For hundreds of years, whites enforced segregation, and blacks adjusted to it. Unfortunately, this is basically where we are ecclesiastically. During slavery, whites had church on the main floor of a building, and blacks—when they were allowed in—went to the balcony. Eventually, blacks formed their own churches, and nobody seemed to care. We “circled the wagons,” and now we can’t get them un-circled.

The following article is the second in a seven-part series discussing racial issues in the PCA, each one written by an African-American with pastoral experience in the denomination…

The negative effects of racial segregation in America’s past are yet exerting force on the church. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not powerless in this struggle; I believe it has the ability to make right whatever is wrong with the church.

However, I think the church is far from finished with the race problem.
I have been a pastor in several denominations: the Church of God in Christ, Missionary Baptist (both predominately black), and the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). My 14-year journey in the PCA landed me in a cross-cultural church and in a predominately black congregation—an anomaly in this denomination.

I want to stress that the following comments about race, culture, and church are not from the standpoint of despair or anger. As a pastor of two black churches, I heard what black people said and saw what they did. Though my last church was in a middle-class setting, I have pastored blacks in north St. Louis, Mo., and blacks on Army installations. In each setting, the comments about racial division in the church follow the cliché: “same stuff, different day.”

Read More: http://byfaithonline.com/page/in-the-church/the-divided-church-a-racial-reality

[Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced in this article is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]