CIU Commemorates Black History Month

CIU Commemorates Black History Month

CIU Commemorates Black History Month

February 17, 2011

By Abbey Shoemaker


CIU Student Writer


Columbia International University commemorated Black History Month with a week of chapels that focused on “healing the racial divide,” and featured pastors from the Columbia area.  The week was sponsored by CIU’s African American Fellowship Ministries whose mission is “to serve the CIU body and the Columbia community by building bridges between ethnic cultures.”


As he introduced the week’s theme, CIU President Bill Jones encouraged students, faculty, and staff alike to “rip off cultural blinders that keep us from seeing life from a biblical worldview.”


Pastor Greg Cunningham of New Light Beulah Baptist Church reminded students of God’s heart for the world.


“Christianity … makes us responsible for all people groups,” Cunningham said.   


Similar statements were made throughout the week as listeners were exhorted to keep an eternal perspective and to adopt a Kingdom culture.


The week closed with a message from CIU alumnus Andre Melvin, the pastor of Temple Zion Baptist Church, who explained that, because of Jesus’ sacrificial death on behalf of all people, the ultimate racial divide has already been healed. 


Preaching from Ephesians 2:19-20, Melvin said the responsibility is now with believers to walk in unity as “members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”

Pastor Greg Cunningham