The “Prayer for Black People”

Written By Celeste Irwin

The Network held its annual Summer Leadership Conference in 2019 in Carbondale, IL, at Vine Church, from June 26-28. Attendees included most pastors, overseers, small group leaders, staff, and spouses across The Network.

My wife and I were also attending, as I was a small group leader. To my shame, I did not recognize at the time how bad what I’m about to share was. I apologize to the Black individuals who were present, that I did not recognize or speak up about what was happening.

On Friday morning, June 28th, at one point someone spoke in tongues, and someone interpreted. I don’t recall the content, and don’t have the audio of this.

The following audio captures roughly the next forty minutes. Here’s the brief outline:

  • 0:00-1:21: Network President Steve Morgan begins talking about the gift of tongues.

  • 1:21-13:14: He then talks about race in The Network. Presumably the interpretation of tongues had mentioned something about racism, but it’s unclear.

  • 13:14-14:47: Steve asks those who are “African American, African, or Caribbean” to come forward to be prayed for, including those who are “beautifully biracial, with African descent,” to join them.

  • 14:47-39:45: Prayer by various people on stage. I can identify Steve Morgan and David Chery, but am not familiar enough with the other voices to reliably ID them. If you know who they are, let me know on the reddit or by emailing not.overcome@outlook.com or trying the “for comments” word document link below.

I want to present the audio first, and encourage you to listen to it if you are able. Trigger warnings apply, particularly for any Black individuals, as Morgan and others say some things that I believe are quite insensitive. Even for me, I listen to a fair amount of Network audio, and am mostly able to do so without much reaction, but this one was much more intense for me.

A transcript is provided for reference and to make it easier for those of you for whom listening would be too difficult. As always, the transcript is best efforts. The audio is the authoritative source.

Word Document (Read only)

PDF

Analysis

Preface and Disclaimers

I am an amateur at analyzing something like this and ask for your grace as you read. Sharing the audio above is the most important thing. But I also felt it’d do a disservice to the Black individuals in the network to not engage with it and call out the problems here. I’ve done my best and probably spent more time on this than any other post (with the exception of my very first letter and possibly my LGBTQ+ post). There are a few things that I can call out, but I’m sure there’s much more I will miss. My analysis is therefore incomplete. Anyone with additional insight or corrections is (as always) welcome to share it on the reddit, social media, their own site, or reaching out to me at not.overcome@outlook.com. Happy to update based on that feedback. I did reach out to a broader community, including some Black individuals for feedback on specific sections that I was unsure about, and I am grateful for their feedback.

My goal is not to present the final and only way that this could be interpreted. Rather, I’m aiming to help out readers with context and connections to other teachings or practices of The Network or broader circles. I also have usually spent a lot of time looking at something like this by the time I publish it, and typically realize more and more as I do. My hope is that some of that may be helpful to you. Sometimes I will step into a theological perspective, though I have no formal theological training (which is also true of all Network pastors, except for two). Again, the world of Christian theology is large and diverse, and I can only present my own view, not speak for everyone. The last thing I want to do is present anything as “the only right way.”

To be honest, I feel inadequate to this particular task, and much of me wanted to just share the audio, but that felt like I’d be failing to engage on a topic that needs engagement. I ask for your grace as I try to do what I can. In this particular one, I’ve been working on it for months, having started writing on August 4th. And I’m still not particularly happy with it.

To white readers

To white people reading this:

For some of you, you are on the more conservative end of the spectrum, both theologically and politically. I empathize with you, having inhabited that space not long ago. Here’s what I ask of you if that describes you:

  • Take breaks if you need to.

  • Engage - don’t turn away from this topic just because it’s hard.

  • Follow-up - I’ve listed a number of resources throughout that transformed my thinking on racism. None are by “raging liberals”, and none would rightly be called “Critical Race Theory”. Most are factual and written by people with PhD’s. They know what they are talking about. If it helps you hear it, the Phil Vischer video I link at one point is short, direct, and hosted by a white man who could not rightly be called a conservative. He’s no fan of Trump, but he’s no fan of Clinton or Biden either. Oh, and he’s the creator of Veggie Tales. But if you’re more daring, I can’t possibly recommend The Color of Compromise by Dr. Jemar Tisby enough. It tells the story of racism in the history and present of the American Church. I’ve read critiques of Tisby, and they mostly just call him “woke” or “CRT”, and say nothing of substance, which tells me his history is accurate.

  • Lay down defensiveness. This article, strictly speaking, is not about you. It’s about the leaders of the Network. You’re not on trial here, and of course I have no power over you or even those leaders. Audre Lorde wrote in her 1981 essay, “The Uses of Anger”, “I have no creative use for guilt.” What she means, is that when your response is one of defensiveness and guilt, there’s no learning or growth that can occur. so lay it down, listen for a moment. If you disagree with any of this after listening, that’s fine. I make no claims that it’s perfect, and I know it isn’t. Let me know where I’m wrong.

To Black Readers

To any Black readers:

I hope sincerely that I have done this well. If I have not, then by all means, if you have the energy, let me know where I was wrong, and I would love to fix it and apologize as appropriate. There’s not much I have left to say about The Network - mostly I plan to get through the Membership Bible Trainings. But I did not want to move on without addressing this part. Your voice matters greatly and I’ll read anything you write about this on the reddit or if you send something to me privately.

I am sorry this one took me so long to write. Part of that was when I got the audio, part of it was other time-sensitive writings, and part of it was my fear of doing this poorly. But you’ve waited too long. I’m sorry for that.

Finally - Trigger Warnings apply. You don’t need to listen to this if you don’t want to, or read it, or read my analysis of it. Take care of yourself and your mental health.

You are valued so much more, as you, than The Network showed/shows you. I am so sorry for that.

To non-white, non-Black readers

To everyone else - which includes all other racial and ethnic minorities. There will be some talk about Asians in his post, and Hispanics in a follow-up, but this analysis is primarily about The Network’s treatment of Black people. That’s for two reasons:

  1. That’s what this audio is about.

  2. Black people seem to have experienced more racism, with much more history of it, in this country than any other racial or ethnic minority, with the exception of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples have quite simply been completely ignored by The Network, at least in my experience. That’s true both with people in the churches, where the church plants are, and with even discussing any issues that Indigenous Peoples struggle with in this country’s present and history. I even heard Luke Williams once talk about how in the time of Persia, Persia was “the world” - it was the whole thing. Obviously that completely erases a number of people groups, including those living in the Western Hemisphere at the time - millions of people, and Williams doesn’t even acknowledge them, as he preaches on ground formerly occupied by them.

