Since 2018, Newnan pastors Chris Carlyle, of Purified Living Ministries, and Jimmy Patterson, of First Baptist Church, have shared a friendship bound in Christ’s love and a quest to better understand each other’s experiences regarding race.

A native of Newnan and 1983 graduate of Newnan High School, Carlyle lived in the Atlanta area during most of his 20s. While working with the Clayton County Recreation Department, he coached a young Cam Newton from the time the future football star was 6 years old until he entered high school.

When Carlyle was 16, he was fired from a job bagging groceries after a white woman accused him of not double bagging her items. Until then, says the pastor, he had not experienced negative relations with white people.

“But that turned something on in me, and it took me a while to turn it off,” he says. “I didn’t like white people.”

Carlyle says his disdain lasted “until I got saved when I was 29.” He returned to Newnan shortly thereafter and has served as pastor at Purified Living Ministries, a nondenominational church, for the past 12 years.

Originally from Brownwood, Texas, Patterson began his career as a preacher in Florida and moved to Coweta County in 2006 as senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Newnan. In the past two years, he and Carlyle have spoken to groups regarding local race relations.

Last summer, Patterson took part in the funeral service for Carlyle’s father by reading a Bible passage – a gesture that cemented their bond, according to the pastors.

NCM: You have been pastors of your churches for about the same amount of time. What are your congregations’ views on race relations as a whole?

Carlyle: My congregation is at a pretty rough place right now. They are in a place where they want to be heard. They’re in a good place also because they’re talking with their kids about certain things – that all white people are not prejudiced.

They want to be seen as individuals, not put in the same category as all black people. Unfortunately, we’re stereotyped like that. They just want to live. As Christians, we just want to live.

Some of the things we do we cause on ourselves. We can’t blame another race for something that we perpetuate on our own. I’m a realist. I say whatever you put out of your house, that’s what you put out on the world. You can’t expect someone to give you a job if you come in with your jeans hanging down. If you want a job, you’ve got to go through the protocol and look the part like you want to work, not like you just got out of jail.

We don’t want everybody to put us in one basket, and we can’t put everybody else in one basket. What my congregants are saying is, “Pastor, it’s difficult because we’ve always been in that basket. No matter how many times we try to get out of the basket, everywhere we go, it always seems like we get put back.”

For example, I dress nice and everything, but if I go into a high-end store, I’ll get followed around. People look at me a certain way when I come in.

NCM: You’re talking about employees following you – and they’re not following you to help you?

Carlyle: Right, and it just makes me feel awkward. It’s that feeling we want to get rid of because the majority of us want to live right.

It’s like our color is a weapon. When we come out of the house we have to act a certain way, we have to be a certain way. White people don’t necessarily have to; they can live however they want to live.

NCM: You said you quit caring for white people from the time you were 16 until you had a reckoning. When did you come out of that?
Carlyle: It was actually when I got saved at 29. I didn’t have trust for white people.

NCM: Was it getting salvation that brought that trust back?

Carlyle: Yes. Everything had to be on an even playing field because once you get saved, everything is wiped away. But that transition is still hard for some. Not me. I heard him call me. I was standing under an exit sign when he told me to exit. It was clear that he was saying, “I’m going to heal your heart so you can be an effective leader in the community.”

We don’t have all the answers for everything, but we can, by walking hand in hand, show the healing of this community and that we’re here to make a change and to be brothers and sisters in Christ. It ain’t going to be the government, it ain’t going to be Trump, it ain’t going to be Biden. It’s going to be the churches. If anything’s going to get healed, it’s going to start with the church. As black and white churches on Sunday, when we start that segregated day interacting with each other, that’s when the world will start seeing that there’s a change.

NCM: Reverend Patterson, how about your congregation? What are the issues they deal with as far as race relations?

Patterson: As a Southern Baptist church, we were founded with the stain of racism on our denomination. We were conceived in sin with regard to the issue of slavery, but in recent years, as a denomination, we have repudiated every form of prejudice. On the issue of racial reconciliation, we’re far from being where we need to be, but we are growing. In the time that I’ve been here, we’ve had five African Americans, including Chris, preach in our pulpit, and that has been a very positive experience for our church.

I have to commend Chris. We would not have this relationship if he did not take the initiative. We are both members of the Kiwanis Club. One day he approached me and asked if I had ever preached in a black church and asked me to come preach in his.

Carlyle: That was 2018.

NCM: What are some of the things First Baptist has done to promote racial reconciliation?

