Pastor Kory's Update

Dear West Covina Christian Church,

On Monday we celebrate Martin Luther King Day.  King was a great hero of the faith who stood up for the Bible’s teaching on equality and reconciliation.  The New Testament is one of the most emphatically anti-racist texts ever written.  Fellowship across racial and ethnic differences is as intrinsic to the message of Jesus as anything else He taught.

In a 1960 interview, Martin Luther King made the now famous statement, “I think it is one of the tragedies of our nation—one of the shameful tragedies—that 11:00 on Sunday morning is one of the most segregated hours.”  In the same interview, King declared, “Any church that stands against integration and that has a segregated body is standing against the spirit and the teachings of Jesus Christ.”

As a church, WCCC is about as diverse as they come.  We rejoice in this!  However, the work is never done.  We must continue to seek to understand one another, love unconditionally, offer each other respect and hospitality, and assume the best in those different than we are.  I am proud to be the pastor of such a diverse church because the racial, ethnic, generational, and socio-economic differences that we enjoy as a congregation make us richer in the faith—probably more so than we realize.

Paul presents the Gospel and its implications this way in Ephesians 2:14-16, “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations.  His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.”

Amen!  In our world of divisions, injustices, and hatred, we stand on the truth of the Gospel and seek to be reconciled to both one another and to God!

All for His glory,
Pastor Kory