GCx and Racism

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[Ned_Flanders]

Was racism another problem of GCx?  

GCx always talked about a desire to "reach the world" with the gospel of Jesus Christ.  However, looking back, it seems thatmost of their outreach was exclusively to White people.  Of course, they need salvation, too but I sometimes wonder if subtle or maybe even overt racism was just another of that Church's many problems.  Does anyone feel like they saw instances of racism or cultural discrimination from GCxers towards any members of color/different cultures? 

But now, this goes beyond GCx.  Not sure if politics is taboo here but many of you may have heard 81% of evangelicals voted for Trump.  I know other issues were involved but what kind of witness does it send to the world to vote for a man supported by White Supremacists?  

I haven't spoken to most of those people from that Church for years but I would not be surprised to know they were a part of that 81%.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql6elsdk3qo

[Digital Lynch Mob]

The Urban Refuge and the Rock Mpls were specifically planted in locations to try to break through cultural/racial barriers. They partnered with inner city churches, have done in town mission weeks to serve the inner city. Evergreen Lakeville has been reaching out to the Hispanic community for years.

[LuisCamachoIII]

Here's some examples to the contrary:

Andy Gray, one of the pastor's at Evergreen Urban Refuge, was recently give the Richfield Outstanding Citizen award for his work in race relations: https://www.hometownsource.com/sun_current/news/local/richfield-outstanding-citizen-award-comes-with-ideological-differences/article_10e75107-aab4-5129-8639-6b2a5adfde4a.html

    "When it came time for the Richfield Human Rights Commission to select the winner of its Gene and Mary Jacobsen Outstanding Citizen Award for 2016, a pastor at a south Minneapolis church shot to the top of the list, thanks to his work on race relations."

Evergreen Lakeville has been reaching out to a local Hispanic community for the last 4 years. I'm also Hispanic and nobody has been racist against me--though the thought of it sure makes me laugh .

And one our pastors is black. And one of the pastors at the Urban Refuge is black. And there's a guy that goes to Evergreen Bloomington that works full time in a Muslim Outreach organization. Also one of the Pastors works part time with TreeHouse which is an inner city outreach ministry.

Plus, GCLA exists: http://english.igcla.com/

So no problems with race over here 

[Huldah]

But now, this goes beyond GCx.  Not sure if politics is taboo here but many of you may have heard 81% of evangelicals voted for Trump.  I know other issues were involved but what kind of witness does it send to the world to vote for a man supported by White Supremacists?  

I haven't spoken to most of those people from that Church for years but I would not be surprised to know they were a part of that 81%.

I'm not sure I would read a lot into that. The last election was strange. We had two extremely polarizing candidates. Some people were rabidly enthusiastic about their candidates, while others just held their noses and voted for whomever they perceived to be the lesser of two evils.

[Differentstrokes]

Y'all know I'm no great fan of gcm, but I would vouch for Andy Gray! He's one of the few pastors I've maintained a (distant) relationship with, he's a good man. And the urban refuge seems to have done an amazing job addressing racial issues and stuff, I follow them on FB still. In my time in gc, I never heard anything about race addressed or acknowledged at all, and my church was pretty white... but there were only a few people who I would say were outright racist (one person told me to make sure I avoid a certain campus because "that's where all the black people go") 

[Free in Christ]

I would agree with others that I've never seen examples of systemic racism in GCC. Most of the churches I know of personally are primarily white, but I think that is partly because they were focused around large universities that happened to not be very diverse. You could question the homogeneity of the church as symptomatic of some of the wider issues, but I don't think that is inherently tied to racism. (And you could question the subtle racism that keeps all our churches relatively segregated across the country, but that would apply to most/many churches throughout the country, not only GCC.) GCC churches have been intentionally started in Latino communities to reach that group, along with outreaches/sister churches in Central America.

-ex GCer