Racial Unity

Racial unity has a vertical answer, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which compels us to a horizontal action, ultimately bringing healing and justice.

At Bel Air Church, we are endeavoring to be a community that follows Jesus every day, and everywhere, with everyone.

Following Jesus leaves ZERO room for racism, prejudice, discrimination, and anything that harms the image of God in another person.

To that end, it leaves ZERO room for us to see or treat others differently than how Jesus treats them: with dignity, respect, and sacrificial love.

Sin has created a very long laundry list of all the ways humans can love yourself above your neighbor rather than “loving your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31) and we must avoid these things as individuals and as a community.

Moreover, it is not enough to simply avoid these things.

Jesus has called all of us to the highest calling: to proactively be ministers of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:14–21)

May the power of Jesus through the Holy Spirit transform and unite us as we endeavor to grow as ministers of reconciliation every day, everywhere, and with everyone.

Email excerpts from Senior Pastor & Head of Staff, Rev. Dr. Drew Sams, to the congregation (October 12, 2020)

Articulation Task Force

In November of 2020, a working group made up of members of Bel Air’s Session (the elected and ordained leadership) of Bel Air Church was formed around the issue of racial unity. Recognizing that a diversity of perspective was hindering us from truly hearing and knowing one another well, this group committed itself to wrestling, listening, and learning from one another and from a variety of members within our church family. The seven-member task force was comprised of 50% of currently-seated ruling elders and 50% of the pastoral team.

This has been and will be a work in progress. There are no quick fixes or easy answers. There is only the work of a long obedience in the same direction (as Eugene Peterson would say).

To this end, we commit ourselves to the ongoing next steps of equipping our congregation, in word and deed, to love our neighbors as ourselves in ways that reflect the heart of God for all humanity as revealed in Scripture.

Some thoughts from the Articulation Task Force members:

“The love of God brought us together to reach out to our brothers and sisters who have been marginalized, hurt, and ignored so we could hear their voice. What I took away from our group is love the neighbor. The question however, is who are our neighbors and how do we define them?”

“My time on the Articulation Task Force is an example of what needs to take place in the larger Christian community — an intentional time spent discussing, thinking, praying, and listening to various perspectives on race and diversity. I so appreciate the brave people on our committee but also those we met with who displayed courage, honesty, and transparency. This was only a beginning step and I hope and pray that we can multiply our work and experience for the benefit of everyone in our Church.”

“Serving with the Articulation Task Force is perhaps some of the most important work I’ve done as a pastor of Bel Air Church. It’s a matter of caring for the one and the many. It’s a matter of emptying ourselves, really emptying ourselves, in order to come as empty vessels to God and ask Him to fill us with His thoughts, His ways, His love, and His compassion. We need God’s mind in us. As shepherds of this church, our highest calling is to lead well, love well, and create a safe and nourishing pasture for all. May God give us this wisdom and ability.”

“I learned never to underestimate what can happen when we listen to one another’s stories, enter into one another’s pain, lament our brokenness, and experience the beautiful forgiveness and healing that only comes through the power of the Holy Spirit. This work isn’t easy, but it is God’s work, it is necessary work, and entirely worth the time, energy, imagination, and love.”

“While we talked about needing an action plan or what next steps might look like, I think the very important first step of listening well needs to continue. In our meetings, we learned to listen well to one another. Then we listened to others from our congregation, really listened, so that we could learn and so that we could understand better. Now we need others, in fact, everyone, to join us in this first step of listening well to one another.”

“We must pursue life with people who are different than ourselves as we embrace Christ’s spirit in us on this journey. If we listen with love and allow space for lament, hearing the hearts of our black community can be healing. It’s never too little and it’s never too late to start learning to listen. Just as God’s work in us is unfinished so is our work to grow better in these issues unfinished. And there can be peace with our imperfection, and imperfections around racism in the church, because we look to and lean on Jesus as the great redeemer and hope for us in a long work.”

“One of the big surprises to me has been how powerful it is to create a safe place for a deep Christ-centered discussion of the issues that are causing pain in our society. It’s evident to me that we all see life through the tiny keyhole of our personal experience. What we believe someone else’s experience to be – whether favorable or unfavorable – is probably inaccurate. So it’s all-important that we center ourselves in Christ and listen to one another. It’s only by understanding each other’s personal experiences that we can triangulate on the clearer truth of what’s happening and how to fix it. And through this type of fellowship, I’ve been reminded of the beauty of our church family, and that Christ is the rock that every solution must stand upon.”

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