“What’s going on in our world? What’s happening? It seems to be coming apart at the seams.” These are some of the thoughts I hear from people these days. We see civil unrest, demonstrations, and riots. There is a lot of anger on all sides.  

How should the church respond? Should we jump in with the anger, the rhetoric, the violence? Should we strategize, problem solve, and work at finding solutions? Should we educate ourselves so that we better understand what’s going on?  

I think before we do anything, we need to stop and lament. A lament is a passionate expression of grief or sorrow. There is so much to grieve over--to mourn, to lament. We need to take the time, a lot of time, to properly lament before we even think about solutions.  

Why We Lament 

As the Diversity Director for a national campus ministry, I often find myself crying in prayer. I am entrusted with helping our movement accurately represent our Father and his kingdom through our ministry. This is a somewhat impossible task. The church has mostly failed at this task during most of its history.  Yet, we still work at it because it is our purpose as God’s people to represent him—to bear his image in this world.  

I am compelled to pray and to work. The gravity of the work is not lost on me. I feel the burden of it each day. I see our failures and shortcomings. I listen to the experiences of students and staff from different ethnic groups. I know we can do better. All the time, I see the many ways we can be better image bearers, show the campus a more accurate Christ. And so, I cry. I lament. I mourn. Sometimes, I even wail.  

When my kids catch me crying in prayer and ask me about it, I tell them, “I’m sad. Crying is what we do when we’re sad.” When there is loss, trauma, injury, and wrongdoing, crying is the right thing to do. We should be brokenhearted over these things. It should make us feel. The Father feels. In Noah’s time, the Father “regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.” He “saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” and He mourned. 

The Bible is full of examples of God’s heart breaking over the wickedness of humans, over the injustices we perpetrated on each other. No, these are not new, but they are still wrong. If it hurts our God, it should hurt us as well. How can we say we are in fellowship with him, we are his children, if we are untouched by the things that touch him?  

What We Lament 

There is so much that needs lamenting that I cannot possibly do it justice in this short article. Here are just two thoughts. Take the time to think and pray through them and the Holy Spirit will bring to mind more areas that need your lament.  

Injustice. Justice is doing right. The wicked are condemned and the innocent are protected. Think about the history of our country in relation to African Americans, Native Americans, other ethnic groups and the poor. There is no doubt that these groups of people have not found justice in our society. From the time Europeans arrived on our shores, they have endured one injustice after another: enslavement, displacement, rape, murder, separation of families, physical abuse, torture, and dismemberment is not a complete list. Are these ethnic groups the only ones who have faced injustice? Of course not. Human beings and the systems they develop are inherently unjust. The amazing thing about our country for most of our history though, is that it has been assumed justice is primarily for Whites. For others to think they could or should have the same justice has been a foolish thought.

God’s kingdom, on the other hand, is inherently just because God is the definition of justice. As citizens of his kingdom we love justice and hate injustice. Just the existence of injustice around us should break our hearts. Letting the suffering of others touch us and caring for their situations is core to the gospel. God became flesh and dwelt among us. He did not shy away from walking in the dirt of this world. He embraced our suffering. Are we not to do the same?  

Failure. As I mentioned before, the church has mostly failed at accurately representing our Father and his kingdom to the world. If you do not believe that, you need to study the Scriptures and history more. Most of the injustices listed above have been committed by those wearing the Christian banner, sometimes those wearing the missionary banner. We can say these individuals were not “real Christians” and separate ourselves from them like we try to do from the Crusaders and Conquistadores. But how is the world to know the difference if one group is publicly doing wrong in the name of Christ and the other is doing nothing. 

Of course, there are Christians we can point to in history who stood up for justice, believers like William Wilberforce, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King Jr. But unfortunately, they are the minority, a part of the remnant who did not bow their knees to the idols of the time: greed, complacency, and fear. They chose courage over comfort and often paid with their lives. These are the exceptions. Where were all the other Bible-believing, Spirit-filled believers during these times? Huddled in a corner, disconnected from the world, fearing contamination?  

