Community

Perhaps you remember or have read about the days when Blacks and Whites in the South were separated by Jim Crow laws which advocated separate accommodations for Whites and Blacks. Those segregationist laws are no longer in vogue. Instead, they have been replaced by mandated equal opportunity legislation. It is not uncommon to read non-discrimination policies stating that a particular institution does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin. However, there is one entity that, for the most part, remains racially segregated. Surprisingly, it is the local church.

"Eleven o'clock Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America," declared the late Martin Luther King, Jr., in a well-known line he used a number of times. What is not so well known is that the remark was also employed by someone else in a Reader's Digest article on racism during the 1950s. The article was written by King's friend, Billy Graham (New Man, April/May 1997, p.34).

While Graham's statement remains true for the great majority of churches at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Scriptures suggest otherwise:

"For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall... and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross."                 Ephesians 2:14,16

Jesus, through His death on the cross, reconciled Jew and Gentile together in one body. If Jew and Gentile are reconciled in Christ, certainly Gentiles in Christ ought to be reconciled to each other. We believe that genuine racial reconciliation among believers evidences itself in the godly beauty of worship and fellowship together in the same local church. The Psalmist asserted, "How good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Psalm 133:1). The Prophet Malachi questioned, "Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us?" (Malachi 2:10) Our desire for racial reconciliation is seen in our name—Dothan "Community" Church. "Come unity" is our request to God for genuine community. Our desire, however, is more than a precept, it's a practice. It can be seen in the racial mix of our church staff and leadership, it can be seen in our multiracial fellowship, and it can be seen in the cultural inclusiveness of our services. In other words, when we say that everybody is welcome at Dothan Community Church, we mean it!