We need a fruitful way to engage in public conversation about the issues of the day, Sauls says, and Jesus gave it to us.

Of the 63 overtures submitted to this year’s General Assembly, 42 deal with the confession and repentance of race-related sins.

As His people, we are called to imitate Him. But what does that look like in a culture where anything goes, where the only wrong behavior is judging something to be wrong, where an ethos of live-and-let-live tolerance has been supplanted by an attitude of fall-in-line-or-else conformity?

Both the imam and I made the purpose of The Beaverton Religion Forum clear. We told those gathered that we were not interested in being good neighbors only with those who hold our particular worldview. We made it clear that we were seeking to be good neighbors with those who are polar opposites from us, who practice differently from us.

For too long only a few pastors have tried dealing with the issue of race, but most white PCA pastors did not join their efforts. Now white brothers are entering the conversation, and many of them are offering their stories of messiness and humility.

He served on the Board of Directors of the Pensacola Theological Institute, was one of the five founders of Reformed Theological Seminary and served on the Board of Trustees as Secretary of that institution for 43 years.

A child beginning the Pray for Me Campaign at age 5 could have as many as 45 adults praying for him if he continues through high school. That amounts to nearly 10,000 prayers from adult generations on behalf of one student.

“He was part of eight PEF evangelists that the Lord used to bring our new denomination into existence. Arnie obeyed the call of the Lord to go to Eastern Europe and strengthen the underground churches at great risk to his own life.”

The spoken “Amen” of a brother or sister assures us that we do not stand alone but that our prayer has become “the joint and humble supplication of hundreds of penitent and believing souls, all engaged in pouring out their hearts to the God of salvation.”

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils,” C.S. Lewis observed. “One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”