As a Pentecostal believer I don’t have to look far to identify our failures. Our movement was birthed in a revival in Los Angeles led by an African American preacher named William Seymour where those gathered were from multiple different socio-economic levels and ethnicities. For a moment we tasted of heaven as believers gathered together and affirmed that there is “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Unfortunately, it did not take long for division to arise along racial lines. Is this not something that should be lamented? When we as the church take a good look in the mirror, do we not see many ways we have been complicit with racism, ethnocentrism and white supremacy? lf you need examples of the last, just look at the pictures of Jesus with white skin and blue eyes in many churches’ stained glass or Sunday school materials.  

How to Lament  

Brokenness and humility are the words God spoke to me when I asked him four years ago, “what should the church be doing right now.” Brokenness is what happens when we look at all the evil, all the wrong, all the injustice in our world and we allow it to hurt us. We are broken with those who suffer. Humility is the posture we take as we embrace the reality that there is nothing in ourselves that we can do to bring about any change. When we are honest about our frailty and our failures, we find ourselves in place of utter humility.  

I believe the first way we need to lament is to repent. The main reason we have not moved on as a country or even in the church, is we have not truly repented. Every once in a while, when things happen that we cannot ignore or are hard to deny (though many still try to) we will talk about how we need move on. Many, even in the church, think the trick to moving on is to stop talking about it. If we just stopped talking about racism, it would go away. Where a Christian would get the idea that ignoring a sin causes its disappearance is beyond me. You can find no such pattern in the Scriptures. What you do find is God continually, persistently, relentlessly, sending prophet after prophet telling his people basically the same thing. “Stop worshipping idols. Stop oppressing the poor, widows, and foreigners. Do right. Keep the covenant you agreed to. Be the people you’re supposed to be, so the world knows what I am actually like.” 

We cannot “move on” until we admit the wrongs we have done in the past and the present. We have to humble ourselves and admit the sins of the church and the country because, as parts of both of them, we have the Biblical obligation to do so (see Daniel 9 for an example of this). We must also repent for our own biases and prejudices. I have an awfully hard time believing I’m the only one in the world with biases and prejudices. If we can be honest and vulnerable about our struggle with lust, greed, and other sins, why can’t we be honest about our struggle with prejudice? The world has made racism today’s unforgivable sin, but God does not recognize this. He offers forgiveness and deliverance from this sin, just like he does all others.   

Another way for us to repent is to listen. Truth is we are not very good at this. For most of our history, those facing injustice have gone unheard. Even in this time, so many have told me how they feel silenced. You may scoff at this statement as you see the world shouting. But there are many in the church that feel if they were to fully share their thoughts and feelings, even just their experiences with fellow believers they would be attacked. So, they remain silent. Listening, both personally and through articles and other media is the primary way the church needs to repent right now. Listening will open up our hearts towards brokenness and humility.  

Jeremiah the prophet was broken for his nation. He cared. He cried out, “Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears. I would weep and day and night for the slain of my people.” Weeping I find is a very appropriate way to lament. I do not mean to say if you are not crying, you do not care. But I do find that deep pain often produces tears. If I think about how we as believers have disappointed God and how this world is so wicked and corrupt, and how so many suffer in it, I often feel pain. I am not advocating the false production of tears, but for the genuine embracing of God’s heart for people.  

Jesus was once asked why his disciples were not participating in a time of fasting with other religious groups. His answer was simple, “I’m here, so it’s a time for rejoicing,” (my own paraphrase). But he did say the time would come when they would fast. Fasting in Scripture is associated with humility and mourning. We humble ourselves, deny ourselves, because it is a time to mourn. Now is a time to mourn and in place of feasting, we can fast. Isaiah 59 offers a beautiful picture of true fasting.  

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: 
to loose the chains of injustice 
    and untie the cords of the yoke, 
to set the oppressed free 
    and break every yoke? 
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry 
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- 
when you see the naked, to clothe them, 
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? 

Fasting is an active work of lamentation that, as Isaiah 58 points out, will lead to other works. Yes, we need to stop and lament first. Then, we need to let our lamenting, continual and growing, be the foundation for true fasting.  
 
 
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It was around 2007 when when we, Peoples Church Cincinnati, were taking the whole congregation through a 20 week long experience called the “Vision Experience”.  It was a small group study that we put together internally to help the congregation grow in racial unity and  diverse relationships by having difficult conversations about race in a Christian context.  Part of the curriculum included historical information, personal stories, and experiential exercises.  During the course of the 20 weeks the leadership committee would evaluate how the groups were performing by getting feedback from the facilitators, the church staff, and our own experiences.  At one of these debriefs, I remember discussing a subject that had come up in several of the small groups: people of different cultures and different church backgrounds were not enjoying certain aspects of the church service. 