That said, as shown in my previous Demographics post, I do believe The Network is highly centered on whites, with some focus on Asians, but not as full equals (only two Asian lead pastors in The Network, one of whom is in Taipei; none on the Network Leadership Team).

Table of Contents

Context

In the summer of 2019, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery were all still alive. But the Black Lives Matter movement had been going strong since 2013, when it was borne from outrage at the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin. That’s to say, it’d been in the public consciousness for roughly six years.

For example, July 2016, days after I moved down to San Luis Obispo, California to help plant Vista Church, the following events occurred:

  • July 5th: Philando Castille was killed by a police officer in Minnesota, while sitting in his car. The officer was acquitted of all charges (and then fired), but eventually the city settled wrongful death lawsuits for $3.8 million.

  • July 6th: Alton Sterling was killed by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Once again, no criminal charges were brought, but the city eventually settled for $4.5M in another wrongful death lawsuit.

  • July 7th: Police present at a Dallas protest of those two previous killings (and the pattern that preceded them) were ambushed by a gunman who killed five police officers, and injured nine more, plus two civilians.

I remember being angry but with no idea what even to do. Country singer Brad Paisley wrote a song titled “The Devil is Alive and Well” in the days following, with this chorus that resonated with me at the time.

I don’t know if you believe in heaven

I don’t know if you believe in hell

But I bet we can agree that the devil

Is alive and well

This thought comforted me (and other white people, I’m sure) because it pinned the blame for these crimes on spiritual forces beyond our control. In retrospect, I believed in systemic injustice, I just believed the systems were Satan and his demons. In this view, no human institution is to blame, no reforms are needed. In fact they would be pointless anyways, as we are caught in the middle of an age-old battle of spiritual powers.

It turns out that this is a common view among evangelicals. Many evangelicals believe that the world will simply continue to get worse until Jesus comes, and there’s no stopping it (premillennialism). This view, which I believe The Network generally holds to (I think it’s in a later MBT that I haven’t re-listened to yet), results in a pragmatic evangelicalism in which the only thing that truly matters is the saving of souls. Everything else is going to burn, so there’s no need to build hospitals and food shelters. What people need most is Jesus. Any resources spent on anything else are wasted, because they could have been spent telling people about Jesus and saving souls from eternal hell. This episode of NPR Throughline tells the story far better than I could (strongly encouraged).

With this view in mind, The Network’s view that helping poor people is generally unnecessary could make sense. So does Luke Williams’ instruction to me to “pray” as the primary thing I could do in the wake of racial violence. No need for bold practical action.

Here’s Uche Amuneke, host of My Sister Said Podcast, reacting to me sharing the above three paragraphs on Twitter for feedback. She also shared a portion of a 10-minute YouTube video she made on a similar topic (well worth your time):

So… I went back to life as usual. Vista Church needed planted, and those events seemed so far away. The killing of the police officers led to me accepting an easy “both sides” narrative in which “both sides are to blame… so nothing needs done.” A man (not Black) I knew in The Network wrote eloquently on Facebook about it being a “sin problem,” presumably that would be fixed when more people followed Jesus. Once again - evangelism is seen as the only thing that will make a difference.

Side note: There’s a hidden assumption there: that none of the perpetrators would have called themselves Christian, as though Christians have never done evil. That assumption was clearly disproved when Robert Aaron Long, a member of Crabapple First Baptist Church, murdered eight people in Atlanta, including six Asian women. In fact, Long said he did it to deal with the sexual temptation that he’d experienced toward the workers at the spa. Note, many Christians like author, pastor, and The Gospel Coalition council member Kevin DeYoung were quick to suggest “mental health” as the cause, when the previous year they’d been trumpeting “they just need Jesus.”

So, I’m guilty of having looked at many of the incidents and trying to find a justification that meant that I wouldn’t have to do anything. It wasn’t until Summer 2020 that I would really take a long hard look at what was happening. This was entirely wrong of me, and I’ve worked hard to “catch up” since then.

I say that all to make the following point: Steve Morgan and others are about to claim that this is an issue they care greatly about. He’s going to claim to be well-informed on the dynamics (at least in Carbondale). And then he and others are going to make numerous statements that are wrong or offensive, while nearly completely failing to deal with the actual problem: racism. Yes, it was 2019. But even then, there was no reason for Morgan to think that this is good enough. But read and listen for yourself. See what you think of it. If you are able to do so respectfully, ask Black friends what they think of this.

Themes

Manipulative Prayer

This is an almost perfect example of how prayer was manipulated in The Network. Those Black individuals in the room had almost no choice whether or not to be prayed for. I recall at least one Black man who did not go up for prayer but ended up with people praying for him anyways. It would have been quite awkward for any to refuse prayer in that situation.

A Focus on “Healing”

The focus is (supposed to be) primarily on those being prayed for being able to heal from past harm. There’s minimal focus on their ongoing safety (it does get mentioned, but it’s a small portion). There’s zero focus on the need for repentance for ignorance, bias, or outright racism amongst the non-Black people in the room. And even the focus on healing is quite muddled at times, several times even denying that anything harmful had occurred.

A Focus on Expanding The Network

The prayer has a second focus, which is growth of The Network. That comes in two forms - one which is to draw more Black people into The Network, and the second is to plant more churches due to that growth. So even this prayer is somewhat focused on growing The Network.

Specific Quotes

Morgan's Remarks Before the Prayer

The first 81 seconds of the audio are all talking about the gift of tongues, and while I have thoughts on that, it’s out of scope for this article.

Asians on the West Coast

  • And Jesus has done much in us with those of you that are Asians. He's brought a large number of you into the group of churches, especially on the West Coast, just because more of you seem to hang around out there.

In a previous article, I assessed the demographics of network leadership. I’ll refer to that article (from May) repeatedly in this one. You might want to open that link in a second tab, if you want to reference it as we go.

