Pastor speaks at reconciliation event

CANTON, Ohio--"Unless racial reconciliation is grounded in truth and justice it will not stand." These words set the theme for pastor Ted Johnston's address to 150 Promise Keepers gathered in Canton April 30. The focus of the men's ministry gathering was racial reconciliation. Mr. Johnston pastors WCG congregations in Canton and Akron, Ohio. He was invited by the Promise Keepers county task force to share the story of the transformation of the Worldwide Church of God and to discuss the implications of that journey for racial reconciliation within the body of Christ at large.

Mr. Johnston noted that the church has been given a ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). As it pertains to racial reconciliation, Christianity in general has not lived up to this calling.

In particular, the church has often distorted and diluted the truth and justice of the gospel--the message about the means for reconciliation between God and man and, therefore, between groups of men.

The effect of such distortion is clearly seen in the WCG experience, Mr. Johnston said. With an emphasis on British-Israelism and old covenant separatism, nonwhites in the WCG were unwittingly relegated to the second class citizenry they often experienced outside the church.

By God's power and mercy, however, those days in the WCG are passing away, Mr. Johnston said. The WCG now walks in the grace of the new covenant, basing practice and belief on the clear light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And as it pertains to the imperative of racial reconciliation within the church, that gospel loudly proclaims, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).

The oneness that neutralizes divisions between people groups will never be realized through good intentions or lofty slogans, Mr. Johnston said. Such reconciliation only comes through the truth and justice of God, given to those who follow where the gospel leads. Following is never easy. Sometimes it is costly.

The cost to follow has been great for the WCG as a fellowship and for its members individually. But that cost will never come near what the Lord Jesus paid so that we can stand reconciled to God and to each other.

Mr. Johnston encouraged the men to know that racial reconciliation is possible. The task of all those who love the Lord is to hear God's call to the ministry of reconciliation and then to obey what his call sets out for us to do.

Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 1998