When studying to be a pastor, I envisioned my future to look very much like my past. I assumed my white middle class family would serve a white middle class church. [I’m still playing catch-up for all the perspectives I ignored.]
Instead, God called me to a place with incredible diversity. Then He gave me both a commitment to our diverse neighborhood a desire that our church reflect our community.
But desires don’t always turn into realities as easily or quickly as you’d like.
Renovation Community still leans majority white, but not by much. And we continue serving a diverse community. Our Parsonage is the only single-family dwelling on the street. Neighbor turnover is high but white families rarely move in.
For years, our church has been committed to serving some of the poorest families in our community. Poverty effects all races. But in our neighborhood, many of our poorest families are non-white.
Today, other than my wife and sons, I didn’t see a single white person. Three people from our church family helped me around the building and with our drive-through meals (our summer day camp is closed this summer due to Covid, but we’re still offering meals). They’re black. Our funeral director renting our building (also part of our church family) and his assistant are Latino.
Today’s families who drove through our food line were Black and West African. Other days we’ve served Burmese and Latino.
When Jesus taught listeners to love our neighbor as ourself, a man once “wanted to justify himself” and asked, “who is my neighbor.”
Jesus didn’t answer the question. Instead, he responds with a story and then calls us to be a neighbor like the Good Samaritan.
I relate to the questioner’s desire to justify himself. If I’m commanded to love my neighbor as myself, my deceitful heart will always choose neighbors like me. It’s easy to love people like me.
I don’t know what to do about the overwhelming racial tension in our country. But I do know that my neighbors have changed me. Proximity promotes responsibility. I am my brother’s keeper…my neighbor’s keeper.
Regularly interacting with people unlike me taught me I must strive to be the neighbor Jesus had in mind.
Jesus shows me how far I have to go as He teaches me each step of the journey.
