Over the past four years, two men have learned not to flinch when they speak hard truth to each other. Though they grew up on opposite sides of South Africa’s racial divide, they now sit together in Xola Skosana’s office sharing tea, biscuits, and a commitment to Jesus’ prayer for unity.

“I sometimes look Leon in the eyes and ask, ‘Can I trust you?’” said Skosana, founder and senior pastor of the Way of Life congregation in Khayelitsha, a sprawling black township on the edge of Cape Town, South Africa.

Leon Oosthuizen, senior pastor of a white middle-class congregation in the nearby suburb of Belville, was one of the few Christians who heard Jesus’ voice in Skosana’s controversial slogan, “Disband the white church.” Many church leaders responded in angry denunciations, even branding Skosana a raving lunatic.

Oosthuizen initiated a partnership between the 1,500-member Vredelust Dutch Reformed Church and Way of Life’s 200 members. He said he knew that it was important to meet Skosana on his own turf.

“Leon is prepared to start where it hurts the most,” Skosana said.

And Oosthuizen did pay a price. A handful of Vredelust members left the congregation when their congregation and Way of Life began to worship together.

“Unity in God is hard,” Oosthuizen said. “But Ephesians speaks about empowering the believers to do the work of ministry, and partnering across racial divides, so we can’t stay in our own little world. True humanity begins when we go beyond ourselves.”

Oosthuizen and Skosana realize that leading their congregations in breaking down the centuries-old fortresses that secured white privilege through oppression of people of color is a long process, one that begins with their own relationship.

They work toward ending economic apartheid that continues to divide the black and white people of South Africa 16 years after apartheid officially ended as government policy. They believe that restitution is necessary for racial reconciliation.

“We are called to redistribute power. Salvation of the poor is in the hands of the middle class whose hearts are pierced by the cross of Jesus Christ,” Skosana said. “When I look at history, I see God calling people from the middle class, the Nelson Mandelas* of the world, to speak for the poor.”

Skosana said that as leaders he and Oosthuizen must allow Way of Life members the time to work through their moral rage against the injustices they have experienced at the hands of white people. They also need to create an atmosphere where it is safe to be vulnerable so that the members of the two congregations can meet the “person behind the pain.”

“We must walk into relationships that get beyond stereotypes and statistics to see the humanity of black people,” Skosana said.

The two congregations work side-by-side in reaching out to the Khayelitsha community, home to two million people.

“We are all confronted by Christ and we need each other,” Oosthuizen said. “Without Way of Life, Vredelust couldn’t build the kingdom in Khayelitsha. We help empower Way of Life, so they can empower others. It is not white serving black, but black and white serving together.”

According to Skosana, Way of Life members don’t feel indebted to their white counterparts, even though the Vredelust congregation has redirected two-thirds of the resources it intended to use to enhance their Belville facility to a church-community center in Khayelitsha.

“We are giving each other opportunities to experience the kingdom of God,” Skosana said.

Since 2007, the partnership has expanded to include:

•  Annual joint worship services.
• A pulpit exchange four times each year.
•  Combined worship bands.
•  “Partnering Across the Racial Divide” days.
•  Pastoral interns training together.
•  Shared community development projects.

Beginning in January 2009, Salamntu LungaÑ then, a Way of Life pastorÑand Jaco Vollgraapf, a Vredelust intern, crafted one of the strongest links between the two congregations. Now, Vollgraapf has been seconded to the Way of Life leadership team.

One of Lunga’s and Vollgraapf’s achievements has been to organize Saturday morning classes at Luhlaza Inda, a school in Khayelitsha, for tutoring in math, accounting, business and English. They also laid the groundwork for the new church-community center complex that will be co-owned by the two congregations.

Oosthuizen marvels at how many of his parishioners have changed.

“People who would have refused to enter a black township two years ago, are now coming to Khayelitsha to help with electrical wiring and tutoring,” he said.

The Vredelust congregation has engaged in another radically counter-cultural ventureÑbuying two homes in Khayelitsha for white staff members and interns. Since the official end of apartheid in 1994, people of color have been slowly moving into previously all-white neighborhoods. However, white people are reticent to move into the black townships.

“We are transforming our world, slowly but surely,” Skosana said, “because we are prepared to open ourselves to the painful becoming and start where it hurts most.”