Enemies and Friends

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Of course, trying to follow Jesus didn’t mean there were no obstacles. “I definitely had a major issue with white people,” Dave said. “I felt a lot of them were against me. I would hear the term ‘the white man is the devil’ and felt a lot of white people were operating more like the devil. That they were a stumbling block to the African-American race.”

But while he was in prison, Dave began to look beyond skin color. “I saw that they were lost. They didn’t have a relationship with God,” he said. “I knew Randy’s gang was led by hate. I saw them out in the prison yard, doing what they do—mostly intimidating people, selling drugs, and gambling. I knew I could not have a conversation with him.”

While Dave was hanging out with his “God gang,” an inmate asked Randy to try the Malachi Dads program. Started in Angola, the most violent prison in the U.S., it helps dads behind bars take responsibility and break the cycle of incarceration. He learned that his children were seven times more likely to end up incarcerated because he was, unless he could make dramatic changes.

Randy was alone in his cell the day he hit bottom. He didn’t know much about faith, but he got down on his knees and prayed. “God, please give me something I can see the end of,” he began. “If You help me survive prison, I’ll live my life for You.”

Making Changes

Despite Randy’s new-found hope, there was another reality to consider: he was still leading a gang.

“I realized that the same people who followed me to hell would follow me to heaven if I had the

“I hated everybody, but on the inside, I hated

courage to lead them there,” Randy said. “So I started using my influence to lead men in the right direction.”

myself. I was

His life changed so filled with drastically from that sadness, time on that Randy pain, and was given parole the first time he was depression.” eligible. He didn’t take that second chance lightly. Before his release, Randy became involved with Southeast’s Mission Partner, Prodigal Ministries, a faith-based prison care program for men and women.

After his release, Randy moved into the Prodigal house in La Grange, where he went to Bible studies, counseling, met with a mentor, and began attending worship services at Southeast’s Crestwood Campus. He got married and began raising a family. At a Prodigal fundraiser in 2018, Randy told his story. Dave was in the audience, and after the testimony, he made his way to the stage. Both men were different people than they had been during their days behind bars. Dave is a pastor. Randy owns his own plumbing company. Both are members of Southeast Christian Church.

In that first conversation, Randy told Dave about burying his newborn baby boy, about mentoring other young men leaving prison, and about chasing after Jesus. He asked Dave to meet him for lunch.

“Years ago, Dave would have been my worst enemy,” Randy said. “Today he is my friend.” The two men tell their story in this time of racial unrest and division. “Jesus is the key to racial harmony,” Dave said. “I want to be the person who is hard to hate. The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. Start with the one person you know. Loving your neighbor is the most powerful thing you can do. Only Christ’s love will bring reconciliation.”

Learn More

The work of the Spirit is always calling us to greater unity, not greater uniformity. We’ve not been called to look like one another, we’ve been called to look like Jesus. We pray that the Holy Spirit would work in us so that we would be a church that reflects the fullness of God through both our diversity and simultaneous unity. To learn more about how to engage in the work of racial reconciliation, Senior Pastor Kyle Idleman wants to recommend the book One Blood by Dr. John Perkins, an incredible pastor who has devoted his life to this work.

Prayer Requests

• Praise God for being the source of all true healing, hope, and reconciliation.

• Pray that God will bring healing, restoration, and reconciliation as His people learn to listen and grow with one another toward His love.

• Ask God to use people, programs, and ministries to break chains and unhealthy cycles of sin and consequences in the lives of His people.

When the Church Went Online Finding Digital Connection and Community

t’s no overstatement to say that the COVID-19 pandemic transformed American life. Restaurants abandoned the indoor dining experience to highlight their takeout options. Entertainment venues from movie theaters to bowling alleys shuttered up their businesses for months. Parents transitioned from the bus stop to the new frontier of NTI and virtual learning. Life as we knew it changed in a matter of days.

That includes the way we gather as a church.

On March 15, 2020, Southeast Christian Church made the decision to do something unprecedented. With cases of the novel coronavirus surging across the nation, Southeast held services exclusively online for the first time. Though circumstances required social distancing, our commitment to community as a Body never wavered. Changing times require the good news of an unchanging God.

Thankfully, God had already been working to prepare His church to deliver such a message.

The Beginning of SE Online

Back in 2018, Southeast’s leadership began investigating what it would look like to expand ministry into the digital arena. The desire wasn’t simply to live-stream a service; they wanted to find a way to truly do ministry online. So, a team began investigating the different platforms and tools the church might use to connect and engage with people across the globe through the power of the internet.

In June 2019, SE Online officially launched. Livestreaming across Facebook, YouTube, and SoutheastChristian.org, the launch brought the Southeast experience home to people across the country and around the world. Over the following

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