Morgan seems to give Jesus credit for The Network’s success amongst the Asian community, though then almost immediately notes that it’s been isolated to places with a larger Asian population. He’s right about this. In fact, as of May, six out of the ten Asian pastors in The Network are at Blue Sky, Hills, and Roots (the latter two are planted by Blue Sky, and least two of those pastors came from Blue Sky). The rest of The Network has just four Asian pastors out of fifty-nine total. 57% of the 51 Asian small group leaders are at Blue Sky (19) and Roots (10 - again, Roots is a Blue Sky Plant in Taipei, Taiwan). Ten more are at Blue Sky plants (Hills, Joshua, Vista, and Stoneway), leaving just twelve at the other 20 churches.

The “more of you seem to hang around out there” also includes an uncomfortable “you”, and subtly absolves other network churches of the need to have a greater Asian population.

"African American, African, and Caribbean" (2:16)

  • But you know, for years, probably 23 years ago, we started praying that Jesus would bring those of you that are African American and African and Caribbean, those dear Black men and women of African descent.

Morgan will use this trio of terms repeatedly (African American, African, Caribbean). From what I understand, this is just unaware of the right terminology to use. For example, a Black man from England might not self-identify as any of those things. Additionally, it’s not the last time that he will refer to “of African descent.” From what I’ve observed, many Black individuals do not particularly identify as “African.” Their families have been in this country, in many cases, much longer than many white people’s families. This is one of the reasons why it’s incredibly insensitive to tell a Black person “if you don’t like it here, go back to Africa.” Their ancestors weren’t brought here by choice, and they have even fewer family ties to Africa than many whites do to Europe. My understanding is that “Black” is the right phrase to use.

One more note is that many people from the Caribbean would not identify as Black, as there is a large non-Black population in the Caribbean.

And again - it might be ok in casual conversation with some random person. But Morgan is leading a network of over 20 churches. He needs to do better.

Prophecy for Vine Church (2:34)

  • I remember driving down Highway 13, one day as we were just starting planting Vine Church. And as I was driving over the railroad tracks, I felt the Holy Spirit rest on me in my car. And I thought he said, "I'm gonna let you," and I think "you" meant "us", "tear down the walls between Black and white. Be a part of that." And I wept in the car thinking, "Oh, Lord, please, please."

    And we've been praying for 23 years now for Jesus to let us be a part of that thing that's so precious to his heart.

Morgan states that the Holy Spirit effectively commissioned him and the church to be a part of “tearing down the walls between black and white.” First, this is a problematic metaphor that leads to “both sides” type thinking. Just prior to this, he recognizes that the Black population of Carbondale had effectively been segregated into one part of town. This would have resulted in limited housing options, employment options, schools, and other challenges for Blacks. The same thing happened across the country with freeways and railroads being used to create segregated communities. This should not be described as “the walls between Black and white” (symmetrical, same fault on both sides) - it should be described as “healing the harm done to Black people by white people.”

But much more important: after Morgan heard he and the church would be part of that, he spent 23 years praying that it would happen. We can assess the results (these numbers were accurate in May):

  • Carbondale is 27% Black.

  • Vine has had three lead pastors, all white (Steve Morgan, Sándor Paull, and currently Casey Raymer)

  • Two of the nine pastors at Vine are Black (22%) - this is at least in the right range.

  • Zero of the seven support staff are Black (0%) - this matches what we see at Blue Sky, where the lead pastor is white, the rest of the pastors are more diverse, and then the support staff is almost entirely white).

  • Four of the forty-one small group leaders are Black (10%) - one of whom is one of the two black pastors.

In total: exactly five black people (three men, two women) are in leadership. It’s possible that the board of overseers includes more, but the board is not publicly documented.

So was Morgan’s prophecy false? Is it unfinished? What’s being done to “tear down the walls”? Tearing down walls is an action that requires a lot of effort. Is that effort happening? When did the Board at Vine church last discuss progress on this as a group? When was it last addressed at a Team Vine (gathering of anyone who serves at Vine Church)?

Pardon me if I see this as unimpressive - 10% of small group leaders after 26 years? That sure doesn’t sound like a church that’s representative of the community around it.

And by the way, there are zero Asian or Hispanic small group leaders or pastors, despite Carbondale being made up of 9% AAPI and Hispanic individuals. Not to mention, Morgan is talking about having had great success with Asians, and even married an Asian woman in Carbondale. What happened?

Side note: The demographics at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale are roughly similar to the demographics of Carbondale more broadly.

"Help and heal" (4:13)

  • And I know that in the United States, it's talked about a great deal. And it's a very painful and difficult subject that our culture is dealing with or not right now. And yet, we would believe and encourage that Jesus is the one to heal these wounds. And the Holy Spirit dwelling in his people will always most certainly address and help and heal. And yet, we don't as a group of churches, jump into the political scene on it. We're not trying to get in the media over any issue.

Here, Morgan says it explicitly: Jesus will fix it. People need Him. He says that being political would be “trying to get in the media.” It’s not - I talk about political stuff all the time on twitter and I would be shocked if any media outlet ever quoted me. In this country, laws are made by the political process. Morgan is somewhat setting up a false dichotomy here of “Jesus vs. Politics.” But The Network’s favored theologian (Wayne Grudem) is highly engaged in politics and suggests that churches should be similarly engaged in his book “Politics According to the Bible.”

Additionally, Morgan says that the problem is that people need healing of the damage that was done, not is being done (though he will briefly mention the latter in a moment).

"What Satan Did"

  • And yet we give ourselves to this work of his now that he would help us. The kinds of demonic evils that lead to the awful slavery and oppression and harm to African men and women don't get undone overnight. There's a spiritual component to it. And sometimes I'll hear people say things like white, why don't African Americans just get over it? I mean, it's not this generation. And yet, when you speak such foolish things, you don't understand the spiritual component of the things that happened. The great evils, and the kind of oppressiveness of what Satan did. And so the undoing of it, the healing of it is not simple. We need so badly the Holy Spirit to move upon us to help us to heal to undo the ugliness and the darkness and the evil of it.

Again Morgan frames this as the work that Satan did, and that demons did. And then he makes a horrific implication. That the reason it’s wrong to expect African Americans to “just get over it” is that there’s a “spiritual component.” The corollary is this: without that spiritual component, it would be reasonable to expect them to move on. And he also argues that the African Americans need the Holy Spirit to do the spiritual healing. Quick Trivia: What is the ethnicity that is the most Christian in the United States? Black.

