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From Riots to Reconciliation

First Christian Assembly of God, Cincinnati, Ohio

By Joel Kilpatrick

In a city scarred by recent race riots, First Christian Assembly, a 95-year-old church in the heart of Cincinnati, embarked on an ambitious racial diversification plan.

"The city saw us as a leading church, but the neighborhood around us didn’t know us at all," says Pastor Chris Beard. "We were a commuter church that was 99 percent white."

Then God spoke to Beard’s heart about forging relationships with African-American pastors and churches. He and the church planned joint picnics and prayer events, spoke about reconciliation from the pulpit, hired African-American staff members, and launched a class called Cultural Perspectives to help whites and blacks understand each other’s cultures.

The result has changed the church and contributed to a larger transformation in the city, where churches are crossing racial lines to sponsor a summit on racism, forging friendships, and joining together for major citywide prayer meetings.

But the first change for Beard came in his own heart, as he felt God instructing him to learn from pastors of other races.

"I had a lot of growing to do in understanding ministry as demonstration, not just declaration," says Beard. "[The African-American pastors in the city] had a greater concern for the whole life of an individual: employment, health of home life, what’s happening with people’s kids in school. Those weren’t things we thought about before. We thought if you believed in Jesus and came to church, that was good. Discipleship took on three dimensions for me. We embraced the idea that the whole church is responsible for the whole city with the whole gospel."

Beard depoliticized the language and tone of what was spoken from the pulpit, eliminating talk of taking back American culture.

"Bleeding the politics out of the pulpit was very big in making our church safe for all people," he says. "We stopped using white/right-wing political jargon and kept it on Kingdom things. When we talk about politics, it’s from a justice angle, not a ’save traditional America’ angle. Christians were never asked to save the culture, but to present the good news that Jesus Christ transforms lives. When we make it about the defending the culture, this makes enemies out of lost people. I believe the Lord is speaking to the church in America and saying to be a First Peter Church, to be the body of Christ in the context of your nation, to harvest and thrive, not take it over."

As a result, Beard says, the church’s message is inclusive of all political views, and people’s energy goes into Kingdom things: evangelism, missions, compassion ministries. They feel more at peace with unbelievers and see their personal witness grow because "they don’t feel the need to correct people on their politics," he says.

Today, FCA is 15 percent people of color. African-American pastors are often guests in the pulpit, "and not just in February (Black History Month)," says Beard. The pain and sense of disparity between urban and suburban communities that boiled up in the 2001 riots is slowly healing.

"God is pouring a vision into the churches in Cincinnati to become more racially complete," says Beard. "It’s gotten our attention. We’re all laying down our agendas to seek the face of God."

–Joel Kilpatrick is an author and journalist living in Thousand Oaks, California.