When I attended seminary, one day I decided to debate a professor in class. As a much more seasoned intellectual, he destroyed my argument! Afterward, he showed me some mercy by offering this bit of advice: Always define the terms you use when making a point.

So let me define racial reconciliation from my perspective. To begin, the Duke Center for Reconciliation defines reconciliation as God's initiative, restoring a broken world to God's intentions by reconciling "to Himself all things" through Christ (Colossians 1:20): the relationship between people and God, between people themselves, and between people and God's created earth.

It is important to note that racial division is but one of many forms of brokenness found in our world that needs to be reconciled. Therefore, reconciliation in any form is the mission of God in our broken world.

The church is the only institution that has been supernaturally commissioned to practice reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:16-21). In fact, Jesus told ...