Meet Thabiti Anyabwile… the newest of the pastors and theologians I have begun to read and listen to his stuff. An excerpt from his blog. Love his stuff. Muslim background Christian pastor serving in a church in the Grand Cayman islands.
” I want to cooperate with men who don’t blink when they hear the Savior put such trust in God’s word, because taking their cue from the Savior they too put their trust in the Bible.
The Utter Urgency, Beauty, and Priority of Thinking, Feeling, and Living as One New Humanity or Spiritual Ethnicity in Christ.
To put it plainly, I want to labor, strive, build, risk, sacrifice, rejoice, mourn, and serve with those Christians who put our identity in Christ before any lesser identity. All other identities–which we surely, necessarily, and joyfully embrace–are still lesser identities when compared with that new personhood we receive from and in the Savior. Doctor? Lesser. Preacher? Lesser. Rich or poor? Lesser. Immigrant or national? Lesser. This natural ethnic group or that? Important. Intentional. Beautiful. Lesser.

I want to cooperate with men and women who take seriously the burden-sharing, burden-carrying call of Galatians 6:1-2. I especially want to cooperate with men and women who do that on the issue of our new identity in Christ because the reality is there’s a cost to African Americans who feel like they’re giving up who they are without reciprocity and acceptance in order to be who Christ calls us to be. Simultaneously, the reality is there’s a cost to White Americans who feel like they’re risking blame, castigation, rejection, and privilege without the chance of acceptance in order to be who Christ calls them to be. I want to be with White brethren who carry my burden with me. And I want to carry the burdens of my White, Hispanic, Asian, African, Caribbean, Indian, and European brethren who shoulder their own burdens in all of this. And I don’t want to hang with anyone–Black, White, or other–who pretend that either there are no costs or that they’re the only ones paying it. I want to cooperate with those who believe we either hang together or we shall surely hangtogether.”
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