City on a Hill Network Statement on Racial Justice

We have been public witnesses to racial injustice in the form of the recent murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. These have been protested, not because it is new but because these explicit acts of racism and white supremacy typify the treatment of black and brown people in America over the last 400 years. This has been jarring for some as they are made painfully aware for the first time of the horrific actions that black and brown people in America have lived and experienced for many generations. For others, many of whom include our fellow black and brown brothers and sisters in Christ, this has just been an ongoing reality and isolating burden to bear once again.

We cry out in lament because of the murder of yet another black person at the hands of police. The disproportionate policing and killing of black and brown Americans in comparison to white Americans and other racially motivated murders of people of color are alarming and indicative of a deeper, systemic problem. As a network of churches, we cry out for justice to be done in these cases as it has failed to have been done in the past with other image bearers of God who were unjustly murdered such as Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Philando Castille, Eric Garner, Laquan McDonald, Alton Sterling, Atatiana Jefferson, and countless others. We cry out to God because we are gospel people.

Because we are gospel people, the church is called to address and fight against all forms of racial injustice, systemic racism, and white supremacy. While majority culture churches in America have not historically taken a consistent and righteous stand against such evils, we seek to make things right and to serve as a model for others within our community, like a City on a Hill. 

What does it mean that we are “a gospel people”?

Being a gospel people means that our only hope in life and death is that we are not our own but belong to God. Each of us has been called to God, not based on our religious performance, skin color, background, family heritage, reputation, or ethnic identity, but by his grace alone. Therefore, we believe that the universal Church is what God had intended it to be: a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. The Revelation 7:9 vision of a future day when people from every ethnicity will worship Jesus tells us two things. Jesus is King and our ethnic differences have a unique beauty that was important for the Apostle John to note.

Being a gospel people means that we are called together to be a new people from every race and ethnic group. This means anyone and everyone who trusts Jesus Christ as Lord and is humble enough to follow him is part of his family. Therefore, we are called to love, serve, care for, and bear the burdens of our new family members (along with all the other “one another” statements of the New Testament). Ephesians 2 describes how Jesus broke down the dividing wall of hostility between different ethnic groups in order to create a new type of people. The new identity found in Ephesians 2 is not the end of Christ’s work in us but the beginning and grounds from which he intends to root out sinful ideologies, idolatries, and divisions from amongst his people.  As the church, we must be committed to addressing all the ways we have failed to practically live out our radical diversity in uncommon unity. This commitment means addressing racism in our own hearts, addressing ways that people of color have been hurt within our congregations, and committing to the lifelong process of God making us a holy people.  This also means coming alongside the people of color in our congregation to advocate for their fair and equitable treatment and flourishing of every person in our churches, our city, and the world.   

Being a gospel people also means that no one culture dominates or characterizes the church.  The church should be a place where we celebrate ethnic differences, which ultimately reflect the beauty and dignity of God's diverse image bearers.  Therefore, we reject white supremacy of all forms, both explicit and covert. We are committed to the ongoing work of anti-racism and do so in light of Christ’s redemptive work for us in order to love God and his creation, which includes loving our neighbor.

Being a gospel people means that we repent of our sins and all the ways we have been complicit historically in upholding racism and white supremacy and how we have failed to boldly live out our new collective identity.  Whether through fear, ignorance, insensitivity, implicit bias, or more overt forms of racism, there have been times in our congregations where people of color were not heard, valued, or dignified as full image bearers of Christ.  We repent of all the ways that we have not lived from the reconciliation given to us in Jesus.  We repent of the times we did not listen, empathize, speak up, mourn with those who mourn nor weep with those who weep.  We seek to be churches that turn away from these things through repentance, conversation, action, and prayer.  

Being a gospel people means that we seek to do justice, seek mercy, and plead the case of the vulnerable and oppressed (Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:17) in Christ-centered ways. In part, this means seeking to address and condemn racial injustice and white supremacy by calling them the sinful expressions of the human heart that they are and working for the full flourishing of all people according to God’s good design found in the Bible.

Being a gospel people means we cling to Jesus together. What we are experiencing is the direct effect of the Fall. Racism and racist systems are a manifestation of the hideousness of our broken condition. Yet, the good news is that Jesus came to pay for our sins, take our guilt and shame away, and will make everything right, undoing every evil in our fallen world.  As redeemed people, we look forward, with hope to when all things will be made new and work toward the end of injustice and oppression so that God’s kingdom will be “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).  

So, what can we do as gospel people to work for racial justice and reconciliation?

We commit to:

Pray

Pray for God to give us his heart for justice and mercy. We pray for him to open our eyes to the hurting around us, to be the healer of deep wounds. We pray that God would help us see the blindspots and biases in our own lives in order that we may repent of our sins. We pray for humility to consider others before ourselves and courage to pursue godly action.

Lament 

We are called to “mourn with those who mourn and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). We cry out against the explicit expressions of racial injustice seen in the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor as well as the continued systemic, implicit and institutional forms of injustice which disproportionately affect people of color. We lament the ways in which American churches have been complicit in racism, turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to injustice, and failed to be a prophetic voice that calls out sin and pursues righteousness.

Listen

We commit to take time to hear the hearts and stories of others, particularly those who face the daily experiences of explicit and implicit racism. We want to be slow to speak and quick to listen so we can care for and serve one another.

Learn

We commit to grow in our learning and understanding of God’s Word and the subjects of race, the Gospel, and responsible action as God’s people. This must include a commitment to learn from, highlight, and incorporate voices and influences in our teaching from varied cultural backgrounds. It will also include seminars and classes, books, resources, and other material aimed at helping grow our churches in our understanding of the theological, historical, and local implications of the Gospel concerning race and justice.

Act 

We are called to put practical steps to our faith. We want to encourage, educate, and equip believers to respond to issues of justice proactively as Christ-centered people in our advocacy and protest. 

We will seek to intentionally and consistently examine the ways in which we worship, pursue community, build friendships, develop leaders, and make disciples in order to see them more fully reflect the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural diversity within our churches  and within God’s kingdom.

Because City on a Hill is a network of autonomous churches, each body of believers must and will consider how they develop and employ specific action within their specific contexts and neighborhoods

We recognize as a network that these tasks are not just difficult, they are impossible if attempted by our own power or strength. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are committed to do our part collectively to reflect the love of God within our communities. We trust in the power of the Spirit of God, who has mercifully led us to this moment of conviction, faith, and repentance. To our triune God be all the glory.