After several tragic events of racial conflict in our country, once again there is the painful reality of our broken world. For several people, it has been only a few years that racial tension in America has been at an increase. Several others are not surprised at the eruption of chaos because they know that racial tension and brokenness has never been truly fixed. Unfortunately, once the chaos disperses, it seems people go back into their own worlds with the underlying issues still not being resolved, addressed or healed.
However, there are and have been people in the battle to contend for breakthrough that haven’t allowed this issue to stay at bay. When the question came up again, “Where is the church with this complex issue of racial brokenness?” Pastor Peter Watts and a few members of The Rock Church responded. They knew they needed to press into the call of intercession in order to process and respond to this historic problem. They knew that this brokenness was impacting their rhythms of life, the social issues that surrounded them and the Church. So to address this problem, they created a discussion forum, called The Elephant in the Room, about race and faith in our country.
As the church began to walk through this, they quickly faced many different issues. They lamented when people were hurting. They wrestled with questions such as, “How much have things changed? How much has transformation occurred since Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ‘It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o'clock on Sunday morning’?” They attentively listened to one another’s experiences and explored more about racial history. Now, they are beginning to act deliberately by creating space for solutions to deal with systemic problems in their city.
This journey, born out of desperate and deep sorrow, “was learned from God’s heart to do right. They saw how justice needed to be done — they helped those who are oppressed, gave orphans their rights, and defended widows.” (Isaiah 1:17). This is why we are here. This was and is the ministry of Christ through His Bride. Just as Christ, our inner-city churches are a bridge builder of reconciliation in this divided nation!