Morgan’s words here come across as “White savior” type thinking, wherein the only way Black people can be helped is if the predominantly white Vine Church (or Network) comes and helps them with their spiritual healing.

Later, at Joshua Church in Austin, TX, Morgan taught that the Black church was too isolated (From Kelly P’s story on Leaving the Network):

One Sunday, Steve Morgan shamed ethnically-homogeneous churches for being exclusionary and specifically mentioned the Black Church for being insular, insinuating that those in these churches should join “multicultural” churches like Joshua Church. The next Sunday he apologized from the pulpit and said he didn’t know that Black Churches were birthed out of segregation. That is a level of ignorance from a fifty-something year old man that is inexcusable to me. He was also insensitive to ethnically-homogeneous churches that incorporate native languages to help others understand the Gospel better and communicate with God in a way that would be more difficult if they were to attend a majority English-speaking church. This occurrence demonstrated how Whiteness was always seen as the default and something that needed to be adopted by those who wanted to be accepted in community at JC.

Note: For more on the history of why the Black church exists, I can’t recommend Jemar Tisby’s “The Color of Compromise” enough.

Morgan is teaching that, in effect, “Blacks need us” when he was as yet unaware that the Black church only existed because of white racists. And he’s supposedly been working at this and praying for healing of these divisions for twenty-three years? This is a huge failure on his part.

There are multiple Black churches in Carbondale, within a mile or so of the Vine. I wonder, did leaders at the Vine ever reach out? Did they try to listen? Did they get to know the pastors? Did they ask if there were ways they could collaborate? In those interactions, did they let the Black pastors of those churches lead the way?

I hope they did all that and more, but I’ve certainly seen no evidence of such behavior in my time in The Network. Rather I see that The Network steadfastly promotes unity within, with almost no effort to collaborate with outside groups. In the 2018 teaching by Network VP Sándor Paull, he even states that The Network is better than any other group of churches in the world (at around the 71-minute mark, link takes you to Leaving the Network, who first published this audio):

What Jesus has asked us to be, does not exist anywhere else on this Earth. This family that we have, it does not exist anywhere else on this Earth at all. Now, there are places that are closer, Newfrontiers, closer, more things that line up with what Jesus has asked us to be as a family with what we believe in the Bible and how we live that out in terms of values, but it does not exist.

Ongoing Racism in this Culture

  • Many of you still constantly are dealing with the ugliness of racism in this culture. And it's horrific, it's awful, it's evil.

This is the one line in Morgan’s entire introduction that recognizes that racism still happens. He uses strong words, but fails to name any specifics like he did about “slavery” in the past. Is that because he doesn’t know? Or doesn’t care? Also, who is racist? Biased? Ignorant? Do they need to repent of anything? If so, I never heard a sermon about this in The Network. Do people automatically become unbiased the moment they walk into a Network church?

This sentence, to use a phrase conservatives typically level at liberals, strikes me as “virtue signaling.” Morgan seems to throw some strong words together, to defend against any critique that he had implied that racism is over (the bulk of his introduction), but doesn’t demonstrate any knowledge of the present situation. He doesn’t reference economic disparities, violence against blacks, over-incarceration (due in part to codified racism in the form of disparate penalties for drugs used by blacks vs. whites), biased policing, or anything else. Steve Morgan, what do you actually mean by this? Do you even know?

"Jesus, bring us a white pastor!" (10:20)

  • I was talking to a friend about it this morning over breakfast and, and thinking about how in a day, once upon a time, the fact that there would be a great kind of unity and love and family among those of you that are Asians in this group of churches. It was just a dream and a prayer that Jesus had put in our heart. It was just a hope and a longing and we wept over it.

    And now we have a church like Blue Sky that may be up to 70% Asian. We just think, yeah, they're sweating out there like crazy. "Jesus, please bring us a white pastor. We can't find any." And we think, yeah, it's wonderful. And I see the day and long for it, where there are churches in this network that are 70% African American, and they're just sweating it. "Oh, Lord, we need some white people. Where are the white people? Lord do something. Help us."

Of all the things that Steve could have said about having a church that is predominantly Asian, he says… this.

The last quote is one that lends itself to incredibly negative readings. “Where are all the white people? Lord do something. Help us.” In context, it’s slightly better, but not much.

In the lead up to this section, Morgan says various phrases about “you” (Black people) becoming one with “us” (The Network?). It’s worth remembering that the entire Network Leadership Team is white. So is Chris Miller, who heads worship for The Network. So is James Chidester, who provides counseling for Network pastors and wives.

But this passage, to me, is where Morgan shows his bias most clearly. Half the churches in The Network don’t have a non-white Pastor. But which church is Morgan worried about demographically? Blue Sky, which was installing Krsh Penzar as its lead pastor, replacing David Bieraugel (planted in Raleigh, NC in 2019), who had replaced Steve Morgan in 2017. All three Lead Pastors that Blue Sky has had are white. Aaron Wang (Asian) had been installed as a pastor at the same time as Penzar, and he apparently shared the ethnicity of 70% of the church, but was not made Lead Pastor.

Moreover, where is Morgan’s concern for the 13 network churches that don’t have a non-white pastor? How about for the Network Leadership Team which is entirely white? How about for the fact that 80% of the support staff across The Network is white, as are 76% of the small group leaders (the US is 60% white, for reference). Morgan’s instinct is to worry about the churches without a white pastor, while completely missing the problematic makeup in the rest of The Network.

To put it bluntly:

  • Church that has all white pastors? Not even worth mentioning.

  • A church that is 70% Asian or 70% Black? “Sweating it”, and praying “Help us” and “We need some white people.”

This. Is. Racist. It just is. Did he use a slur? No. But racism is frequently more subtle than that.

Around a year later, in summer 2020, Luke Williams told me very clearly that he was shocked when a Black individual in the church had told him that he respected the diversity in leadership at Vista. Williams told me that he’d never even noticed, let alone considered the race or ethnicity of individuals when deciding who would be in leadership. Vista Church has had many Asians in leadership, including a pastor (no longer on staff), board member, worship leader, and Kids’ Director. Four of the five current small group leaders are Asian. But there’s only ever been one Black small group leader, and one hispanic one. Neither still attends Vista Church.

