Looking beyond the boundaries of race and cultural preference
Throughout Jesus’ ministry, he specifically bridged the gap for the ostracized, the outcast and the overlooked. Christ told His followers to do the same.
Believers must make every effort to make disciples of Jesus and not duplicates of themselves. This means living with and loving one another, even when it’s tough to do so.
Christians must build relationships with those who are different and go beyond the boundaries of unspoken rules and invisible lines.
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“As Christ followers, that conversation has to start with, tell me where it hurts, what’s been your experience up to this point?” author Jimmy Rollins said on a recent episode of the “Crossmap Podcast.” “As we begin to share with one another, we have to have this understanding that me sharing information about my past is not an indictment on who I’m talking to. It’s actually an opportunity for who I’m talking to, to provide ointment, to provide healing, to provide encouragement.
Rollins, a former megachurch pastor, believes we must embrace God’s kingdom of truth. And in doing so, we are better together than we are divided. Listen to him discuss these issues:
In fact, in his latest book, Love Outside the Lines: Beyond the Boundaries of Race, Difference, and Preference, Rollins encourages us to exemplify a life of dynamic diversity at church, at work, at home, and most importantly, within ourselves.
This is the path to unity. This is what will build a flourishing Christ culture in our lives as well as in others.
“I feel like I was put on this planet to be a bridge builder,” Rollins explained. “We allow our differences in our preferences to sometimes prohibit proximity to people that aren’t like us, that don’t look like us. And I believe that the great commission is for anybody, everybody and anyone, and I think it’s incumbent upon us to follow in the same footsteps as Jesus, to love outside the lines and love all people.”
Rollins joins the Crossmap Podcast to talk about the pursuit of unity by listening to each other’s pain and, through that experience, discovering the beauty of culture. Listen as he shares effective ways to address division, racism, and microaggression through family conversations.
