A major recurring theme in American history is it’s struggle with race relations. From slavery to the Civil War to Jim Crow to segregation to race riots to Martin Luther King to busing to President Barak Obama to Black Lives Matter, it’s been a long and bumpy road with two steps forward and one step back.
Along the way, white Christians haven’t been much of a help – and sometimes a huge hindrance, with the church still the most segregated institution in America.
But I have a suggestion: use men’s team ministry to their widowed and single parents to help bring racial healing to our land. I want to first discuss this idea from my personal experience and then give a scriptural example. Then I’ll describe a practical way to start.
My Personal Experience
I’ve written in another place about how I grew up in a black neighborhood in inner city Los Angeles. It wasn’t fun. I learned what it’s like to be a minority within a minority. I probably would have become a racist had it not been for the following experience.
I lived through the Watts riots as an adolescent. I’ll never forget watching businesses burn night after night from our second story balcony. But by the time the Rodney King riots happened, I had moved out of state, Mom had died and my Dad was living alone in the house.
The Watts riots were confined to South Central Los Angeles. Crenshaw Blvd, ten blocks to the east of us, marked the western boundary line for the curfew Governor Brown declared. But the Rodney King Riots encompassed a larger area, an area that included my childhood home…and my Dad.
At the time of the Rodney King Riots, my sister and closest relative to Dad, lived in Whittier, a forty-five minute drive to the east. But she may as well have lived in New York City, because no one was allowed into the riot area. And that meant all of our family were worried sick about our father.
Enter Dad’s neighbors. They faithfully checked on him, by then feeble and in his late 80’s, day after day. And all of them were African-Americans.
I needed to see that. I knew in theory that the vast majority of blacks are good people. But up to that point, most of my interactions with blacks had been negative. It was incredibly healing to see my dad’s neighbors care for him like that.
So there you have it. Want to bring about racial healing in your community? Care for a widow, widower or single parent of a different race.
A Scriptural Example
Race is an issue in many cultures and has been for millennia. Take, for example the problem Greeks and Romans had with Jews, or rather the problem Jews had with Greeks and Romans.
Jews did everything they could to differentiate themselves from their surrounding culture. Their nit picky ways are detailed in Scripture. So when Jews in the early first century AD became Christ followers and then saw the gospel spread to Gentiles, they were presented with a huge dilemma: how do we relate to these new believers?
The problem spilled over into how they treated believing widows in their new Christian community. At first almost all believers were Jewish and all the widows the church served were Jewish. But as the gospel spread, inevitably more and more Gentile widows became believers too. The result: the church began showing favoritism to Jewish widows and ignored the needs of its Gentile widows. Acts 6 describes this friction and the action the church took to resolve the issue:
In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word. (Acts 6:1-4)
Notice how seriously the early church took this threat to its credibility, how quickly it responded to it and how effective its response was:
This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
Wow. The church took seriously its responsibility to widows of a different culture. Their quick and effective action produced another growth spurt in the church, so much so that even priests were coming to faith in Christ!
So here’s the principle: Want to bring about racial healing in your community and provide an open door for the gospel? Then care for widows (and widowers and single parents) of a different culture or race.
A Simple and Practical Way to Start
If you’re in a white church, find a black or Hispanic church to work with and have a team adopt one of their widows. If you’re a minority church, find a white church and have a team adopt one of their widows.
Then let the three unique qualities of the love of Christ – identification, commitment and sacrifice – produce the fruit of interracial love this world needs so badly.
Easypeasy.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom
and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.
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