Pastor John, we talk a lot about multiculturalism in the church.

And the question for today is this.

What does the church offer the world in race reconciliation realistically?

Is the church primarily a place to model racial harmony for the world or does the church

bear responsibility to address police brutality and spearhead brawler social changes?

Well, would you say to listeners into leaders who are trying to figure this out?

Well, let me start with a provocative statement, maybe, which would go like this.

The church is not responsible for the condition of the world.

The church is responsible for the condition of the church.

And let me supplement that statement with a second one, which I hope refines it.

The church is responsible to address the condition of the world and point the world to Jesus Christ

as a great Savior from the wrath of God and the guilt of sin, a Savior who gives the power

to be just and loving as a person in the world.

And if you put those two statements together, there are really big implications that follow,

I think.

And one is that if the church successfully takes responsibility for the church, one of

the ways that the church will address the condition of the world is by the alternative community

that it is or is becoming.

In other words, whatever transformation happens in the world is not a primary focus of

the church, but a reflex of her focus on being a new kind of people in the world.

You are the light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

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