A LETTER TO OUR CONGREGATION

June 3rd, 2020

As the pastors at The King’s Church, we felt it necessary to give a longer statement about the social unrest that is happening in our country right now and what the gospel calls us to as ambassadors of King Jesus in this world. We ask you to prayerfully read this in its entirety with a spirit of understanding and unity. This is the start of a needed and longer conversation that we are committed to having moving forward. 

First of all, we believe unequivocally that the death of George Floyd was unjust and wrong. It is important to acknowledge this fact and to call this act of evil what it was. Unfortunately, this is far from the first time something like this has happened. We believe it is another instance of a much larger problem of systemic social and racial injustice toward African Americans and other persons of color in our country. These are issues that matter to God and they must matter to the church of Jesus Christ.

We also believe that churches with predominantly white congregations have often been more silent than they ought to be when these injustices have occurred. We respect how frustrating this is and can be to our black and brown brothers and sisters in Christ. These same churches have often been outspoken on other issues related to the worth, value, and dignity of every single human being as image bearers of God. They, and we, have too often been slow to speak out against injustice - especially racial injustice - when it is taking place before our eyes. This does not mean that other issues related to the image of God in all humans are less important or do not matter. We are and will remain passionate defenders of the unborn at risk of abortion. We are devoted to caring for orphans through foster care and adoption. We are committed to working toward ending global poverty in Jesus’ name through supporting organizations like Compassion International. We view this conversation about social and racial justice as fully consistent with these others issues, as an extension of what it means to be holistically pro-life, and as a matter that requires us to speak out.

Justice and racial reconciliation are both implicit outcomes of the gospel, which the church of Jesus Christ ought to promote and pursue. Justice is central to God’s character and nature. Isaiah 61:8 states: “For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong”. Psalm 89 reminds us: “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.” Micah 6:8 calls God’s people to do justice as his representatives on earth: “He has told you O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Jesus himself warns in Matthew 23:23: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”

The Scriptures consistently remind God’s people that they have a responsibility to pursue justice. The Bible is also full of warnings from God to his people when they fail to act justly and pursue righteousness. Since God is not indifferent to these issues, we cannot be indifferent either. 

In the midst of the brokenness we are experiencing right now, we have an incredible opportunity as the church to step into this space proclaiming the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Cultural rallying points around racial reconciliation and justice are needed and appropriate. However, we know that the true power for reconciliation and justice are ultimately found in the gospel, where true unity and diversity are made possible through the blood of Christ. The world is desperate for this hope, and we have been called to declare and display the light of the gospel into the darkness of human society (1 Pet. 2:9). We believe that those who are responding to this injustice by looting, rioting, and retaliatory violence are adding to the darkness. We believe these responses are not in line with the gospel either and that we must continue to pursue a better and different way forward.

In the same way that remaining silent in the face of obvious injustice does not align with the gospel, we believe that conversations characterized by cynicism, suspicion, hatred, and hot-takes fail to reflect the beauty and hope of the gospel. We desire that our church can have and model meaningful, loving, empathetic, and courageous conversations about these issues. If the church is unable to engage about the important issues in this way, what hope is there for the world around us to do the same? 

Therefore, as your pastors, we want to call The King’s Church to the following postures and actions as citizens of the Kingdom of God. By God’s grace, we are committed to the following as we seek to step faithfully into this moment in a greater way than we have before:

1. Prayer & Lament

Prayer ought to be our first response in the face of injustice and brokenness. We speak frequently about “lament” at The King’s Church (see here) as a prayer posture the church needs to recover. Lament is an honest prayer to the Lord from a place of pain. There are brothers and sisters in Christ and people all across our country in pain right now. It is right that we lament and pray for the Lord to hear us, draw us to repentance where needed, and to intervene. As Paul urges the body of Christ: “If one member suffers, all suffer together.” (1 Cor. 12:26)

John Onwuchekwa powerfully connects the importance of the focus of our prayers and the issues that are threatening to divide us right now. 

“The prayer list—not the Sunday service elements, not the preaching style, not even the ethnic makeup of the leadership of the church—is often where the battle for diversity is won or lost. What makes the prayer list is often a reflection of who’s praying and whose problems are seen as real, relevant, and important. A friend of mine was a part of a church that refused to pray for anything related to Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin, Alton Sterling, Eric Gardner, Laquan McDonald, or any other African American who was killed at the hands of law enforcement, because those issues were ‘too politicized’ and would cause division in their church. This frustrated her. She didn’t want her church to march on Washington or hang a Black Lives Matter flag from the steeple. She simply wanted them to pray corporately on these matters because she knew they were deeply significant to many of the minorities in the church. . . . The battle for diversity is still won or lost here today. Diversity is more about priorities than programs. And a church prays for what it prioritizes. Your prayer lists essentially serve as price tags on current events and church concerns—assigning value or diminishing it. Therefore, don’t populate the prayer list in isolation. Populate the list with the concerns of all the flock. The honorable strides toward diversity are maximized when we pray together to our Father who has no favorite children (see Acts 10:34).”

