Matt Sparks is the Lead Pastor of Anchor Church. He recently spent some time in the US for the Acts 29 Lead Pastors Retreat, these are some reflections from his trip.
When we planned our trip to America, we weren’t prepared for the storm we were about to walk into.
As we arrived, news broke of two African American men shot by police, followed by the shooting of 12 Dallas PD Officers, a KKK style-lynching, more police shootings, and more retaliations in Baton Rouge. It was certainly an interesting and intense time to be there. In fact, I received Safe Traveller alerts from the Australian Government advising travellers to exercise caution on their journey.
Amongst the chaos, I found myself very quickly reaching for Australian solutions to American problems; Gun by-back scheme, it worked for us! Don’t vote for Trump. Police like we do in Australia. Simple!
As I spent time listening, I found my perceived solutions less and less satisfying. The issues are way more complex than what my Facebook feed was telling me.
I had the privilege of preaching at Collective Church on the Westside of Los Angeles. I spoke about the proclivity of the human heart to compare and self-justify. I didn’t realise how quickly I’d need to preach that message to myself.
All of a sudden I became self-righteous about how great Australian culture, safety, policing and gun laws were. I started comparing Australia to America. Unwittingly, I overlooked all of Australia’s issues in order to make myself believe that we are okay and the problem is over there.
One of the most powerful moments in the trip was a panel at the Acts 29 Lead Pastors Retreat. Five African American planters shared their reflections on the recent shootings. I’m fairly sure there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.
There’s much to write about what I learnt while overseas, but the one thing I will take away, is that the church offers a profound solution to the problems faced in our communities. Laws and policy changes will only change a culture so much! We have to offer something more.
I wrestled with the weak responses some churches offered over these shootings (while not presuming to fully understand). But it seemed to me that the church is the one place where love ought to replace hate, fear, and prejudice. I was longing for pastors to cast a vision for a church like this in Ephesians 2:
“14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” Ephesians 2:14-16 (ESV).
This trip has reminded me of the importance to understand who we are in light of the gospel. The family of God; defined not by skin colour or socio-economic background. We are one because of the blood of Jesus. To quote Bill Hybels, “the local church is the hope of the world”. I felt like that was never more true than the last two weeks.
I came away deeply thankful for Acts 29 and its commitment to be a diverse global family of church planting churches. Diversity was what I saw; unity is what we experienced. Only the gospel can bring that!
Jesus, build your church!