A few weeks ago my pastor, Dr. Mike Turner held a Facebook Live interview with Stephen Splawn, Evangelism Strategist with the SC Baptist Convention.

My pastor is White, Stephen is Black.

Their discussion was the most open dialog about race between 2 Southern Baptist ministers I had ever heard.

We have all seen a lot of racially-motivated hatred, crime, and unrest recently.

But if you can separate the rioters from those who are protesting peacefully, yet passionately, you might hear the message that is trying to come forth.

There is outrage from both Whites and Blacks over what they saw in the image of a White man in the uniform of authority with his knee on the neck of a Black man, killing him.

If there is one thing I know about all this it is this: No one has the complete understanding of what racism is in this country and what needs to be done about it.

Your personal experience as a victim of racial discrimination or lack thereof will dictate how you respond to it when you see it.

But if you can strive for people to be reconciled to both God and their fellow man you can help make a difference in this world for the better.

Stephen Splawn said that you can’t just jump into reconciliation between races without going through this formula: Inclusion + Equality + Restoration = Reconciliation.

But how can we get our whole nation to embrace a plan for reconciliation when we can’t even uphold our own Constitution and are so openly divided?

We as a nation can’t.

But you as an individual can.

Two Sundays ago at church I was in the hallway during the 2nd service.

Sitting on a bench were 2 people: a young Black woman and an older Black man who work for a cleaning company that our church has hired.

I struck up a conversation with them, finding out who they were.

I wanted to let them know that I was genuinely interested in them and wanted to hear their impressions about the protests and unrest.

I ended up praying for both of them, memorized their names, and we felt a friendship among us.

I later realized that we INCLUDED each other in our lives, we felt an EQUALITY between us, there was a sense of RESTORATION as we affirmed one another. If everyone put just a little effort into this formula, maybe RECONCILIATION will be the result!

Next week: What senior adults love about America

Dan Williams is the senior adult pastor at Lexington Baptist Church.