June 2020 — pg. 17
We visited Riverside four years ago to check out the city and to pray
about whether God was leading us there for our next appointment as
co-pastors of a church. As we pulled our car into Kimchichanga for
the first time, it felt like we were coming home. We felt our hearts
strangely warmed as we ate at a restaurant that took the best of both
of our cultures’ foods and paired them together to make one gigantic
Korean deep-fried burrito. It was like a magical ingredient that we
hadn’t even realized was missing in our lives had been introduced to
us for the first time in the most remarkable combination to produce
a new flavor. Riverside is one hour east of Los Angeles and over the
years, the influences of both Asian and Mexican food and culture has
seasoned the city with its many flavors and spices. When we have a
craving for tacos, we get to decide between Korean tacos, Japanese
tacos, fish tacos, Mexican street tacos, or just plain fast-food tacos.
The multifariousness of food in our town is astonishing and points
to only one example of the diversity of the people and cultures in
Riverside.
When we toured the city, Joe was excited to see the low-rider cars
in the driveways and the retro, old-school barber shops. Soo Ji was
enamored with the sunny, warm climate and the vast amount of boba
tea cafes. We fell in love with the neighborhood where our church
is located and know that God planted our church in a community
full of people of all colors, backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities and
socioeconomic class for a purpose: to make disciples of all people
and nations through the ministry of reconciliation. We believe in
reconciling people back to God as well as people back to each other.
We believe that local churches should reflect the diversity and
ethnicities of their communities in order to reach all people with the
whole gospel. In a world that is divided, torn and bleeding because
of hateful rhetoric, hostile political views and the rise of hate crimes,
we believe that the best way to demonstrate God’s heart for all people
is for churches to become engaging places of worship, discipleship
and transformation for all people. Barriers between people groups
must be broken down in order for God’s people to be reconciled back
to each other and ultimately back to God. Christianity has never
been just a “God and me” relationship. Salvation has never been the
egocentric, narcissistic, self-opinionated doctrine that we preach
today. It’s always been about dying to self and reaching others who
are very different from us!
“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one
and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting
aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His
purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two,
thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God
through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came
and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who
were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one
Spirit” (Ephesians 2:14–18).
A Colorful Mosaic
The Apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians that Jesus reconciled
both Jew and Gentile and made them one body through the work
of the cross. How much more is Jesus dying to do this for different
people groups in our world today? We must continue to tear down
the barriers that keep us from being the new humanity that God
intends for us to be in Jesus Christ. Sin does not discriminate,
but for some reason, we as followers of Christ do. We continue to
discriminate against others based solely upon skin color, ethnicity,
gender, disabilities or social class. We look down on people and have
contempt for something about their language, culture or traditions
that we don’t understand. If our churches are filled with bias and
disunity around issues of race, how can we offer the hope of the
gospel to a world that is trying to respect and celebrate each other’s
cultural backgrounds and believes that people can do that without
the centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ? As Christ-followers, we
must live out this gospel of peace, not just preaching about it or
reading about it in a magazine article.
In the Bible, olive trees were used as symbols for the people of
God who were split into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah (Jeremiah
11:16). So can those who are a different race be part of the people of
God? Paul writes to the Gentiles to let them know that the moment
that they come to faith in Jesus, they become a part of the Jewish
olive tree. Gentiles are grafted into the tree and take on the ancestry
of Jesus Christ when they take on faith in Christ (Romans 11:24).
No matter your background, we are truly one in Christ, one people
group, one race, united together to more fully represent a God who
died for all nations.
Could it be that Adam and Eve — as the first couple to be made in
the image of God — were not the light-skinned, brown-haired couple
that we grew up seeing in our children’s Bibles? Could it be that one
of them was fair-skinned with light blond hair and the other dark-skinned
with curly black hair? Could it be that the family of God and
His spirit of sonship and adoption are more fully represented in the
family that chooses to adopt children that are not of the same ethnic
heritage as the parents?
Whether the couple is white and the children are black or the
couple is biracial and the children are mixed, could it be that the
very nature of our diverse God is more fully represented when the
church of God is a colorful mosaic made up of all nations, tribes and
tongues? But in order to pursue racial unity, we must learn to give
up our old selves and embrace our new selves in Christ Jesus. We
Reconciliation
“We believe that
local churches should
reflect the diversity
and ethnicities of their
communities in order to
reach all people with the
whole gospel.”