Black History Month service in Euless

Black History Month
service in Euless, Texas

EULESS, Texas—The New Hope Christian Fellowship (WCG) of Euless conducted a service Feb. 9 to celebrate Black History Month.

Cynthia Chizen, a member of the Dallas Central Gospel Chorus, led the congregation in worship. Barry Ford, a Dallas Central deacon, led the Gospel Chorus in a number of selections, and Murdock "Doc" Gibbs, an elder in the Dallas North church, gave the sermon.

10-Tom Pickett.jpg (9977 bytes) Pastor Tom Pickett introduced the Gospel Chorus after the worship service was opened in prayer. Mr. Ford spoke about the fact that there is no need for an annual apology from the church for the injustices that have been done in the past to blacks. He recommended going forward in a friendship relationship as brothers and sisters.

Mr. Ford shared that part of going forward would be to learn more about black members’ experiences with racism. He added that if we never discuss these experiences, our relationships will be limited much in the same way they would be limited if we never discussed a former prisoner’s imprisonment with him or her.

The chorus dedicated its first song, "Stretch Out Your Hand," to America’s need for reconciliation.

Doc Gibbs shared how he teaches schoolchildren about the origins of black slavery and the resulting discrimination that occurred especially in the southern United States. He also shared that the hardest question for him to answer from these schoolchildren is: "Why didn’t the white churches let black people worship with them?"

That led into the crux of his sermon, that God wants wholehearted Christians. He titled the message, "Whole Hearts Create Holy Hearts." Hearts that are wholly committed to God stand up for fairness, equity and justice. He noted that wholeheartedness is not a partner to partiality, favoritism and racism.

Mr. Gibbs described how the poor examples of Christians affected two influential leaders of China and India and how they turned away from Christianity because of how they were treated or how they saw Christians discriminate against minorities.

He discussed Martin Luther King Jr.’s disappointment with the lack of support from the Christian community for the civil rights movement as Dr. King had felt certain that Christian churches would see the inherent rightness of the movement from its inception. Mr. Gibbs also described the growth that occurred in the first century church after it properly addressed the matter of discrimination against the Hellenistic widows as described in Acts 6.

Food and fellowship followed after the worship service. Peggy Hohertz.

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