Exit Interviews

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
                                                   -- 1 Corinthians 4:20

I ran across this verse today as I was reading Richard Foster's book Streams of Living Water regarding the charismatic tradition of Christian spirituality. How easily we 'domesticate God', leaving little room in our lives for the powerful working of the Spirit.

I thought of it again as I read Ed Gilbreath's recent piece in Christianity Today, titled Exit Interviews: Why Blacks are Leaving Evangelical Ministries. He says,

As Christians, it's possible for us to do wonderfully holy things cross-culturally without ever experiencing a fundamental change in our thinking. To break out of the monochromatic status quo of today's evangelical movement, we must confront hard truths about ourselves and about the things that truly drive our institutions.

Which brings to mind Paul's words in Romans, that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

This power, this transformation, isn't something that we can generate on our own. We're going to need the power of the Spirit individually as well as corporately if we ever want to bridge the racial divide in the American church. I know, I know. Thus saith the white girl living in Switzerland. But I've been confronted over the last few days with some of the 'hard truths' about myself, and I'm discovering that I'm part of the problem. And I probably don't know the half of it. I need to start learning, to start paying attention to voices I've ignored without even noticing I was tuning them out. So as I come across some of these resources, I'll continue to post them here.