Moving from Enmity to Friendship Among Believers

October 22, 2018
ahhisvirtue


At Legacy unity is a big deal! 

As a parachurch organization we are focused on a movement to promote unity among believers through connections. We believe The Church is the vehicle that God uses to accomplish His will in the earth. We know that there are many issues that threaten the unity of the body or Christ by means of denominational conflict, racial segregation, and plain old spiritual abuse. Legacy promotes health and unity by creating pathways for the church to love God and Her neighbor through reconciliation. 

God....reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
-2 Corinthians 5:18

What is reconciliation?

Reconciliation- Greek word Katallasso

"to change from enmity to friendship, to reconcile." With regard to the relationship between God and man, the use of this and connected words shows that primarily "reconciliation" is what God accomplishes, exercising His grace towards sinful man on the ground of the death of Christ in propitiatory sacrifice under the judgment due to sin....By reason of this men in their sinful condition and alienation from God are invited to be "reconciled" to Him; that is to say, to change their attitude, and accept the provision God had made, whereby their sins can be remitted and they themselves be justified in His sight in Christ. -Vines Expository Dictionary 

I don't have copy right to this image these are community murals and mosaics, serving as voices for those who wish to be heard in Chicago. 

How can we model reconciliation in a divided society?

"Just as Christians fight against lust, pride, greed, and other sins, so also we must intentionally fight against racism and fight for racial reconciliation. To clarify, my proposal is not a spiritualized version of Affirmative Action. Instead, I am proposing a gospel-centered, God-centered, Christ-exalting, and Spirit-filled fight for racial reconciliation that is motivated by love and service to one another in Christ. By God’s grace, may he allow Christians and gospel-centered Christian churches from the confederate south to the remotest tribe in Africa to believe, love, live, preach, and pursue gospel-centered racial reconciliation in both church and society. " _Jarvis J. Williams, PhD

At Legacy, we come along side local churches offering specialized services and training. These services promotes opportunity for healing the divides caused by sin and our society. We address reconciliation issues head on through through awareness, education, and doing good works. 

Legacy is a hub for connection and trains churches to, "live the Dream."  Legacy intends to motivate, challenge, and give creative, out of the box ideas to promote reconciliation and unity.  

"Reconciliation is a politically correct concept, but moving beyond concept to reality requires paying a high price. Churches that have successfully implemented a multiethnic vision have labored under difficult circumstances to pay a price to buy the dream, a dream that has not always been good or popular." -The Dream is Alive 

A couple ways we build bridges are: encouraging local churches to work together to care for the community in which they are positioned. This is a great opportunity to lay denominational differences aside and collaborate with other local churches and organizations. 

Lastly, we equip the church to engage their communities in safe and healthy ways through trainings and workshops such as: community development, cross -cultural and racial reconciliation, etc. Trainings like these help local churches and individual believers understand their community and  find the best way to connect with the people in their sphere of influence.  As a result the church will be equipped to serve people with a lasting impact, share the gospel as ministers of reconciliation, and disciple in mutual beneficial relationships. In addition, Legacy creates connection points for individual relationships to begin and grow. 

Our current focus in promoting unity in the body of Christ by loving our neighbor: We need people who will be agents of change and pay the price for gospel centered racial reconciliation!

This was just the start of our conversation, there is plenty more that needs to be said about unity in the body and more specifically among racial reconciliation among Christians. It would be nice to hear from pastors who believe unity is a big deal as well! What are the challenges you face in going after unity and growing a multi-cultural or multi-ethnic church?

If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Facebook. Thank you!

You also might like these articles:
The Front Porch-The Need for Gospel-Centered Racial Reconciliation
PURGING RACISM FROM CHRISTIANITY pdf
https://thefrontporch.org/2014/01/the-actual-accomplishment-of-racial-reconciliation/

Don't forget to like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/legacycdspfld/

Blog by ahhisvirtue 

Intro To Hunting : 4 week crash course

Prayer Tent Outreach

Today, we are launching our prayer tent outreach!!! Please be in prayer for our neighborhood and individuals who stop by in need of prayer. Our prayer is to allow God to use us to dispense hope in our community and that people would encounter the love of our Lord Jesus.


http://www.fcsministries.org/blog/2017/4/4/7-prayers-for-our-neighborhood

Following Him

After leaving everything and following Him (Jesus!), we sought to follow him as he loved on the city of Springfield and our under-served Neighborhood. We followed him in building trust and igniting hope. We followed him in pursuing unity through racial reconciliation/healing.

We aimed to do what Jesus was doing by reconciling ourselves with our forgotten and often overlooked neighbors. Along the journey, we partnered with Joy Fagan who is the founder of Sifi Ministries and Safe Harbor House to pursue similar dreams that we all carried in our hearts for our dear community.

We dreamed of how God wanted to use us where he placed us, in a community that is rich with history and beauty and also broken and divided. We dreamed of growing in relationship with our neighbors, turning 'us" and "them" into "we" as we build real relationships. We dreamed of affirming the dignity of the people in our community as they were made in the image of our Creator. We followed him into loving them and into right relationship with Himself as their true selves, families, and community. We dreamed that this right relationship would not just be spiritual, but emotional, physical, economic, and social. We considered what it would be like to restore the age-old foundations, repairing the ruins of injustice left to spread through our city. We dreamed of restoring the streets to do justice in which all could dwell. As in the words of the Prophet Jeremiah," we work and pray for the well- being of our city (or neighborhood)," believing that if the entire community does well and prospers, then His Light will rise in darkness.

As we continue to dream, we pray, and we work, doing justice in our city as Isaiah 58 shouts out for us to do. May a beloved community emerge and a Legacy left that glorifies Christ as we march on following Him. - "you are the only Bible some unbelievers will ever read" John MacArthur

~Ashley