Wilcrest Baptist Church in Houston, TX, led by my good
friend, Pastor Rodney Woo, is featured in Lucky Severson's exceptional piece at PBS.org's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly documenting
the incredible power of Christ to break dividing walls of racism and
segregation via the multi-ethnic church. The piece was posted on
December 19, 2008.
Another Houston area church, City of Refuge, led by
Pastor Rufus Smith, is also part of this brief story, and the transitional
journey of both churches - from homogeneous to multi-ethnic congregations - is
chronicled. In addition, Dr. Michael Emerson, author of several books on the subject
including the groundbreaking title, Divided By Faith, is interviewed, as are two members of Wilcrest who have forged a wonderful
friendship through faith in spite of past conditioning and experience. I
encourage you to watch now.
The
increased interest and attention, including new books and articles now being
published on the subject, provide may exciting signs of changing attitudes and
a coming integration of the local church throughout the United States! Beyond this, I believe Obama's election will also have a significant impact
on the movement, expediting the desire of Christ-followers to get beyond the
blatant segregation of the past and in these days, present a more credible
gospel message through multi-ethnic and economically diverse congregations of
faith.
Indeed, it is an increasingly favorable time not only
to ask but also to address the question, If the kingdom of heaven is
not segregated, why on earth is the church?
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