So is Williams “Sweating it”? Saying, “Lord Help us! Bring us a Black pastor! We need some Black people!” If he is now, that’s new, as I never heard anything like that in my time there.

Is The Network really working to have a majority-Black church?

I heard repeatedly (from Steve Morgan) at Blue Sky that one of the reasons for planting in the Seattle areas was that they wanted to eventually plant in Taiwan and that “there are enough Asians in Seattle to be able to plant in Taiwan” (or similar language). Leaving aside the fact that most Asians are not Taiwanese, this shows that The Network strategically planted in a location to attract a different demographic. And that makes sense if your goal is diversity.

But if Steve Morgan is longing for a day when The Network would have a church which is 70% African American, is it doing the same for that demographic? Consider:

  • The Network city with the highest percentage of Black people is Raleigh, NC, where Hosea Church was planted in 2019 (shortly after this talk by Morgan, though planning had been underway for over a year). Raleigh is 28% Black. It has:

    • Four pastors now, all appear to be white. This is an increase from three in May.

    • Twelve small group leaders, only two of whom are Black. They appear to have added a black Small Group leader since May, when this was one out of eleven.

    • Both of the support staff are white.

    • Meaning all six paid individuals at Hosea are white.

  • The second highest percentage? Carbondale, IL, at 27%, which as discussed above, is underrepresented when it comes to Blacks.

This means that at the time Steve Morgan was speaking, the church best situated to fulfill his “longing” was the oldest church in The Network, and it hadn’t even reached representation matching the city it’d been in for 23 years (now 26). Hosea Church has not done any better in its time in Raleigh.

If The Network was serious about this, they’d plant in cities like Atlanta, with multiple Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) present. My former employer, Microsoft, is doing exactly that - opening a new campus in Atlanta in order to attract a more diverse workforce. They’d be able to attract a more diverse population while maintaining focus on the college demographic they feel called to. They could also collaborate with Black churches in the cities they plant in.

One last thought: Joshua Church is in Austin, TX, which is home of Huston-Tillotson, an HBCU. Do they hand out granola bars (or similar) on that campus like I assume they do at University of Texas?

"I don't have a clue." (11:40)

  • I know I'm supposed to be leading this thing. But quite honestly, there's some ways where I don't have a clue.

One last quote from the intro, in which Morgan openly admits that he doesn’t “have a clue.” A good leader surrounds themselves with those who can complement their weaknesses. But the Network Leadership Team is entirely white. The lead pastors across The Network are 85% white.

What books has Morgan read by Black authors? Which Black Pastors has he reached out to in order to understand how his churches could do better? And has he trusted them enough to follow through?

This is hard work — and I’m learning myself. But I know that you don’t get better at this by living in a silo. And a leader of 20+ churches has a responsibility to learn and grow.

Invitation to Prayer (13:16)

  • And so I, I want us if you would just allow us to, to take a moment and we would like to pray for all of you that are of African descent, if you would come down and let us pray for you. Would you come down to the front and let us lay a hand on your shoulder and pray for you. Come on right now. And if you are beautifully biracial, with African descent, I want you to come I want you to feel the wonder and the beauty of how God made you and and built you.

Morgan invites people up for prayer. There’s a couple things to notice.

First, we get a hint into how this session even happened. In addition to everything about this feeling planned, Morgan uses the pronoun "we", which implies that he’s spoken with others about it beforehand. The rest of the talk sounds like Morgan speaking off of at least a plan in his head. Also, as you listen to the prayer and even this intro, you’ll hear Morgan and others repeatedly say something like, “The Holy Spirit led…” He doesn’t say that here, which I think adds even more evidence that this was pre-planned. At least, we can say, no one made Morgan do this talk/prayer, so there’s really no excuse for him making as many problematic statements as he does.

Second, that statement about “I want you to feel the wonder and beauty of how God made you” is perhaps a good sentiment, but the prayer that ensues never actually prays for that, at all.

"Use Me"

  • Now, you all present yourself to Jesus. "Man, Lord, here I am. Use me. Lord, thank you, use me. I love you, Jesus, use me. Let me be a part.”

The last thing as he’s preparing people for prayer is this instruction to them to begin praying by praying to Jesus, “use me” (three times plus “let me be a part, all in twenty-three words). His very first thing is that he wants the Black people to ask Jesus to “use them.” God’s people are far more than just things to be used. In fact, Jesus tells his people “Come to me and I will give you rest.” I also find it jarring and completely inappropriate that, to a people predominantly descended from slaves, Morgan’s initial prayer is that they would submit themselves to be “used” to build up a church network led by white men. It’s also a complete bait and switch. The entire intro was supposedly about how they’d suffered from racism and harm from its legacy. Now that they’re up there, having been told that they would get prayer for healing, the very first thing Morgan leads with is that they would be useful to The Network.

The Prayer

At 14:47, Steve Morgan begins praying. Network pastors tend to repeat themselves a lot while praying, so I won’t be as meticulous as I go through this section. I’m tagging each speaker as we go, as it jumps around. Some of them I’d identified as “Unknown Speaker” because I simply don’t know who it is - if anyone does, please comment on the reddit or email me at not.overcome@outlook.com.

Healing "ancient" hurts (14:53)

  • Lord where there's where there's been the effect of the ancient devastation, the evils of the past would you heal and break them off

The very first thing Morgan prays for is a focus on healing from wounds of the “ancient devastation, the evils of the past.” Again - racism is alive and well in this country. One can have interesting discussions about just how prevalent it is, what forms it takes, but to deny that it exists to some degree, in some form, is to deny the stated experience of so many Blacks, presumably including many Blacks in attendance.

But Morgan leads off by acting like these are past wounds, effectively asking for the Holy Spirit to help them “get over it”, as he said earlier.

"Where are the African church planters?" (17:48)

  • Unknown Speaker: I felt like Jesus said, this network of churches, what he's doing in Asia, he's going to do in Africa too. He is going to plant churches in Africa, too. Lord would you birth prayer in your people like you have for Asia for Africa? And, Lord, I don't want to put this on anyone that you've not called to this. But Lord, where are the African church planters? Lord, where are they? If they’re not in our midst, Lord bring them to us and save them.

A speaker I don’t recognize begins begins speaking at 16:58. He claims to be sharing something that Jesus told him, a common practice by Network pastors. No record of all of their prophecies is kept, nor are they ever tested.

