I think the Christian church is experiencing Phyllis Tickle’s 500-year reformation theory, and therefore we need some in-depth reflections on the issues that are before us. I’m drawing on over fifty years of parish ministry.
After 2 years in the Peace Corps from 1963 to 1965, I returned from Peru to enter seminary at Union Theological seminary in New York city. Full of idealism, I was determined to confront both racism and poverty in an inner-city parish. During my second year at the seminary, I attended a lecture by Stokely Carmichael. In the middle of this lecture, he paused, looked around the room, and slowly resumed by saying, “I know you are against prejudice, injustice, racism, etc.,” then he paused again, and I think he pointed his finger at us. (I’m not sure of that) “but I don’t want you to come down into the ghetto and try to get rid of your guilt off my back. Take your ministry out into the suburbs where the White people with the money and power are that maintain this racist structure and fight it there.”
I’m sure he said many other things that night, but that message buried into my heart and altered the direction of my ministry. Over the next 38 years, a central theme of my ministry in my three mostly Caucasian churches was to both seek to overcome my own racism and to nurture my congregation to do the same. A piece of my story can be seen in one of my books describing the work of the Presbyterian Interracial Dialogue in Winston Salem where I spent the last 23 years of my ministry. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Stephen+McCutchan&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
Since retirement, I’ve focused a great part of my energies on creating resources in two major areas of ministry. The first was creating resources that supported clergy in an increasingly stressful vocation. Healthy Clergy Make Healthy Congregations is a nine-volume series in that area. You can see them on my webpage, www.smccutchan.com where I also blog twice a week.
The second area of concentration was my continuing effort to fulfill my own silent commitment in response to the challenge of Mr. Carmichael. How do I help predominantly White churches address the issue of racism both in their lives and in the life of the church? As one example, Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, describes the shameful history of the power of racism to distort the practice of our faith in this country. There were a number of times, if it weren’t for my trust in God who was able to transform the evil of the crucifixion into a sign of hope, I would have given up.
During those years of ministry, I think I have learned some ways in which churches can confront the racism in our churches and society and grow spiritually in the process. I’ve tried to spell out that possibility in a novel, Shock and Awe: A Church Recognizes Its Racism and is Awed by God’s Invitation, (recently reissued with the subtitle—how the Church can End Racism in the United States) and two non-fiction step-by-step guide books, Racism and God’s Invitation, Our faith invites us to move beyond DENIAL AND GUILT and my second book Racism and God’s Grace: Truth and Reconciliation for American Churches.
I am currently working on an 8 or more video seminar that either an individual or a company of pastors could use to engage first the leadership and then the membership of their churches in responding to the racism in our churches and our society from a spiritual perspective. My hope is that by beginning with the faith of the members and building a church-wide conversation via the internet on how we can address the racism that plagues our society, we will not only offer a healing witness to our society but also grow spiritually in the process.
If we build on Phyllis Tickle’s thesis about a major transformation in the church every 500 years, a major change in the Christian community may be evolving as we struggle with the pandemic and the increasing evidence of racism in both our churches and society. The pandemic has forced us to reconsider the meaning of community among Christians. In the process, it has exposed a larger part of our community to both the dangers and the promise of the internet to connect us. What I am suggesting is that we can take advantage of the internet to engage in a church-wide conversation about faith and its message of hope and healing for a fractured society.
Together with some pastor colleagues, we can explore how to engage other churches, both geographical neighbors, and neighbors around the world, in a faith conversation about the “story we have to “tell to the nations.” That may be fantasy, but it is one that excites this 83-year-old pastor. A brief introduction to my strategy is contained in this eight minute video https://youtu.be/9KDbPG-BObQ
As I both read church history and reflect back on my 50-year journey, I think the excessive individualism in our society has seduced the church, and part of our 500-year reformation will need to include a renewed emphasis on community both within and among churches. I am suggesting that we are “saved” into a community, the Body of Christ, and offered the opportunity to reveal to our larger society a different vision of hope and healing that we call the Kingdom of God or God’s will being done ON EARTH as it is in heaven.
With respect to racism, for example, what would be the impact, if we gathered each Sunday not as a gathering of individuals but as a community taking responsibility for “loving our neighbor.” We could confess sins on behalf of our neighbor and experience the power of grace to set us free from guilt and fear to address our divisions and take action toward community. One of my videos explores an adaption of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa as a practice of our own Christian truths in community.
I am seeking twenty or more clergy who want to work with me in devising a strategy to assist our churches in addressing racism in our society. If that interests you, contact me at McCutchanpublishing@gmail.com and I will send you an initial outline of steps we can take to engage in telling our story to the nations. Also continue reading this blog for at www.smccutchan.com for further information and resources.
Well done, I hope that you receive many responses.