Looking Back on 2020: One Pastor's Hopeful Letter from the Future

In an episode of his daily morning show, Good News Today, which broadcasts 
on social media, Pastor Albert Tate of Fellowship Church read a “letter from the future,” in which he imagined describing the disciples of Jesus and their reactions to the racial reckoning and the coronavirus pandemic in the year 2020. In the letter, Albert told a story about “the Remnant,” which he describes as “those disciples who rose up and made a difference in one of the most difficult years in history.” The following is an excerpt of that letter.

This was the big thing that the disciples of 2020 tackled, which was impossible: politics. I remember, we almost lost it. The Remnant almost fell apart when it came to this, because we were so party driven. And the parties were so cut down socioeconomic or minority or racial lines. It was so hard. The idolatry and the demonic forces of political party were raging at an all-time high. We almost lost the coalition here—this is where it almost fell apart. But we finally realized, we’ve got to care about policy and not party. We’ve got to be driven by policy and not party. Because the parties divided us like never before.

The churches were just divided—you could go around churches and mark this church red, this church blue . . . We were so divided, but we realized, we all really care about people. But we thought we could choose, a la carte, what we cared about. So you had some folks who cared about abortion, you had some folks who cared about people that are suffering in poverty, as if we had to pick one or the other! It was crazy! So you had people, when they got into an argument, say, “Yeah, but abortion. All these babies . . . I’m not gonna ever vote for someone who’s down for murdering babies.” But then you got other folks being like, “Yo, adults are being murdered by police! You don’t care about that?” And it was almost as if people were saying, “I don’t have enough time to care about both of them at the same time.” Or, “I’m not willing to do the hard work to figure out how.”

And the politicians just played us. Because the government is just a reflection of us. We didn’t realize we were just getting played. We were catering to parties instead of catering to policies. So, some leaders got together and said, “What are the kingdom policies that we want to hold onto, and that we want to hold the candidates accountable to?” And we started pursuing kingdom policies. We didn’t vote by party, we voted by policy. Policies that were going to care for the poor, that were going to care for the unborn, that were going to care for the needy, that were going to care for women, for equal rights . . . It was unbeliev- able! And it confused the heck out of the politicians. Because they couldn’t put us in boxes anymore; they had to put us in crosses.

These believers, the Remnant, were not driven by party; they were driven by policy, because we cared about people and not power. This required the power of the Holy Spirit. We cared about people and not power. We would ask questions of our politicians, and we would vote and give accountability in our precincts and our neighborhoods and our communities: “What are you doing about Black people and brutality?” And guess what? These were White people asking these questions. And people in poor and impoverished neighborhoods were saying, “What are we doing about abortion clinics and liquor stores on every corner in food deserts?” We started asking questions about people, not driven by power—and it changed politics. People had to start serving the middle. People couldn’t run to the left. People couldn’t run to the right. They had to run to the cross. Because the believers and the Remnant of 2020 said, We will call people to the cross—not to donkeys, not to elephants, but we will call them to the Lamb. Once they got a taste of their power and recognized they were better together, that was it. Change began to happen.