ith varying degrees of explicitness, these tendentious ideological redefinitions of racism have become so intermingled with the straightforward meaning…that the word may be irretrievably lost as a specific meaningful concept.”
“[W]ith varying degrees of explicitness, these tendentious ideological redefinitions of racism have become so intermingled with the straightforward meaning…that the word may be irretrievably lost as a specific meaningful concept.”
SINCE THIS IS THE CASE WE HAVE BEEN TRIPPING OVER ONE ANOTHER - ALL WANTING THE SAME THING, BUT ALL UNDERSTANDING THE TERM AND ITS IMPLICATIONS VERY DIFFERENTLY
III. A GOSPEL CENTERED AND CULTURALLY NEUTRAL PROPOSAL FOR REDEFINING RACISM
III. A GOSPEL CENTERED AND CULTURALLY NEUTRAL PROPOSAL FOR REDEFINING RACISM
A.Understanding Racial Division as Exclusion
A.Understanding Racial Division as Exclusion
EXCLUSION IS DEFINED AS:
“all patterns of exclusion (mistreating, denying, undermining, or treating someone as inferior) that is grounded in race or ethnicity.”
THE REASON I BELIEVE THIS IS A BETTER TERM:
1. It does not have the historical tension consistent with the term “racism.”
1. It does not have the historical tension consistent with the term “racism.”
2. It eliminates the false notion that racial division is mono-cultural or simply a white issue
2. It eliminates the false notion that racial division is mono-cultural or simply a white issue
3. It shows that actions which exclude on the basis of race or ethnicity can take place in covert as well as overt ways.
3. It shows that actions which exclude on the basis of race or ethnicity can take place in covert as well as overt ways.
B. Three Ways Exclusion Can Takes Place in the Church
B. Three Ways Exclusion Can Takes Place in the Church
1. Exclusion by Assimilation
1. Exclusion by Assimilation
Volf describes this type of exclusion in this way:
“You can survive, even thrive, among us, if you become like us; you can keep your life if you give up your identity….; we will refrain from vomiting you out…if you let us swallow you up”
“You can survive, even thrive, among us, if you become like us; you can keep your life if you give up your identity….; we will refrain from vomiting you out…if you let us swallow you up”
2. Exclusion by Domination
2. Exclusion by Domination
“… we are satisfied to assign to ‘others’ the status of inferior beings… they must stay in their proper place, which is to say the place we have assigned for them…. We subjugate them so we can exploit them in order to increase our wealth or simply inflate our egos.”
“… we are satisfied to assign to ‘others’ the status of inferior beings… they must stay in their proper place, which is to say the place we have assigned for them…. We subjugate them so we can exploit them in order to increase our wealth or simply inflate our egos.”
KEY: THERE IS THE NEED TO REDEFINE FOR THE PURPOSE OF BEING ABLE TO UNDERMINE…WITH A CLEAR CONSCIENCE
3. Exclusion by Abandonment
3. Exclusion by Abandonment
“If others neither have goods we want, nor can perform services we need, we make sure that they are at a safe distance and close ourselves off from them.”
“If others neither have goods we want, nor can perform services we need, we make sure that they are at a safe distance and close ourselves off from them.”
KEY POINTS TO MAKE TO CONCLUDE THIS PORTION:
PEOPLE ARE ONLY AS GOOD AS THEY CAN SERVE YOUR PURPOSE, AGENDA, PLATFORM: WE SEE THIS CLEARLY IN POLITICS…BUT WE ALSO SEE THIS IN CHURCHES AS WELL
THE MAJOR KEY OF EXCLUSION IS FOR THE PURPOSES OF OBJECTIVE: ORGANIZATIONAL AND PERSONAL EVALUATION
IV. A GOSPEL CENTERED AND CULTURALLY NEUTRAL PRINCIPLES FOR UNDERSTANDING AND DISPLAYING RACIAL UNITY
IV. A GOSPEL CENTERED AND CULTURALLY NEUTRAL PRINCIPLES FOR UNDERSTANDING AND DISPLAYING RACIAL UNITY
A. Understand, Think and Speak of Racial Unity as Racial Harmony
A. Understand, Think and Speak of Racial Unity as Racial Harmony
1. A working definition for racial harmony
1. A working definition for racial harmony
“The intermingling of all that is right, true and biblical within various cultures of the purposes of a fuller expression of the glory of God in the church and in the world.”
“The intermingling of all that is right, true and biblical within various cultures of the purposes of a fuller expression of the glory of God in the church and in the world.”