At this point in time the church was still very much in transition from being a 98% homogeneous White church to one that was now 15-20% people of color including 1st generation immigrants.  Chris Beard, our lead pastor, was pressing forward with a vision of being a Rev. 5:9 church like Heaven:  many ethnic groups and languages all worshiping Jesus together.  Bringing this vision to fruition was slowly introducing different cultural influences into the church services.  Varied preaching styles, an updated look of the facility, and multi-cultural worship music were some of the gradual and radical adjustments that were made.  The result was that people who loved Jesus, loved the vision of the church, and wanted to be a part of what God was doing still had difficulty with some aspects of the church.  It was during this time that the leadership team came up with the 70/30 Rule to help everyone embrace and celebrate what God was doing in Peoples Church.

The 70/30 Rule says that everyone in the church should expect to fully enjoy 70% of what happens at the church while expecting to not feel immediately drawn to or understand the other 30% because that portion is for someone else’s full enjoyment.  Furthermore, when something is happening in church that is not of your preference you should celebrate that because that means someone else is feeling connected to Christ and His church in that moment.  To help drive this point home, I would say as a service began, “Make sure you young people here today don’t sit down when the worship team goes into that old school hymn!  Make sure you stay standing just the same, even though that is not your type of music.  Because that song isn’t for you.  That song  is for the senior saints that are being brought back to the day they fell in love with Christ during that song.  So we want you young folks to celebrate with them the same way they celebrate when your repetitive Bethel worship song is played.”

Many people can relate to not enjoying certain types of worship music, but when it comes to several cultures coming together people will have cultural clashes in so many situations.  Food selection at gatherings, dress code at events, start time for celebrations, length of service, outcomes for meetings, and so many other things are effected by cultural norms.  Every culture has their standard for these types of things, but when you combine cultures you have to make sure that every culture has an opportunity to lead.  This means that someone is always going to feel out of place and we want that feeling to be celebrated.  In effect, the 70/30 Rule is the basis for creating a new culture in an intentionally diverse ministry.  The new culture is celebrating being uncomfortable so that others will have comfort. 
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There is no scientific study or mathematic rigor behind the 70/30 percentages, we just went on gut feel when we named it.  But over the past 13 years we have found that people embrace it and when they see the beauty of God’s diversely united church they understand the value.  

We sat silently at a downtown coffee shop, swirling the Rwandan brew in our cups, the Cincinnati skyscape towering over our sidewalk table — two Ohio Assemblies of God pastors sharing hearts and vision.

He asked, “How would you counsel me to lead my (midsize, suburban) congregation into a multiethnic future? I feel a profound burden to do this. We can’t stay where we are. Our city needs this. Our church needs this. But I don’t know what I don’t know.”

This wasn’t the first time I’ve heard this. It seems God is burdening many hearts these days for church reflecting heaven on earth.

Our own story as Peoples Church Cincinnati involves a 20-year transition from a 98 percent homogeneous white commuter church to a 50 percent nonwhite congregation comprising 30-plus nations. And despite the racially charged times in which we live, we are 25 percent African-American. The Lord has done this.

As I contemplated my friend’s earnest question, I felt stirred to reply, “Start with theology. Whatever you do, root it in Scripture. Hell will fight you on this, and when it does, you want this vision anchored in God’s Word.”

I shared from Ephesians 2 and 3 about a biblical model of a multiethnic church. The intensity of God’s mind on this matter captivates my heart and astounds me.

The Ephesian Model
New Testament Ephesus compares to today’s American society. With a mix of Gentile God-fearers, conservative zealots, marketplace liberals, idol worshipers, indigenous people, and internationals, the city was ethnically, economically, religiously diverse. This port population center on the western edge of what is now Turkey flourished as a cosmopolitan melting pot, the Roman Empire’s third most influential city.

The Ephesian church was also a collective — united in Christ, Spirit-filled and gospel-rooted. This diverse congregation was making known the “manifold wisdom of God” — in the city and “in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 3:10). Did you catch that? Not only was the church influencing society and spreading the gospel, but its Christ-centered existence in diverse unity was capturing attention in the spiritual realm.

