How can our church do a better job of embracing the new immigrants among us?
Unity Month is a not only a time to celebrate progress, but to strategize for a better future. We realize that with new immigrants, there are fresh tensions that warrant a new era of multiracial dialogue. Our denomination needs participate in the discussion.

I have the joy of serving at Faith Christian Fellowship (FCF), a PCA congregation in urban Baltimore, Md., that seeks to reflect the heavenly vision recorded in Revelation 7:9–10:

9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

Because I am African-American and a pastor at FCF, I am occasionally asked, “What does FCF do for Black History Month? Is it celebrated, or is it ignored?”

Our church exists to develop grace-filled followers of Jesus among the diverse people of Baltimore so that both the vertical and horizontal implications of the cross are clearly understood. God has reconciled believers to himself (vertical) through Christ and reconciled believers to one another (horizontal). The unity that we share at the foot of the cross is more important than our racial, cultural, gender, or socioeconomic diversity.

Therefore every February is “Unity Month” at FCF. During this time our congregation reflects on the horizontal nature of reconciliation. Rather than focusing solely on the powerful story of black history in America, we choose to focus on the powerful, unifying cross of Christ (Ephesians 2:11–18).

It is my duty and privilege to create the annual Unity Month agenda. Because I have witnessed incredible shifts during the past 50 years, I want the month’s activities to remind us of several things.

Remember and Celebrate
First, I want us to remember that racial tensions have been a sad reality of American society and church life. Unity Month at FCF is a time to remember and celebrate where we have come from.

We cannot disconnect from our heritage. I recall one particular Sunday morning during my childhood when we were driving to the black Baptist church in northwest Washington, D.C.

Read More: byfaithonline.com/page/in-the-church/race-in-the-pca-yearning-for-unity-in-diversity-2

[Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced in this article is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]

Co-Pastor Stanley J. Long joined the FCF staff March 1, 2000 after serving as solo pastor of Forest Park Reformed Presbyterian Church, an African American PCA congregation in West Baltimore, for almost nine years. After his 1976 graduation from Frostburg (Md.) State College with a bachelor’s in history, Long served university students in Maryland through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s Black Campus Ministry for 11 years. He then went to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Ill., where he earned a Master’s of Divinity in 1989. Married to Terri since 1981, the couple has five children.