Ethnic Unity

We are committed to pursuing ethnic unity, reflecting the diversity of God’s Kingdom and striving for reconciliation through the Gospel within our church and community.

Our Mission

The Summit Church is committed to creating a movement of disciple-making disciples—men and women who reflect the diversity of our community, lived out in authentic unity. This commitment is grounded in Scripture, exemplified in Jesus? prayer for the church in John 17, the missionary approach of the Apostle Paul in Acts 17 and 19, and promised as our future eternal reality in Revelation 5.

Bryan Loritts

Executive Pastor of Teaching and Development

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Ricky Phillips

Associate of Ethnic Unity

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25 x 25

As we say at the Summit, “We do whatever it takes to reach all people with the gospel.” Among other things, this commitment has ethnic and cultural implications. We understand that unless we are intentional to reach all people within our community we will fall short. Because of this, we have a vision to be at least 25 percent minority by 2025.

IS THIS A QUOTA?

Over the years since we have articulated this dream, some have asked if we have succumbed to the culture by striving for a quota. We can understand and empathize with this question as so many work for companies which seek to have diverse ethnic, gender, and sexual representation among their job force (to name just a few). This is not what compels our efforts. Instead, as we look at our mission field, we see that the Triangle is 56 percent white and 44 percent minority. The most recent data has the ethnic makeup of our church around 83 percent white and 17 percent minority. In short, our campuses do not look like our mission field.

The goal of 25 x 25 is not ultimately diversity, but unity. After all, Jesus’ prayer for the church in John 17 was not one of ethnic diversity, but of comprehensive unity. This is one of our dreams at the Summit. With all of the division our society is experiencing across ethnic lines, we believe now is our moment to visibly demonstrate the power of the gospel to save souls and unite people across historically polarized communities.

Areas of Responsibility

Staff Development

We come alongside the leadership of the Summit to provide tools to establish ethnic unity across all of our campuses. We offer trainings, small group environments, books, and opportunities to engage in rich experiences to lead from a place of growing authenticity in the area of Christ-exalting unity.

Member Discipleship

We inspire and equip our members with the tools needed to take the gospel to the Jews and Gentiles people of different ethnicities.

Resources

A previous video resource was posted in which we sought to talk with local authorities in RDU about how our church could connect well in our community and care about issues that affect our city. We respect our governing authorities that God has placed in our lives and were grateful for the conversation. In the introduction, we discussed the role that faith plays in our lives, but at the time of the interview, we were not fully aware of the significant differences that we have with one of the participants. We are thankful for their time and participation, but in order to avoid any further confusion, we have removed this resource.