Paul calls this diverse unity of formerly disparate and hostile Jews, Greeks and Romans the “mystery of Christ,” which the Holy Spirit revealed (Ephesians 3:4-6). As this church came together, the mystery of Christ, hidden for ages, became apparent. Let that sink in.

Our fractious United States could benefit from the same prophetic, reconciling Kingdom congregations. Such a movement would shake the gates of hell.

In Ephesians 2, Paul provides a compelling vision and model for diversely united churches in our day. After unpacking the gospel, he links it to the idea of a diversely united local church. This message is applicable to your church setting — whether rural, suburban or urban.

Continue reading here
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(Used with permission)

Note: This is written for a Chi Alpha audience, but can apply in any ministry context.

Are you dreaming of the multitude of every nation, tribe, people, and language and longing to see God’s kingdom reflected in your local Chi Alpha group? Over the next three weeks we will expound on three simple and proven ministry truths to begin and to make progress in a Holy Spirit transformation in your community. Our first ministry truth is this: you get what you pray for.

#1 You Get What You Pray For
Jesus said, “Without me you can do nothing.” He wasn’t referring to activity. We are very good at doing stuff on our own. He was referring to fruit, fruit that lasts. (John 15:16) To see eternal change in the lives of human beings, we need the holy sap of Jesus’ life to flow through us, and this requires prayer.  The first, second, and last place to accomplish anything of significance is prayer. If you want to be a different kind of group, one that represents your campus and more importantly God’s kingdom, you need divine help. I truly believe you get what you pray for, so pray for…

Pray for revelation. Before we can share the vision for diversity, we need a personal revelation of what it means. Diversity is a word that has many definitions in our world, and though we do not find it in the Bible, we certainly find the model of multi-ethnic, unified communities living out a kingdom ethic. Revelation is the product of prayer combined with reading and study. As you delve into God’s word, pray for revelation for yourself, your fellow staff members, your student leaders and every student in your group.

Pray for deliverance. There are reasons our churches are racially and ethnically segregated. Some have to do with preference and tastes, but much has to do with sin. The sins of greed, lust, and power birthed the sin of racism in the United States. We cannot build communities that reflect God’s kingdom without deliverance, and we will not experience deliverance without repentance. Repent for your own prejudices and racism. It is also Biblical to repent on behalf of your nation (people group) and country (place where you live) (Daniel 9:3-19).  Pray for deliverance from strongholds (entrenched ways of thinking) that influence many of us without our knowledge. Pray for freedom from the world’s ways of thinking, to no longer see anyone from a worldly point of view (2 Corinthians 5:16). Instead pray for new ways of thinking (Rom 12:2).

Pray for kingdom-minded hearts. Many who love the vision of kingdom diversity don’t act on it for fear of what will happen in their groups or churches. How will my leaders and congregants respond? In a homogenous group, everything is tailored to the dominant group. How will that group feel when confronted with unpleasant truths and eventual changes? It is vital that you take the time to pray for kingdom-minded hearts. Pray in faith knowing that as you undertake your own journey of allowing God to renew your mind and transform your perspectives, you will be sowing seeds for transformation to happen in others.

Pray for protection. If there is one thing I have learned as I work to see our Chi Alpha groups accurately represent God’s kingdom on campus, it is that it is a battle. Anything you do, even if all you are doing is praying (and believe me that is enough), is a direct confrontation to entrenched spirits who have controlled our country for centuries. They have kept people and more importantly Christians separated. This separation, besides maligning the name of Christ, has limited the church’s effectiveness in world missions, reaching cities, executing justice, and yes, this is true even on our campuses. Your confrontation to these powers and principalities will not go unnoticed or unopposed. Pray for protection of your relationships (for this is where retaliation tends to come), your unity, and your community. Guard all your relationships and don’t give way to misunderstandings, wounds, pride, and any kind of unforgiveness.

Pray for wisdom. In addition to prayer, there will be things you will need to do and changes you will need to make to see God’s vision for your group come to pass. You can read books and get counsel, but deciding what to do and how to do it will require divine wisdom. These can be difficult waters to navigate. Everyone has an opinion on “diversity issues” and pretty much thinks theirs are right. Confronting strongholds, acting out our repentance, and making intentional changes in what you do, all require enormous amounts of wisdom. Take heart! God promises wisdom to those who ask for it (James 1:5).

