Dr. Tony Evans, senior pastor at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, believes “there needs to be an awakening” within the Christian church amid brewing division and vitriol.
The failure of Christian institutions and individuals to lead the way on conversations surrounding issues like race has, according to Evans, led to social and cultural disarray.
“The division is so palpable, the vitriol is so visible and, because I believe that God won’t skip the church house to fix the White House, there needs to be an awakening of the church to the biblical principles of unity,” Evans told “The Prodigal Stories Podcast.” “It is critical to seeing God move, not only in our midst but through us into the culture.”
Listen to Evans explore division, chaos, race, and more on “The Prodigal Stories Podcast“:
Evans, who covers these subjects in his latest book, “Oneness Embraced: A Kingdom Race Theology for Reconciliation, Unity, and Justice,” said he believes the church is “talking in the wrong direction.”
“Instead of CRT, I call it KRT — Kingdom Race Theology,” Evans said, explaining how too many people are looking at the past rather than approaching the future with a Gospel-driven mindset. “What we wind up doing is we wind up having a long conversation about an old man. We are living in the rearview mirror, not the windshield of the newness God has done, which is this unity.”
He continued, “If we would spend [time] talking about the unity and then apply it back, rather than talking about what’s back and throwing in unity, we’d be talking in God’s direction.”
That, of course, begs the question: what is unity? Evans explained the biblical definition to help people better understand God’s approach to complex issues — and the way forward.
“Unity in the Bible is oneness of purpose, not uniformity of persons,” he said. “God’s not colorblind; He’s just not blinded by color. When we understand that … we can be focused on what the issue is for God.”
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Evans said the church is the dwelling where complex issues and debates should be taking place, yet the church’s disunity, he argues, has bred cultural dysfunction.
“What we don’t have is a unified church that does it, and so we have a disunified culture that can’t do it,” Evans said. “We are the gathering place for the solutions, we are the gathering place for the discussions, we are the gathering place for the recommendations.”
Listen to what Evans had to say about CRT, atheists’ complaints, and how Americans can honor history while acknowledging unpalatable truths about the past.
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