““Nobody on the outside thought it would work … and on the inside we were not too sure either. In our limited circle of awareness, we did not know of another single church that had done what we were attempting to do—to take an established white church and have it become and stay a multi-ethnic ministry. But we did believe it was right, that it was God’s calling on our lives and consistent with His Word and His purpose for the Church. It was then that we heard those words from our association’s national office, “You’ll lose half of your people and two-thirds of your funding.” Admittedly, a sense of desperation helped the risk-taking part of this. After all, almost anything is better than death. Some of us in leadership argued, “If we’re going to die anyway, why not go out being biblical and attempting to look like the church that Jesus called us to be!””