Pray for partners. Transforming a group from homogenous to multi-ethnic is spiritual work--a work of the Spirit. It is something He alone can and does do. But he also uses vessels like you. However, you alone are not enough. In this case, the goal is also the strategy. Your goal is to see a multi-ethnic body on campus. You must find partners from underrepresented ethnic groups. How? Pray. Pray specifically for what you need and remember you are not praying for something you want, more importantly you are praying for something our Father desires. You are praying as Jesus taught his disciples, “Let your kingdom come and your will be done.” For this is his kingdom and this is his will.

You have a dream, a vision, a driving desire to see our Father’s kingdom reflected in your Chi Alpha group. I am ecstatic! I know that our Father is also pleased. After all, it is his kingdom we are representing. And that is what we must remember. It is his kingdom. He is the one who builds it, we are merely his partners and that partnership begins in prayer. This is the place we receive revelation, deliverance, wisdom, kingdom-minded hearts, and protection. This is where we pray for these for others and where God releases others to partner with us. Pray in faith!  You get what you pray for.

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"How do you expect me to be a man when I have never had a f^&@ing man in my life?!"
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These words pounded my heart like a heavy weight descending through a bucket of water. I heard these words in a group of African-American young men I gathered with on Monday afternoons. This group, called B.O.S.S. (Brotherhood of Successful Scholars), had graciously taken me in and allowed this 30-something white guy from the cornfields of Indiana to be a part of their fellowship five years prior.

On this particular night, we were exploring what it means to be a man and to hold your head high. The thoughts that flowed in discussion ranged from making money to showing the world that you should be respected to keeping your options open in your love life. The discussion began to pick up when someone interjected, "real men need to live with integrity." One of the young men in our group, who through his self-confession was attempting to leave behind a period of dealing drugs on campus, was troubled by this statement. He grew up in a home where there was no father, no husband and no male image-bearer of Christ. All he had known was his mom and grandmother. All he had known of being a man was to man up and make your way through; keep living and surviving, do what you need to do to stay alive. Now, he is being told to be a man with integrity. What exactly is that?

This discussion got me to thinking: I believe we assume to much. We assume that if we tell people to do something that they will already know what that something is. We assume people have a mutual baseline of common sense (thus revealing our naivete). We even assume that varying people groups in this nation will all see things from the same point of view (yikes!). In this case, this young man got me to thinking about my assumptions. Do I assume young men know what it will look like to be a man? Do I assume that even from one people group to another there will be common streams of thought and standards for manhood? I make too many assumptions...

However, here is where the good news comes in: just like Paul told the Colossians (1:24b) "...in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body (which is the church) in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions." (NASB), I also had the same opportunity. We have the same opportunity. What the believers in Colossae lacked was not hearing what Jesus had done for them, or believing what Jesus had done for them. No, what they lacked was flesh and blood; seeing what Jesus had done for them. Thus, through Paul's suffering for proclaiming Jesus' Name, these believers were able to see and experience in flesh and blood what that looked like.

Similarly, young students (esp. young men) on our campuses throughout the country have heard about men...fathers, husbands, men of integrity...but until they see these men they may not truly believe they exist. Until they can experience them in flesh and blood, there will be something pivotal missing in their lives, freeing them to change the trajectory of their lives to in fact become these men of integrity. Until they can rub elbows with, ask questions to and do life with these men, they will not be able to become one of them.

Here is where we come in: we can do this. What I realized was that my ministry amongst this group of African-American young men was me. I needed to live out what a quality husband looked like, what a father who cared about his children was, and what a man of integrity looked like in flesh and blood. I need not focus on being super relatable or even pretend to understand all that they go through as a minority. Just love them where they were for whom they were, and then show out what a man of God looks like. No performance needed, only truth, integrity and care. Already we have seen some young men's lives dramatically changed by the Gospel because of this.

We can do this. Can we take some time to look about us and see what assumptions we have that we may need to reconsider? Can we take a few moments to consider who has lack around us (like the Colossians) that we may be able to fill up with our flesh and blood? If so, the Spirit will make you aware of opportunities around you that need Gospel, that need flesh and blood. May you become good news to those lacking around you.

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