The elders tried to space out as best we could in a stuffy children’s Sunday school classroom in our church basement. Some elders wore masks. Others slipped them off in the stifling summer heat of the American Deep South, the kind that not even air conditioning can vanquish.
The topic provided no relief from the uncomfortable conditions. During the depths of that devastating summer of 2020, we met as elders to discuss what to do about the rising racial tensions in our city and across the country. Earlier that summer our church had been warned to guard against vandalism. That week, Sunday afternoon protests that began with speeches by pastors devolved after dark into riots that damaged several downtown businesses.
Our mostly white, mostly young church could hardly be described as diverse. That’s not unusual in our unusually segregated city. Still, given our city’s history, we felt responsible for guiding our congregation toward biblical hope and justice during these distressing days.
That summer presented a unique challenge to church leaders across the United States. Politics, pandemic, and race relations combined in ways that vexed the wisest, most experienced pastors. As I looked around the elders meeting, it was obvious that
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