Once again, we’re just four minutes in, and the prayer is for African church planters - in fact, this prayer isn’t even for the people who came up for prayer.

I’ve heard from other Black people that the idea that Black people in America would particularly be excited to plant in Africa is a much larger stretch than Asian people wanting to plant in Asia. A large percentage of the Asian population in America either lived in Asia at some point themselves or their parents or grandparents did. It’s still a big part of their culture. But for most Blacks, that’s not true - their heritage is the slave trade, going back to at least the 1800’s, as early as the early 1600’s. Given that many African countries were carved out by colonization efforts beginning in the 1880’s (after the end of slavery in the United States), most Black Americans would not be able to trace their origin to a specific modern country.

This is quite different than The Network’s goal of planting in Asia, which was always very specifically Taiwan (where Steve Morgan’s wife is from, and where some of her family still is). Nelson Liu is the church planter there and has roots in Taiwan as well. My understanding is that at least some of those who went on the plant also had Taiwanese heritage. And even the plant to Taipei was to the part of it that is known for having a large international population. But naming Taipei as the plan allowed people to join the church out of excitement for that. It is worth noting that the Taipei church plant was about 6 months old at the time this speaker was speaking - far too early to consider it a success or failure.

By contrast, Africa is a continent with 1.3 Billion people, more than three times as many as all of North America, and more than North America and Europe combined. It’s the second most populous continent next to Asia. It’s also highly diverse. There are 54 countries in Africa. 15 languages are natively spoken by at least 10 million people. Only six million people have English as their primary language, though around 700 million speak it as a secondary language, from what I could find. Nearly 600 million people in Africa are Christian, meaning it has more Christians than any other continent in the world. And of course there are plenty of subcultures within Africa. Of the non-Christian population, 70% or more are Muslims. Does The Network have anyone with with that background? If not, why do they think they’ll be successful in reaching them? But naming a specific location would help build excitement and a team for that, which might eventually be successful. And again, finding other churches to partner with may be necessary, but would require humility and teamwork that The Network has not shown itself to be interested in.

“Where are the African church planters?” The short answer, as you might have already guessed, is that they are in Africa already.

Using Blacks to teach other Blacks how to be part of a mixed space (18:46)

  • Steve Morgan: And I, I felt like he said too, that, he is going to use you to bring your people in. He's going to use you to bring your people in, is going to use you to bring your people in. I could see you helping them know how to navigate this new context, this kind of mix of races in the churches that you're a part of helping them welcoming them, showing them around showing them how to be a part.

Steve is speaking again, and again he is talking about how these Black people could be used by the church. This strikes me as incredibly tone deaf. First, the use of “your people” is not good - especially when he’s just talked about bringing people together.

But the second part is just ignorant and infantilizing. Black people are the minority in many spaces. They know how to navigate mixed spaces because they’ve had to for survival. They know all about “code switching” to “fit in” in mixed spaces. The idea that it’s the Black people that need help in mixed spaces is highly offensive.

And once again, he’s praying for them to be useful to the church.

Ignoring the response of other Black people (19:38)

  • Steve Morgan: And Lord, that where where there's that feeling of uncertainty about how other black men and women will respond to the churches where you've placed them. I asked in Jesus name you give them a courage that they would not be afraid of that at all. That they would somehow smile at their friends that don't understand and know that if somehow if you can just move on them, they will get it.

Here, Morgan does something that’s similar to what they tell people moving on church plants. That is, that if others have concerns, you should ignore them. Those with concerns just “don’t get it”.

But in this case, he’s doing it with race. He’s telling Black people to not listen to “their people” who might say “Are you sure you want to be in that space?” This is an inoculation - it’s a teaching that’s meant to insulate the person from any possible critique from the outside. It’s part of what Dr. Wade Mullen calls “Dismantling Your External World” - making you doubt outside sources that might tell you that they have concerns, by defining those outside as lacking the Holy Spirit’s wisdom, and just not “getting it.”

Trust us (20:29)

  • Steve Morgan: Lord, I ask too, that the old fear and threats would be broken. The wounds that have made it difficult to trust, that they would be healed. Lord, I pray for that in Jesus name. That the old fears and the wounds that have made it difficult to trust. They'd be healed, Lord. Heal them. Heal them Lord. Some of you do feel that when you wonder, "Oh, when's when's it gonna go bad? When's the bottom gonna fall out? When am I gonna get hurt really, really bad. And it's just gonna be the same thing I've always experienced." Lord, would you break that lie where the evil one threatens those things. Break the lie and the fear that comes with it. Break it off.

More inoculation, but this time it’s “Dismantling Your Internal World” (Dr. Wade Mullen, again - both references are from his book “Something’s Not Right”). In this case he’s actively praying that these people would convince themselves that The Network is not worthy of scrutiny, and is 100% trustworthy, right out the gate. He defines the problem as one of past hurts, not one in which The Network needs to do anything to prove that they are trustworthy. He goes so far as to say that the view that The Network might not be trustworthy is a “lie” from “the evil one.” He’s defining their concerns as demonic in origin, not legitimate concerns which are based on centuries of Blacks being mistreated by Whites.

Family (23:45)

  • David Chery: God will get what he intended. God will get what he intended. Lord, we pray for the men, women and children that we've not yet met that you will bring into our family.

David Chery (Lead Pastor, Summit Creek Church, Eugene, Oregon) begins praying at 21:48. Chery is a Black man of Haitian descent. According to this post on Medium, his parents immigrated to the United States, and it says that Chery was born “soon after” and says he is a first-generation American. (that medium post was found by a user on reddit, “u/New-Forever-2211” who shared it in this post). I believe Chery’s heritage is why Morgan repeatedly includes “Caribbean” in his list of “African American, African, and Caribbean”. Chery is one of two Black lead pastors in The Network, and was the second church planter out of Blue Sky Church. I’m wary as I critique Chery of doing anything resembling “whitesplaining.” But Chery has, I believe, been badly misled by Morgan and others.

I never realized this until I was out of The Network, but this is a complete misunderstanding of the Body of Christ, and of the Church (capital “C”). All Christians are referred to in the Bible as being brothers and sisters, being family. In fact, to the extent that those in The Network are Christians, they are still my brothers and sisters. This is one reason it’s so painful to hear that leaders are speaking about Christians who have left the Network as being “demonic” and “against us.” I am not. I am their brother. And for them to deny that fact is to be guilty of murder (“Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” - 1 John 3:15).