John Onwuchekwa, Prayer: How Praying Together Shapes the Church, pgs. 101–02

Let us be a people of prayer in this way! Let us lament the state of our country, race relations, systemic injustice, and confess our own indifference or fear. Let us pray that riots and violence would stop and that all protests would remain peaceful and impactful. Pray for the protection of law enforcement personnel, who are being put in very difficult situations right now. Let us pray for real and lasting change in our country.  Let us ask God to move in a mighty way and to conform us more to the image of Christ so as to have the same heart that he has for these issues. 

Here are a few Scriptures to consider praying in Lament as a starting point: Habakkuk 1:2-4; Lamentations 5:1-22, Psalm 82:1-8.

2. Loving Compassion

The word used most frequently to describe Jesus’ emotional life in the gospel accounts is “compassion.” We also talk about this word frequently at The King’s Church. It means to deeply feel (literally to the depth of your intestines) someone else’s pain until their pain becomes your own. Jesus modeled this in an ultimate way by taking our pain all the way to the cross. We are called to embody this ethic of compassion in all our relationships. 

As such, we are called to be quick to listen and slow to speak (James 1:19). We are called to mourn with those who mourn (Rom. 12:15). As we pursue meaningful conversations, they ought to be characterized by the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22). Paul urges that our speech should always “be gracious and seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Col. 4:6). 

We call all of us to raise the bar of conversation to this level, beginning with our interactions with one another within our church. Every conversation we have with one another at our church - whether in person or online - ought to be marked by love, even when there are disagreements. This also ought to be true as we engage with those outside of our community of faith. If you are going to contribute to the conversation on social media or in any arena, please prayerfully consider if your post will promote grace and peace  and will helpfully contribute to the conversation. As it does, by all means please speak up!

3. Unity

Jesus reminds his followers: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). This calls us to be unified as the people of God around the gospel and its implications as we step into this (and every) cultural moment. 

It is important to remember that unity in the church does not mean uniformity. The church is designed to be a beautiful mosaic of different people, uniquely created and gifted, with unique experiences, strengths, and weakness all glued together by the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:3). The early church exploded through the Roman Empire by inexplicably uniting people from every tribe, tongue, nation, language, race, political persuasion, whether male, female, upper-class, lower-class, or any other point of division that exists between humans.

Our expectation is not that every single person in our church agrees on the many tensions and issues at stake in this current situation. But we do expect that we will pursue unity within the body of Christ, centered around the Truth found in the Scriptures. In order to do this, we are committed to modeling our core value of pursuing meaningful conversations that get us back to Jesus, the gospel, and the Scriptures. This is hard but necessary work for the church. Paul urges us to be “eager to maintain” this unity (Eph. 4:3). Brothers and sisters, let us not shy away from the hard conversations together.

4. Courageous Witness & Meaningful Action

The church is called to declare and display the gospel in the time and place that God has sovereignly placed us (Acts 17:26-27). We do not get to pick the time period or the society in which we are called to be faithful; God has called us here in 2020 in Lakeland to proclaim the gospel into the issues that we face right now. We have been reflecting on how we can do a better job equipping you for the work of ministry at this time from our preaching and teaching on issues related to justice, including the current focus on racial injustice. It is not that we have been silent, but do believe that we can and should be doing more. 

As we continue to preach the whole counsel of God’s Word, we are committed to speaking to these issues as they come up in the Scriptures, as they do often. Please know that we are actively pursuing some opportunities to be involved locally, in our own community, with meaningful action toward justice for all and racial reconciliation. We acknowledge that we should have made this more of a priority in the past. We hope to establish meaningful partnerships with this focus just as we have in other issues of honoring the image of God in all humans. We should have more specifics and opportunities to present to you in the near future. Please know that we are already committed to reading more widely on these issues, asking questions, praying, and presenting an action plan to our church. 

By God’s grace, let’s link arms and move forward together.

We love you,

Your Pastors:

Ian Thomas
Ryan Whitfield
Pat Kappenman

In the spirit of continuing this conversation, our pastors would like to invite you to a conversation over Zoom this Sunday (June 7th) @ 7:45pm. This will be a time to share more of our heart, pray together, & answer any questions you may have.