Understanding Race & Reconciliation in the USA

Acts 29 is a diverse, global family of church-planting churches that exist to address the lostness of our cities and regions with the gospel. We do this through planting transcultural churches, churches which actively challenge critical cultural and social issues through their shared lives in submission to the Word of God. Over the course of the past few months, the political climate in the USA has become increasingly volatile, and, sadly, some of the churches around the country have become divided over racial and political lines.

From systemic injustice to understanding the torrid history of racism in this country, we recognize that these issues are nuanced and complex. In light of recent shootings of both civilians and police, our churches have been seeking ways to promote justice and respond to such problems with grace and empathy.

It is our prayer that you are informed, impacted and inspired to serve Christ where you are.

At this summer’s Acts 29 Retreat, we sought to create a context to foster a conversation about racism, police brutality, white privilege, and the recent shootings of unarmed black men from a Christocentric vantage point. We did this by assembling a panel of pastors in our global family to discuss these issues.

The informative discussion, which was moderated by Matt Chandler, included Dr. Eric Mason, Léonce Crump, Brandon Washington, Thabiti Anyabwile, and Dwayne Bond. These godly and well respected leaders provided our family of churches insight and wisdom for the purpose of moving the conversation in the direction of unity, for the glory of God.

The panel was educational, informational and inspirational for many of us. We called it together in order to incite unity and racial reconciliation, and to push for a gospel movement that strengthens our bonds of faith for churches in all of our networks around the world. As you watch, it is our prayer that you are informed, impacted and inspired to serve Christ where you are, and that the sobering – yet hope-filled – words of these men would resonate with you as you pursue Christ continually in your lives, churches and contexts.

Below are some excerpts from this discussion with a short introduction for each. Scroll to the bottom to watch the panel discussion in full.