But furthermore, this means that Chery is simply wrong. He is praying for Black people to be brought into “our family”, but that’s happening every day, all over the world already, and he isn’t recognizing that. Not only that, but hundreds of millions of Black men and women are Christian (almost 600 million in Africa alone). 79% of Black Americans identify as Christian (70% for white, and 77% for Hispanic).

He has Black brothers and sisters. Many of them. If you’re a Christian, so do you. But that’s not what Chery means — he means bringing them into The Network. This is a common sentiment among many churches - to functionally view themselves as a separate group, but there is no Biblical support for it. When someone leaves a church, they do not leave the Church, unless they leave the Christian faith altogether. Again, this makes The Network’s practice of ghosting and shunning a monstrous perversion of the unity that we are called to. Someone leaving the church you go to means they won’t be with you on Sunday. But they are still your brother or sister in Christ, and should be treated as such - with as much love and fellowship as can be had.

And once again, this prayer is for people who are not the same people who came up for prayer. We’re 10 minutes in, and the pastors are having trouble actually praying for the people who were invited up to receive prayer.

The Gaslight (24:53)

  • David Chery: Lord, I pray that you would break off any fear that the evil one has spoken to minds break off fear, Lord were the evil one has translated words to mean harmful things that weren't meant to be harmful things. Where the evil one has tried to lie. Lord we break the power of that now in Jesus name.

Chery then flat out gaslights those they are praying for. He doesn’t pray for repentance by those who have said harmful things, and pray for introspection by the white people and leaders in the room to understand where they might have said harmful things (which Steve already has in this prayer). Instead, he prays that people would understand that the things that sounded harmful were not.

When I was in The Network, an Asian friend of mine told me a story. He has shared this story publicly on a podcast, or else I would not share it. He told me that one time he’d gone into a Subway restaurant in rural Tennessee, and that everyone there stared at him, and he felt very unwelcome because of his ethnicity. He told me this was racism, that he was singled out and even unsafe. I pushed back and tell him that he’d misread it, that it was just people looking at someone. I was wrong to do that. He was there, he knows what he saw, and it’s not implausible at all given the racism directed at AAPI persons in this country. In general, believing people about their own experiences is a wise choice unless and until evidence proves them wrong.

David Chery here is effectively trying to tell people that somehow the words they felt harmed by were not actually harmful, and that they should move on from it.

It’s also reasonable to believe that some of these words were truly not meant in a harmful way. But impact matters, in addition to intent. I’ve often remembered a joke (not a particularly funny one): A man is out driving, and hits a pedestrian in a crosswalk. The pedestrian suffers some broken bones, but is generally ok. The police respond, and talk with the driver. The driver tells the officer, “Honest! I didn’t see the pedestrian!” The officer responds, “I really hope not, because then we’d have a much bigger problem!”

The driver didn’t mean to hit the pedestrian. But they also weren’t careful enough to avoid it. The driver would be ticketed and liable for any medical bills that result from the incident. The driver’s lack of intent is not enough to absolve them of all guilt. The pedestrian also, of course, feels injured by the incident. The injuries are real.

Of course, if the driver had meant to hit the pedestrian, that dramatically raises the driver’s liability. They’d go to prison for vehicular assault.

But here, Chery states that harmful things that were said were definitely not intended, and he doesn’t even make allowances for them to go back and ask for apologies while helping the person learn.

Unrealized Promises (27:38)

  • David Chery: And Lord, I thank you that that this place, this place in Carbondale would be the place that you do these things, where you promised years and years ago to do these things. Lord, I thank you that you would do it here. Lord, I pray that would go out throughout this country Lord. Let it let us spread out as the church is dispersed the things that you're doing here in these moments, in these times.

More prayer for people who aren’t here.

Chery thanks Jesus for progress that quite simply has not been made. In fact, summer 2019 would have been at the height of The Network’s collective attendance. In 2018, Sándor Paull even talks about just how great things are going (Same unity talk as linked above). But we know that in spring 2020, COVID would hit, and that many Network churches seem like they have declined in size since then. The pace of church planting has slowed. But even still - Chery is thanking Jesus for something that was supposedly promised 23 years earlier, but had not happened and has not happened now.

“Let us spread out as the church is dispersed the things that you’re doing here in these moments.” This part didn’t happen at Vista, as you’ll see in a moment. I do not see any evidence that it happened anywhere else - at least no positive steps toward greater inclusion of Black people in the church.

Praying for actual harm done (28:41)

  • David Chery: Lord, where the things have been said, in the lifetimes of the people here. Things that have been hurtful, things that have that have put down, things that have undermined. Ridicule and racism, Lord, I pray, Let those things be undone. Let those things be undone. Let those things be undone. I felt like for some of you it wasn't even things that were spoken out loud. It was even just looks. Like a certain look, or a certain attitude. I pray Lord, would you would you break off the effects of those things. Break off the effects of those things. I thank you Lord that you have the power to break off the effects of those things. You have power Lord, to do it.

Finally, at 28:28, Chery prays for healing for actual harm done to the people in attendance. Racism they’ve experienced. This part is good! Even his catch of looks and attitudes (also known as microaggressions) is a significant improvement over the earlier call to simply believe that nothing was intended badly.

On the other hand, the earlier line from Morgan still exonerates The Network of any wrong doing, while this acknowledges the experience of racism more broadly in people’s “lifetimes.”

I do wish that he would follow with prayer for repentance from those who did the harmful things, and for safety for the Black people there from potential future incidents.

Chery also does something near the end of this clip where he quickly moves from normal speech to crying while he’s talking. He does it multiple times in his section, and sometimes switches back almost as quickly, just like Morgan does at times. It sounds inauthentic to me - I don’t have a lot of experience with people in tears who then quickly just talk in a normal tone.

"We will walk with you." (32:35)

  • Unknown Speaker: And God I pray that these men and women would know that we are with them. I was sitting here praying, but looking out on the auditorium and see - there's a whole crowd of people standing behind you guys, praying and interceding. We are with you. We are with you. We will walk with you. We will listen. We will be there. We will bleed with you. We will suffer with you.

