 In 1963, Martin Luther King opined: “At 11:00 on Sunday morning when we stand and sing and Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segregated hour in this nation.”
Underneath’s Kings unfortunate statement are a plethora of social, cultural and theological barriers that make for this divide. But 46 years later, as the country has struggled to make progress toward race, many churches still seem content to languish in King’s analysis. Two local congregations, Imani Community Church and Piedmont Community Church, which on the surface may appear to have little in common, have courageously decided to accept King’s challenge. Piedmont is predominantly white, Imani is primarily African American. The formulation of this relationship, not coincidentally, occurred during the height of the Jeremiah Wright controversy and presidential candidate Barack Obama’s speech on race. Piedmont’s pastor, Dr. Bill McNabb reached out to Imani’s pastor, Dr. George Cummings, prompting a forum on race involving the two congregations. Following the forum, both pastors took an unofficial temperature of their congregations. What they discovered was a yearning for more. But the “more” was not uncovering additional information about any apparent differences they may hold about race, rather it was a genuine desire to be in community. This subsequently took on the form of pulpit exchanges, several of Imani’s young people, accompanied Piedmont’s youth to Mexico during spring break to build a home, and several of the men from each church are in conversation about participating in joint events. “From my point of view, this is a manifestation of what the gospel is all about,” Cummings said.
McNabb shares Cummings’ enthusiasm. “In ministry there is almost nothing that I’ve ever done where someone hasn’t objective. But this is something where we haven’t had one person say we shouldn’t be doing this,” he said. What makes Imani and Piedmont newsworthy is their willingness to take a risk by stepping beyond the sociological constructs that has most of us stuck. It is easier to fall back on our traditions of familiarity than to risk the unknown. That doesn’t apply exclusively to churches; it is commonplace in our society. When King opposed the conflict in Vietnam in 1967, he astutely observed the irony of poor black and whites engaged in the brutal solidarity of burning huts together in Southeast Asia, but could not attend school together in many of America’s cities; and they would be less likely to worship together. We witnessed this phenomenon last year as Jeremiah’s Wright’s sound bites were analyzed mainly through the preconceived understandings that individuals already held. Historically, the church has been more reflective of these societal norms. Sunday morning tends to be more segregated because so many of us for various reasons still live in, if not segregated, isolated communities.
Therefore, I contend sociology more than theology is the leading contributor to Sunday morning being the way it is. There are definitely theological constructs that help to keep communities divided, but fundamentally it is about relationships and how those relationships are fostered, which tends to be more of a sociological barrier.
The journey that Imani and Piedmont are embarking is not an easy one. It is a road paved with unpredictability. This is why risk is so crucial to the undertaking. Risk is how we discover similarities and differences beyond the obvious, and it is how trust is developed in order to engage in authentic relationships. Though the relationship began with a forum on race and has moved into collective worship, hopefully the risks and the trust developed will bear fruit that will positively impact those who may not attend either congregation.
It’s quite possible that the relationship between Imani and Piedmont will produce little more than what already exists. But change is not defined solely by the end result; the journey is equally important. What Imani and Piedmont have are seeds of commitment, fortified by pastoral leadership and mutual risk. They also share a desire to create something that will transcend the walls of the edifice to reach the least, the lost, and the last. King would indeed be pleased.
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