The Christ Community Midtown site is now 10 weeks underway. It seems like yesterday when we launched. One of the things I have learned over the past several weeks is the importance of identity. Who we are (our identity) will determine what we do. This principle is foundational to the Bible. With each book, there is an effort to shape the identity of the church. For example, in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he is working to bring unity to a diverse community. Why? It is because each believer is part of one body under the headship of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-31). In the same letter, Paul instructs the church to worship the one true God. Why? So that the church would be secure and not fear threats from idols, which have no real power (1 Cor. 8).
These truths affect how we live and make decisions. So, who is Midtown? Each week there is an element of surprise—of experimenting and trying new things. Some of our experiments include introducing gospel music and rap into our worship service. Our mission statement: “Building a gospel movement through missional discipleship” has guided us thus far, and God continues to reveal what this means in our context. We are striving for a gospel movement that is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. We are multi-ethnic because African Americans and Anglos make up a significant part of our congregation, and we are multi-cultural because our diversity is not simply color but background. I am reminded of what Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: "It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o'clock on Sunday morning." We hope to overcome this cultural crisis and prove to be a diverse community that truly reflects the unity we have in Christ (Eph. 2:12-13).
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