I don’t know who said this, but that last set of statements is a promise, one that The Network has categorically broken. In fact, less than a year later, Network pastors had opportunities to prove that they would “walk” with Black people. In June 2020, there were hundreds of protest marches as a result of the killings of Floyd, Taylor, and Arbery. I am unaware of a single Network pastor who attended any protest march. On the day that millions of people put up black squares on Instagram to express solidarity, not a single Network church did the same. I’ll have more to say on this in the next part of this series.

But to the Black people in The Network: have they actually listened to you? I know a Black person at Vista Church thought that there should be something like Lunar New Year but for Black people. Luke Williams said no, and this person decided not to go to Lunar New Year because of that. Williams told this story to me and described this person’s response in a way that made them sound petty for this (he did not use the person’s name, but I was able to pretty easily figure it out). Once again — the outreach in The Network toward Asians has been far more than it’s been toward any other non-white ethnicity.

And I’ve not heard a hint of bleeding with Black people or suffering with them. As the old adage goes: Talk is cheap.

Praying for Non-Black people to help (38:44)

  • Steve Morgan: You know and all of us that are not of African descent have the responsibility given by Jesus to help in this thing that he's going to do among us, with African Americans and Africans, Caribbean's. Lord, would you put power on them for it? I know some you'll specifically call to break down walls between Black and white. I know some you'll specifically call and I Lord, I asked you to lead them by your Spirit, put your power on them in the churches where they serve. Put your power on them, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would work in, and you'd use them to help in this thing you're doing, Lord, to use them to help.

The final thing Morgan prays for is for those who are not Black who would help with this. There’s no follow-up to this, and my experience thereafter was pushback as I tried to talk with Williams about this very subject. When I spoke with him in March 2021, he repeatedly just told me “you can pray” despite me saying “I feel like I need to do more.” I repeatedly recommended books and/or podcasts to him for learning, but he said he didn’t have time*. So when I, as a small group leader in the church, expressed interest in trying to do this work, I got shut down.

*At one point he did commit to listening to some podcast episodes I sent him, but I never heard back from him that he had done so. He also did send me a link at one point to Phil Vischer’s excellent YouTube video.

In Summary

I don’t want to hold my tongue on this one. This prayer strikes me as performative and manipulative. Parts of it fairly clearly indicate bias or racism (even if it’s more subtle, and doesn’t have direct use of slurs) on behalf of some of the speakers. The fact that they could have said worse things (“well it’s not like they said…”) does not make this prayer ok. It’s focused on telling the Black people what they can do for The Network. It seems to be meant to make them feel cared for, while giving them a list of new jobs:

  • Plant churches in Africa

  • Bring other Black people into the church

  • Teach new Black people how to navigate a mixed-race church

It’s possible that Morgan is simply wildly out of his depth on this one. First, I don’t think he would say that. If he wants to issue an apology and correction for it, saying he just didn’t know any better, he can do that (and should!). But if he doesn’t do that, then he’s either to stubborn to admit he was out of his depth, or we have to look at explanations involving more bias or manipulative purposes (which frankly, I find far more likely).

In fact, take a look at the following picture, in which I’ve highlighted the sections of this audio by type (it’s ok that you can’t read the text - just look at the colors and read below after the image - here’s my word doc with the highlighting if you want to see how I’ve roughly categorized it - color key follows)

Please note: some sections would rightly be called more than one of these colors and I’ve made a judgment call and picked one of them. The use of one color does not mean that it wasn’t other colors. And I would make an argument that the entire thing, in context, could be shaded “Dark Red” (Manipulative). The coloring is more about the individual phrases. That said, if you disagree with any of them, let me know and I’m happy to make updates if I’ve missed a meaning in part of it (particularly the blue and light purple sections - I honestly just wasn’t sure what to do with many of those).

But “Green” is “Reasonable prayer or sentiment toward Black individuals.” The biggest point I am trying to demonstrate is: Look how little green there is. I’ve shaded everything green that I even thought I could (I’ve been generous in a couple spots). It’s 748 words, out of over 4000, so less than 20%. This whole thing, ostensibly for the Black people in the room, spends over 80% of its time either trumpeting the network, manipulating the Black people, priming them to be used, praying for someone else, or just saying things that don’t really mean anything. Given that no other event like this has ever been said to have taken place, this is the one time that Black people were directly prayed for, and it can’t even stay on track and just be a compassionate, healing prayer for people who have seen so much evil in their lives.

There’s around 800 words that are praying for people who were not called up (Dark Purple). There’s over 600 of prayers or other words about how people being prayed for could be used for The Network (Bright Red). There’s over 700 words that are talking about or praying things that the speaker believes The Network is doing well (Yellow).

  • Green: Reasonable prayer or sentiment toward Black individuals.

  • Yellow: Talking about how The Network is good.

  • Blue: Just talking - not really related to anything.

  • Bright Purple: “Heaping up empty phrases”, as Jesus would say. Prayer phrases that at least aren’t specific to this situation.

  • Dark Purple: Prayer for people who aren’t those who were called up for prayer.

  • Bright Red: Prayer for them to be used by the church

  • Dark Red: Clear and direct gaslighting or other severe manipulation (where this is the only purpose - once again, part of me wanted to just publish the whole thing in this color).

  • Gray: Directional, asides, etc. No real content.

And they do all of that without the leaders saying a single word toward the non-Black folks about inspecting their own hearts toward Black people. Even Morgan’s call out of “foolish things” seems to just be about them failing to understand the spiritual inheritance of things that happened to previous generations. It’s an intellectual point, not something they might need to work on. There were hundreds of people there, and I think it’s reasonable to assume that at least some of them had a great deal to learn, and likely did harm out of their ignorance at least on occasion (this was true of me, at least, and probably still is - just the other day I learned the racist origins of a particular phrase that I didn’t know had any racial connotations).

There was no immediate follow-up in the churches. No focus. At Vista Church, there was no new effort to be more inclusive of Blacks, though we did hold our first Lunar New Year party (primarily for Asians) early the following year.

I honestly don’t know for sure what motivated Morgan to lead this time of prayer at this conference. I’ve never heard of something similar happening in The Network. But it should be obvious that a single event like this is not sufficient to say, “See, we’re doing great with Black people.”

But that’s exactly what Luke Williams did less than a year later. In my next post (still writing, hopefully up early next week), I’ll share that story…

Celeste Irwin
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