Building Bridges - Clarence Shuler
Life—as Clarence Shuler knows it—began in 1968, in the midst of the turbulence of the Civil Rights Movement, and with a good amount of unrest in his own young heart. He remembers being a part of church and Sunday school until about the age of 14, when he decided to start making his own decisions. As soon as he had his own say in the matter, he stopped attending completely. At the time it was an easy decision for him, one without much bearing on his life, since there were so many other things to occupy his young mind.
Basketball, for instance.
Everyone worships something, and for young Clarence, basketball was it. He ate, drank and slept the game. Around the same time he made a new best friend by the name of Russell Harper. While Clarence attended an all-black school, Russell’s was integrated, and one night Russell’s white friends invited him to an event at their church. Not wanting to be the only African-American going, Russell talked Clarence into coming along by assuring him that they would just be in the church gym playing ball. “I didn’t care who was going to be there if we were going to play basketball!” Shuler recalled.
Although there was a fair amount of trepidation in the choice for both Russell and Clarence, the welcome they received that night was unexpectedly warm. Clarence said, “I was shocked because these were white people in North Carolina in 1968!” Racial tension was at its highest, and yet in the middle of the chaos two African-American boys were cared for and accepted in a white church. It was a beacon—a bridge—of peace in troubled times. Little did Clarence know that this event would play an integral part in deciding the rest of his life’s work.
That night after playing a few games, everyone sat down and listened to the pastor lead a discussion on dating, and the next week, when the boys decided to come back, the discussion dealt with sexual temptation and the proper place of sex in the Christian life. Clarence was surprised to find that the truth of the Bible didn’t have to be boring and abstract, but that it had a lot to do with practical, everyday life. The pastor of this white church was named Gary Chapman, and he was not quite what Clarence had expected.
The father-son relationship that began to spring up between the two of them was not always easy. In fact, in 1968, it was nigh on miraculous. Both Clarence and Dr. Chapman remember a particular alarming interaction early on in their friendship that originated from a misunderstanding on both sides.
Pastor Gary pulled up in his car to pick up Clarence and his friend James on the way to church. He jumped out of the vehicle, came around, and shouted, “You boys ready to go?”
One of the young men stepped forward angrily and retorted, “I ain’t no BOY!”
There was a moment of surprised silence. All three of them stood still, waiting for the other’s reaction, which would inevitably be a deciding factor for the friendship’s future.
Chapman quickly apologized, and after youth group the three men sat together in the truck for three long hours, talking. Clarence and James understood that the pastor had only meant to address them as he would any other young man their age; the pastor in turn learned what damage had been done in their lives with that one seemingly neutral term, “boy.” Both of the boys could recall times when their fathers had been addressed with that term in a derogatory manner. From then on, each one began to see the other’s true heart and intentions instead of the racial projections which were fashionable in the '60s, but sadly run rampant even today.
The more time Clarence spent with his new pastor, the more he began to see how his character and Christ-likeness came out in everything he did. Even as a young boy, uninterested in church and its functions, he had always thought that someday he would be a pastor, and suddenly he was thrown headfirst into revival preaching at the age of 17. He still remembers the day when the first perso—a young girl—accepted Christ after hearing him preach. After that, he says he was all in.
However, Clarence’s first experience with Moody was shaky at best. His initial intention was to attend a secular university on a basketball scholarship. Moody was his second choice. Culture shock struck him hard, and for the first weeks he felt tremendously out of place. Few people would approach him, and there were only a precious few of his same culture and skin color. Basketball season started, though, and his position on the team as a freshman brought him almost instant popularity. However, his academic performance wasn’t good, and he ended up finishing his education at a smaller secular school.
Regardless of the circumstances, the principles and biblical education that Clarence gained at Moody continued to influence him as his path in ministry became clearer. Today his influence in the realm of building bridges is renowned in many spheres of relationship-building, particularly in the cultivation of interracial unity. The Lord knew what He was doing.
Based on his book, Winning the Race to Unity, Clarence’s ministry consists largely of biblical diversity consultation—helping ministries and churches alike to grasp the ways in which ignorance and prejudice are hindering and crippling the body of Christ. From Moody to Bethlehem Baptist, the home church of Dr. John Piper, the body of Christ is starting to understand the implications of the separation that has so long kept us comfortable and ineffective in our culture, Clarence purports. He calls this concept “biblical diversity” as opposed to the more widespread “racial reconciliation,” since, as he would say, “you can’t reconcile relationships that weren’t there.”
When asked what some of the steps are for growing an atmosphere of diversity, Clarence recommended starting out slow: read a book by someone from a different race. Sure, you probably have before, but do it again, and on purpose this time. He says the first step is seeing what you can learn from another race and culture. The second step is creating a climate of “cultural competency,” which he describes as the difference between toleration and celebration. He will tell you, too, that unfortunately Christian organizations are the ones that have the hardest time celebrating. Next, read Winning the Race to Unity, which is the result of Clarence’s own formidable ministry and personal experience.
When he’s not taking on the monsters of injustice and inequality within the body of Christ, Clarence serves as the Alumni Board president for the Moody Alumni Association. While serving in that capacity, he has the heart and goal to bring alumni together, to encourage gatherings and networking, and to mobilize former Moody students to realize their ministry potential.