2. Five guiding principles that can lead toward racial harmony :
2. Five guiding principles that can lead toward racial harmony :
THE NECESSITY OF A CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW
a. Principle 1: The designof God in redemptive history is, and always has been, the display of His glory in the united diversity of His Bride
a. Principle 1: The designof God in redemptive history is, and always has been, the display of His glory in the united diversity of His Bride
b. Principle 2: Every culture has something to contribute to our understanding of the character of God and His workings in redemptive history.
b. Principle 2: Every culture has something to contribute to our understanding of the character of God and His workings in redemptive history.
c. Principle 3: Anything that is considered beneficial from any culture must be considered as such only when it is Christ-centered.
c. Principle 3: Anything that is considered beneficial from any culture must be considered as such only when it is Christ-centered.
“…Christians can never be first of all Asians or Americans, Croatians, Russians or Tutsis and then Christians. At the very core of Christian identity lies an all-encompassing change of loyalty, from a given culture with its gods to the God of all cultures. A response to a call from that God entails a rearrangement of a whole network of allegiances”
“…Christians can never be first of all Asians or Americans, Croatians, Russians or Tutsis and then Christians. At the very core of Christian identity lies an all-encompassing change of loyalty, from a given culture with its gods to the God of all cultures. A response to a call from that God entails a rearrangement of a whole network of allegiances”
d. Principle 4: The church is to be a witness and leader in the world on the issue of race relations by demonstrating in her unity the essence of true unity, Jesus Christ
d. Principle 4: The church is to be a witness and leader in the world on the issue of race relations by demonstrating in her unity the essence of true unity, Jesus Christ
The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
e. Principle 5: Racial harmony is community specific and heart felt
e. Principle 5: Racial harmony is community specific and heart felt
i. Community specific: Close proximity which necessitates accountability. Churches should work, pray and strategize to reflect the
community to which it belongs and in which it
i. Community specific: Close proximity which necessitates accountability. Churches should work, pray and strategize to reflect the
community to which it belongs and in which it
ii. Heart-felt: Despite its surroundings, churches that are Christ honoring
must have kingdom and missional affections. This will cause it and its
members to be open to and passionate about the nations.
ii. Heart-felt: Despite its surroundings, churches that are Christ honoring
must have kingdom and missional affections. This will cause it and its
members to be open to and passionate about the nations.
- Distant proximity does not negate kingdom accountability. Churches
that are located in areas with little to no diversity are not excluded
from possessing the heart of God.
- Distant proximity does not negate kingdom accountability. Churches
that are located in areas with little to no diversity are not excluded
from possessing the heart of God.
- Our hearts must mirror the heart intentions of the Lord: that the nations might know Him!
- Our hearts must mirror the heart intentions of the Lord: that the nations might know Him!
f. Racial harmony is a call to leave one’s culture for Christ
f. Racial harmony is a call to leave one’s culture for Christ
TO LEAVE I DO NOT MEAN DENOUNCE OR BE OTHER THAN YOU ARE. I MEAN IT IN THE WAY CHRIST DESCRIBES DISCIPLESHIP
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
WHY IS THIS DISPOSITION NECESSARY:
i. God and the gospel are at odds with comfort:
i. God and the gospel are at odds with comfort:
God’s call to Abraham was a call to the nations.
God’s call to Abraham was a call to the nations.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
“If he is to be a blessing he cannot stay; he must depart, cutting the ties that so profoundly defined him. The only guarantee that the venture will not make him wither away like an uprooted plant was the Word of God, the naked promise of the divine ‘I’… inserted…into his life so relentlessly and uncomfortably.
“If he is to be a blessing he cannot stay; he must depart, cutting the ties that so profoundly defined him. The only guarantee that the venture will not make him wither away like an uprooted plant was the Word of God, the naked promise of the divine ‘I’… inserted…into his life so relentlessly and uncomfortably.
ii. God and the gospel are at odds with ethnocentrism:
ii. God and the gospel are at odds with ethnocentrism:
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
·The image of God in a man matters infinitely more than the culture of a man
·The image of God in a man matters infinitely more than the culture of a man
·God is the original interpreter of culture
·God is the original interpreter of culture
OUR UNDERSTANDING OF CULTURE MUST BE ON THE BASIS OF HOW HE DEFINES IT NOT HOW WE, SOCIAL NORMS AND SOCILA CONSTRUCTS HAVE REDEFINED IT
But culture does matter because God is the Lord of culture. HOW WE NAVIGATE THIS REALITY OF EXCLUDING AND EMBRACING OUR CULTURES TRULY BOILS DOWN TO A GOSPEL CENTERED FRAMEWORK THAT WE WILL DISCUSS IN THE NEXT SESSION: