Las Vegas churches share service to encourage racial unity

Dressed from their Sunday best to sneakers and jeans, people of all races and ages flooded Hope Church on Monday evening to celebrate racial unity through prayer, sermon and song.

Organized by Hope Church, a multicultural congregation that meets at 850 E. Cactus Ave., and Victory Missionary Baptist Church, one of the largest African-American churches in the valley, the service was in response to the racially motivated attack June 17 on members attending a prayer meeting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. Nine people died in the shooting, including the church pastor.

The event’s message: Racial reconciliation is a Gospel issue.

The churches pooled choirs and bands. The 100-member choir shared the stage with the Rev. Vance Pitman, senior pastor at Hope, and the Rev. Robert E. Fowler Sr., senior pastor at Victory Missionary Baptist, which meets at 500 W. Monroe Ave.

According to Hope Church officials, 1,422 adults jammed into the church’s sanctuary building for the service, including state Senate Minority Leader Aaron Ford, D-Las Vegas, Councilman Ricki Barlow and his assistant, and a representative from the office of Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev.

“Quite often we wait until something happens before we decide to come together,” Fowler said. “We decided that instead of waiting to provide intervention, we thought we’d provide prevention.”

“Until my hurts become the hurts of those who feel they’re different from me, and my joys become the joys of those who feel they’re different from me, and their hurts, their joys become mine, we won’t come together as a community,” he added.

Pitman, who emphasized that his fellowship speaks 44 languages, said, “There’s only one race: the human race. And we are all from the same family, ultimately.”

An observation attributed to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — that the most segregated hour of the week is Sunday morning — is still true today, he pointed out. But the joint service was an opportunity to make a statement that the Christian community in Las Vegas won’t tolerate racism.

The two pastors took turns teasing each other for hogging time. And, Fowler joked that a biblical passage’s call for celebration just might require fatty foods and Kool-Aid. But the evening’s message still hit home. A sea of upraised hands and a resounding boom of voices joined in agreement.

Pitman alluded to King’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” which made the distinction between thermostats and thermometers, and described the activities of early Christians who transformed the temperature of their environment like a thermostat. For too long, Pitman said, the church has merely been a thermometer reflecting society’s temperature.

“It is time for the church to be a thermostat,” he declared.

Fowler, a fan of “Star Trek,” reminded the assembly that the power of joy was akin to the starship Enterprise’s “shields up” in times of danger. With that kind of protection, danger “might rock you, but it won’t knock you out,” he said.

The service included an offering, one-third of which went to the Charleston church, to help with ministry to the suffering families. The other two-thirds went to Three Square, a Southern Nevada food bank.

Those attending were urged to turn to their neighbors and admit they had “work to do” when it comes to unity. At the service’s conclusion, they filled out special cards with their email and social media information, to share with someone who didn’t look like them.

Pitman said that, just 24 hours before hearing of the Charleston attack, he had been one of eight speakers at a prayer gathering in Columbus, Ohio, for the Southern Baptist Convention, where more than 8,000 pastors gathered. They had prayed for racial reconciliation.

While watching news coverage of the tragedy, he felt compelled to reach out to Fowler, although he didn’t know him well.

“He immediately responded, and said, ‘My people are in,’ ” Pitman added.

He doesn’t think the hope for racial reconciliation lies in Washington, D.C., or in Hollywood.

“It’s in the Gospel,” he said. “That in Christ we can see one family, with one father. And we hope to show that.”

Fowler said he hopes the service will help people see they have more in common than they realize.

“I hope that we see that we can work together and provide solutions for our problems,” he added. “Fight whatever is dividing us and make good things happen for our church, our families and our community.”

For at least one Hope Church member who attended, the service was the continuation of a lesson from Charleston. Catherine Duncan, a Henderson resident and member of Hope since 2006, said the shooting was “devastating” for her. But when the “Emanuel Nine’s” family members expressed forgiveness for the shooter, she was touched.

“It made me see the Lord in bad situations also,” she said. “Forgiveness is everywhere. All we have to do is look within.”

Jerrell Turner, a member of Victory Missionary Baptist for two decades, also attended the service.

“I thought it was good for the community. It’s good for Las Vegas.”