What isn’t healed is passed down to the next generation - Elevation Church

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This is quite a long video, but it is really worth watching through in the aftermath of the recent Orlando shootings and a year after Charleston. I found it profoundly moving. It uses the starting point of race relations/racism/discrimination to look at our own individual responsibility to pass on to the next generation healthy, loving, Christian attitudes, especially in situations where we may have received the opposite at some point from our own families.

This message is so well articulated and delivered by a combination of a Pastor’s teaching from a year ago, and members of his church a year later reflecting on his message in the light of Orlando and other tragedies.


I think it would be good to use with older groups of young people to accompany the topic of prejudice/race/discrimination. It would also be interesting for them to see a different style of preaching and Christian ministry. I got to know Elevation Church through their music ministry which is reminiscent in its praise + worship style of Hillsong and Vineyard churches.

As can be seen and heard in the interviews/discussion that intercut with the pastor’s teaching they are a modern southern states American church that welcomes all comers of all races and backgrounds. I’ve been to New Orleans where my sister has lived for nearly 40 yrs. and have attended a predominantly black Catholic church (just as there are churches there that are attended predominantly by whites) and we were welcomed so warmly, but segregation still exists in many parts of the US, including in some church communities. Catholicism, and our sister Churches in the Christian family, have such an important role to play in setting an example for society in the way that we treat the outsider, the stranger, the one who is different (race, gender, sexual orientation…), and we need to look into our hearts and ask ourselves whether we are doing enough, as individuals and as communities.

It is noticeable that there has been quite a vibrant discussion in the media in the aftermath of the Orlando shootings about the (traditional) attitude of the Catholic Church to members of the LGBT community and it is refreshing to hear some Church leaders speak out about how, as Christians, we should be more vocal and visible in our welcoming of this community’s members:

”Those women and men who were mowed down Sunday were all made in the image and likeness of God. We teach that. We should believe that. We must stand for that.” (Bishop Robert Lynch, Orlando, Florida)

What messages and attitudes are we passing on to future generations?

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