“And They Cheered!”
“It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is 11 o’clock on Sunday morning.” Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote that in 1963 and it is still very true today. It shouldn’t be. The apostle Paul explained to the very divided first church in Ephesus that the dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles that had existed for centuries had been torn down in Christ. He told them that God’s plan, through Jesus was to make for Himself ONE new people. This unification of divided peoples was and is meant to show the manifold wisdom of God to all! In Christ, Paul says, we are heirs and co-heirs with Him, brothers and sisters; He has made us family.
On December 20, 2020 one of our New City East Side deacons announced to our Partners and Core Team that the New City Elders and Deacons had gladly agreed on an interim pastor, Lawrence Robinson, and they cheered! It is no surprise that they cheered; for weeks various East Side Partners and attendees have said that they would love to have Lawrence take the role.
This is no small matter!
When the New City Macon Elders sat with the then Northridge Baptist Church deacons we talked about the sin of racism and the changing communities around the church that needed to be reached. The deacons agreed in all that we discussed, but not everyone in the church did. When the vote to Replant Northridge with New City Church Macon taking the lead was official, several of our Macon families chose to partner with East Side in the Replant. Those families were black, white and mixed. By most, our families were welcomed enthusiastically. For some, though, it was just too much change, too many people of color, and they left.
The Macon Elders decided early on that it would be best to wait a while before introducing Pastor Lawrence as a regular preacher, though he has more preaching experience than any of our other elders. For the first couple of months Pastor Lawrence only preached once or twice at East Side. Over the next months he became the primary preacher and one of the Macon/East Side Replant leaders. He and Marilyn have fallen in love with the East Side family and the family with them! They are dreaming together about reaching hundreds, filling the church and adding a second service. They are dreaming together about helping other dying churches find new life through Replanting. Together, black and white.
It is no small matter, not because Northridge was vastly different than the hundreds of other churches in Middle Georgia, but because it is not vastly different, because 11 am is still the most segregated hour of Christian America. It is right that they cheered. This is an incredible work of the Spirit! It is the manifold wisdom of God on display for all the world to see and we get to be a part of it!
Congrats, my brother and long time friend! What a ride we’ve been on together.
“20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
— Ephesians 3:20-21
