#372: How To Pastor Your Church Through Polarizing Political Times with Pastor Alan Hannah

I’ve said for years that being a senior pastor is one of the most difficult jobs in the world. Yes, you have the responsibility to shepherd people and preach the Word of God. And when growth comes fast, you are forced to become a CEO of a corporation, in addition to pastoring people. You all of a sudden have a large staff and financial pressures that weigh heavily. But even more challenging – in my opinion – is pastoring in America where – for many Americans – faith is tied to their politics. This was no more evident in the wake of the terrible assassination of Charlie Kirk. If you were paying attention, you could see every imaginable reaction to his death in pulpits across America.

A week after this happened, I invited my friend Alan Hannah to have a conversation. Alan is the Lead Pastor of a historic, thriving multicultural church in the city of Pittsburgh called ACAC – Allegheny Center Alliance Church. I didn’t want to throw around opinions about Charlie Kirk as much as I wanted to talk about how do we pastor people in a polarizing political climate? ACAC is a true multicultural church – diverse ethnically, socio-economically, and very diverse politically. Prior to Alan becoming the senior pastor, ACAC had been on a significant journey in the 90s of addressing white supremacy and racist ideologies in their church. At the time, ACAC was predominantly white and looked nothing like the community they were called to serve. Repentance, courageous vision, and education went a long way. And today, ACAC continues to fight for their missions statement: following Jesus in diverse community.

This conversation is a little bit about Charlie Kirk, but it’s more about disentangling Jesus from our politics to realize the enemy is not on the other side of the voting bloc. How do we pastor people in cultural moments like this in a biblical way? How do we address racism as a church? What does it take to actually become a health multicultural church? I’ll give you a hint: it’s more than hiring a black worship leader. Alan and I discuss this and so much more in this insightful, balanced, pastoral conversation.

Topics Covered:

• The journey from Worship & Creative Pastor to Lead Pastor
• Transitioning from a white, suburban, homogenous church to an inner city, multicultural environment
• The cliche answer to ministry fruitfulness that shouldn’t be a cliche
• The troubled and difficult history of ACAC and how they began to embrace diversity as a church
• How to address racism as a multicultural congregation
• How to pastor republicans and democrats in the same church

Resources Mentioned:

• Show Sponsor: Planning Center
• ACAC
• Jesus Outside the Lines by Scott Sauls

Show Sponsor:

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