On Pentecost Sunday, Pastor Louie Giglio encouraged his congregation at Passion City Church in Atlanta, Georgia, to participate in protests over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. He also asked them to let the situation break their heart, to participate in efforts to clean and rebuild the city, and finally led the church to get on their knees and beg for God’s anointing in this hour.
“As your pastor, I not only support your right to speak up,” Giglio said. “I not only support your right to march; I say we all should march. And if that makes somebody nervous—to say marching turns into violence—no! Marching peacefully, by the grace of God, can turn into progress. It has in the past, and it can in the future. We cannot let a very small minority of people, who are seeking to destroy, to take the microphone and to steal the agenda and to silence the voice of justice.”
The message, which Giglio specifically directed at those physically attending Passion City Church, began with Giglio saying he prayed for anyone who lacked immediate compassion for George Floyd.
“If you watched the brutal murder of George Floyd, and your heart didn’t break, and your eyes weren’t filled with tears and you weren’t outraged and angry, I pray for you. As your pastor, I pray for you. If your first response was ‘Well, what about the whatevers’ and your second response was ‘But things happen bad on every corner’ and your third response was ‘Yeah but there’s another side to the story,’, then I pray for you. Because there’s no way I believe a Jesus-follower can watch what happened to George Floyd and not be outraged and not be so brokenhearted. And so we pray for his family today. We pray for our nation today.”
Giglio shared that he had seen the adverse effects of racism and unequal rights for African Americans during his own lifetime.
“Today we are brokenhearted, and we are frustrated and we are angry, and something has to change. I’m a son of our city. When I was born, blacks in Atlanta, Georgia, did not have the same rights as [I did.]. When I was born. I’m not talking about my grandparents or their grandparents or their grandparents. When I was born in this city, people of color did not have civil rights in this city. And we have made so much progress, but even in these last days, Dr. King’s ‘beloved community’ has been shattered. … So let’s not get things confused today. Let’s not let a very, very, very small percentage of people causing mayhem silence the voices of people who are crying out for healing in our land.”
Giglio also voiced his support and solidarity with local police officers and business owners who were part of Passion City Church’s congregation, and encouraged church members to live peacefully, no matter what actions they undertook in the days to come.
“Business owners in our house—not [just] somebody, our house—have had their businesses destroyed,” Giglio said. “Cops on the street in our cities of Atlanta and D.C., they are our brothers. Not our brothers in building up the city, not our brothers in Christ, they’re our brothers in our house. Our brothers and sisters are on the streets under fire. Our house is out at the crack of dawn, sweeping up the streets. So we are in the streets peacefully. We are sweeping up the streets peacefully. We are defending the cities peacefully. And we are rebuilding our businesses peacefully. That is our house today at Passion City Church.”
Finally, he encouraged the entire community to look to Jesus Christ as the only true source of justice and peace.
“As your pastor, I just say once again there are many ways to justice, and there are many paths to peace, and we will support every single one of them, but the way to justice and the way to peace? His name is Jesus Christ. … I believe we do need to see change in America, but I believe more than anything else … we need a revival in America. We need a spiritual awakening in America.”
Finally, voice breaking, Giglio led the church to kneel together in prayer before God, as he begged God for peace and to “heal our land.”
Watch the full video here.
