Whenever I first began to wrestle with thought and calling to be a part of seeing the church more unified, I really wrestled with the idea of how the idea of Church Diversity can be a felt need for a broad affinity group. In other words, I didn’t want this message to simply be for ministry leaders but rather congregants, Christians, and non-Christians at-large.
As I’ve began traveling around the country and sharing the message of unity in the church and the idea of embracing church diversity, it’s been great to see the genuine care and concern for change.
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to share the message of loving all people and diversity at my good friend Shawn Lovejoy’s church, Mountain Lake Church. Mountain Lake is located just outside of Atlanta in Cumming Georgia (Forsyth County). It was the first location that my new book Church Diversity: Sunday the Most Segregated Day of the Week has been sold. It was great to hear all of the stories of baggage, awkwardness, and people genuinely wanting to be a part of changing the face and heart of the church.
My prayer has always been for God to let this message penetrate the hearts of His people. My prayers have been answered over and over. I was answered again this morning when I received an e-mail from someone who attended yesterday’s service and bought a copy of my book. I think this story is a powerful illustration of how quickly you can break down racial challenges with truth, openness, confrontation, biblical correction, and love.
Here was the note that I received:
Scott, WOW man! You were awesome yesterday at church. I just wanted to write you and tell you thanks for coming to MLC yesterday. Our church and I needed to hear that. Our community is a prominently white area; it has been for a while and with that comes a lot of racism.
I am not going to lie; you opened my eyes yesterday. I have grown up in Forsyth County so I have been put in that “black people are bad” crap all my life. And I believed it. I have used some words that I don’t want to write, but hearing you speak yesterday was intense!
God knew I needed to hear that. I was going to lay out of church yesterday, but something told me I needed to go, and I did not know we were going to have a guest speaker. I will not look at race the same way after yesterday. My family went to Northpoint Mall after church, and I found myself saying hey and holding the door for black people. Usually, I don’t do that. I guess you can say I am not racist anymore. And I am not going to allow myself to get to that point again.
The people I hang out with that are, well, let’s just say they will see your book in my car, and they will be invited to church. If they come or not is not up to me, but I am inviting them.
Dude, you changed my outlook on a lot of things yesterday, man, and I thank you for that. You are an awesome man of God, and I pray that other people left MLC yesterday looking at their life and saying, wow, why am I this way? I need to change that about me. Again, THANKS, Scott. Love you, brother! God bless.
This was encouraging and inspiring to me…Share your thoughts?
