As I explained in launching this series of videos, the original focus was on highlighting the voices of faithful, theologically orthodox black brothers and sisters from within my own denomination, the United Methodist Church.
Now that we have produced and posted several videos, our “Conversations about Race” series is expanding a bit further.
As a campus ministry leader for two decades, Greg Jao (pronounced HOW), a second-generation Chinese American, has been at the forefront of encountering the dramatic shifts happening to America’s racial and ethnic composition. He now serves as the national Director of External Relations and Senior Assistant to the President for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a major network of evangelical campus ministries. He is also someone from whom I have personally learned a lot in my own faith journey.
He recently sat down with me to discuss the racial as well as religious shifts he is seeing among younger Americans and the huge implications for the church. I asked him to share his perspective on some lived experiences of non-white brothers and sisters in Christ that white believers seeking to be biblically obedient to 1 Corinthians 12:26 could better understand We further discussed some important theological foundations for how the Gospel should transform our approaches to considerations of race and racism, “the greatest gift” Christians can bring to such discussions, why many well-meaning white Americans can feel understandably reluctant to engage in such conversations, the now-famous anti-racist educator Robin DiAngelo, and how Christians can offer a more hopeful way forward than prominent current secular discourse about race.
While Jao is not a Methodist, he is a brother in Christ from whom I have learned a lot in my own faith journey, and whose insights can be helpful to believers in any denomination.
Take a watch below:
If you prefer, you may instead download an audio-only version of our discussion via Soundcloud below:
Note: At one point, I referenced my undergraduate college’s multi-ethnic InterVarsity chapter possibly having an Asian “minority.” I misspoke, and meant to say “majority.”
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