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40 Days of Prayer for Racial Unity on Tap for Unify Project Webcast

Ed Litton (left) and Fred Luter plan to launch The Unify Project Tuesday (Nov. 15).

SARALAND, Ala. (BP) – Unify Project will announce in a Feb. 9 webcast plans for 40 days of prayer for racial unity in the Southern Baptist Convention, project co-chairman Fred Luter told Baptist Press.

The webcast, featuring Luter, Unify Project co-chairman Ed Litton and Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Brent Leatherwood, will update viewers on the project’s work with pastors and church leaders in pursuing racial reconciliation within the SBC and within local communities.

“The goal of the webcast is to remind Southern Baptists of the ongoing importance of racial unity among each other in the SBC. We did not want to wait until our Convention in June to continue this vital conversation,” said Luter, senior pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, the host city of the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting. Luter is the lone African American pastor to have served as SBC president, from 2012-2014.

“We will also share about our plan to have 40 Days of Prayer for Reconciliation for our Convention,” Luter said. “We want to inform Southern Baptists of where they can find more information about the Unify Project on social media and our plans to promote racial reconciliation throughout the year.”

The Unify Project, a Gospel-centered, ethnically diverse racial reconciliation ministry designed to mobilize Southern Baptist pastors and leaders in unifying their communities, launched in November. It has an ethnically diverse steering committee and draws on wisdom from noted pastor and author Tony Evans, who helped announce the initiative at the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim, Calif.

RELATED: Unify Project Set to Launch With Widespread Participation

Navigating challenging conversations about race, the SBC’s recent work toward racial unity, fostering unity within congregations, and tips on the SBC’s path forward in achieving racial reconciliation are among topics the webcast will explore, according to the webcast’s promotion.

Evans, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas and a noted author, theologian and radio host, has helped shape the Unify Project with resources used in The Urban Alternative ministry he leads.

“Dr. Tony Evans has been so helpful,” Litton said. “The Urban Alternative has a three-step process that they have very graciously allowed us to share.”

The Unify Project will encourage pastors to assemble in their communities, to address racial strife and to act by serving their communities in tangible acts of love aimed at healing. The outreach is also inspired by The Pledge Group, which Litton helped launch with an ecumenical Christian group of pastors and leaders in Mobile after the murder of George Floyd.

“Basically, it’s to begin assembling, meeting, sitting at the table. That is the first step, and it’s getting to know people,” Litton said. “This takes some time, but it doesn’t take a long time. It just has to start. What we say in Mobile is we had to come to the table and we had to stay at the table. … When you have people from such different cultures coming together, we learn about each other. We learn to respect and appreciate and honor one another.”

The project’s steering committee embraces the SBC’s ethnic diversity, including Asian, Hispanic, African American and Anglo members.

“To me, this is the most exciting part of the Unify Project,” Luter said. “We have purposely made reaching all ethnic groups a necessity starting with the chairman and vice chairman to all the members of the steering committee, there is diversity across the board.”