Litton saw the fruits of such a program in Mobile through The Pledge Group, which he helped launch with an ecumenical Christian group of pastors and leaders in the city after the murder of George Floyd. The Mobile group has seen positive progress in confessing hidden racism and building Gospel-unified cross-cultural relationships, Litton said in a video shared in the SBC annual meeting.
Evans had laid the fault of racial disunity at the doors of the church.
“When it comes to our racial divide, it was the failure of the pulpit and the failure of the church, which has put us in this ignominious situation today,” Evans said in Anaheim. “And we are told in 2 Chronicles (Chapter 15) that only when they came together in unity did God bring them rest, verse 15 says, to the distress that was in the land.
“The political, the social, the racial, the class distress that we are facing, that has helped to be caused by the church, can only be properly dissolved by the church,” Evans said. “If God can’t get the church right, the culture can never become right.”
Luter encourages pastors to register for the program and lead their churches in building cross-cultural relationships.
“In 2012 (the first year Luter was elected SBC president) that was one of the main things we tried to encourage,” he said of the SBC. “And unfortunately, it comes and goes, comes and goes, comes and goes. But we’ve never really put any teeth to it, never really put any boots to the ground. So I think I would encourage pastors, listen, it’s time to stop talking this unification thing and let’s start walking it. And this is a way that we can make it happen.”
Details of the Unify Project are available at unifysbc.org, and by texting Unify to 63566.
This article originally appeared on BaptistPress.com.
