“We can’t love Christ and love his word and ignore the gospel imperative to love each other.” — Courtney Doctor

In our polarized world, Christians should be constantly demonstrating a better way toward unity. In this panel discussion at TGC21 (moderated by Vanessa Hawkins), Courtney Doctor, Suzanne Bates, Ruth Chou Simons, and Dennae Pierre discuss the barriers to gospel-centered racial unity and practical ways we can move forward.

Some of these barriers to racial unity can include: fear of people who are different from us, lack of awareness of others’ experiences, and the cost of investing time into these hard conversations. In foolishness and pride, we might see these as simple problems that need to be fixed. In humility and grace, we can listen to and learn from each other’s complex experiences.

If we are going to build a diverse church, we must be intentional. The panel discusses that reading books on ethnic and racial diversity, attending an ethnic church different from your own, and creating local spaces to have hard conversations, are some practical ways forward with Christ at the center.