Patterson: Well, after Chris invited me to preach in his church, I wanted to reciprocate, and so we had the Oneness Walk in 2018. Our congregations met at Willie Lynch Park and had hot dogs. We walked from the park past Purified Living Ministries Church to our church where we had a worship service.

Carlyle: We picked up people as we were going. It was beautiful.

Patterson: At one point, I looked back and I could see nothing but people all the way back, and someone said the line of people was a mile long.

NCM: In the current state of affairs with Black Lives Matter and protests, what do you feel are misconceptions that some people have about race and each other?

Patterson: I think we make the issue of racial harmony much too complicated. I think it’s very simple, and Chris has already alluded to it: We must put Jesus first. I think it’s just that simple. Jesus is the prince of peace. At his birth, the angels announced, “Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.” Jesus taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves. The Bible says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Colossians 3:28). Jesus makes the playing field level for all of us. These are complicated issues, but I think the solution is much simpler than we’re willing to admit.

NCM: What would you add Pastor Carlyle?

Carlyle: There is a misconception on black lives matter – not the organization Black Lives Matter but just that black lives matter.

NCM: Explain that to me.

Carlyle: If you look up the history of Black Lives Matter, what they stand for, I don’t ride with what the organization does. I’m not with any group that wants to hate anybody; I’ve been delivered from that. I hear people talk about it, saying “We can’t even say ‘Black lives matter’ without being lumped with their organization.” Some of the things the organization does I don’t agree with, but the slogan stands out for me.

NCM: How do you feel about the Confederate statues on court square in Newnan?

Carlyle: If Newnan really wants to show that we’re healing, let’s just get rid of these statues – not tear them down but remove them to a place where it’s just not a reminder. Every time I drive by, it’s like it’s saying, “You were in bondage, you were in slavery.” I don’t know that guy. All I know is that he was a Confederate soldier and fought for slavery. I don’t want to talk about that. I’m trying to get past that, but it’s a constant reminder. It just does something to me, you know what I mean? It just takes me to a bad place in my mind. No disrespect to people who want to remember that, but it affects us in a totally different way than it affects you all.

The Bible says we should follow God’s statutes, not statues. We should be committed to his statutes, not statues, because those are just monuments. If people want to see us heal, let’s make an effort to remove some of these things.

When I preached here at First Baptist, a man walked up to me afterward and told me that he hated black people. But the message I preached was “Who really is your neighbor?” He asked that I pray with him the prayer of salvation that he might be saved.

NCM: You’re kidding?

Carlyle: No, I am serious. We cried on that altar down there. He got saved, he turned his life over to Christ. That hatred got out of his heart.

NCM: That is racial reconciliation in a nutshell.

Carlyle: Yes, it is.

NCM: Jimmy how do you feel about those statues?

Patterson: First and foremost, I love my brother. He is the blood of my heart. When I hear about the hurt that he has personally been through, it hurts me deeply. And I’m growing in this particular issue and want to talk more about it. My ancestors owned enslaved people. I discovered this not long after I moved here when I was doing some family research. It was like a knife in my heart. I didn’t tell anybody except my wife.

Carlyle: You told me when I preached here.

Patterson: Yes, that was the first time I’d ever told anyone else, in 2018. 

NCM: The same day you prayed with that man, Pastor Carlyle?

Carlyle: Yes.

Patterson: And I confessed that my family has been a part of the problem. My denomination has been a part of the problem. The stain of racism is on us, but we’re doing everything we can now to repudiate any form of prejudice. The stain of racism is on me personally. I have had prejudices. We all have a past.

Just like in the Bible: Abraham was a liar, Noah was a drunk, Jacob was a thief, Moses was a murderer, Rahab was a prostitute and David was a murderer and an adulterer. Yet they all are listed as examples of faith in Hebrews Chapter 11. These are people who had terrible pasts, and I don’t want to sanitize their history because it encourages me. I look at them and say, “I’m a failure, too. I’ve got a past that I am ashamed of, but I’m learning from that past and God has given me a future.” In Christ, every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.

So I look at that Confederate statue and think that is a symbol of the past that we can learn from. This is where I’ve been, but I am very open to what Chris is saying. I don’t want to sanitize things, but I would rather see a memorial for an African-American, maybe Martin Luther King Jr., put in a prominent place, too.

God has put this on my heart, I don’t know how you feel about this Chris, I’ve never mentioned it to you, but I’m aware of three African Americans who were lynched in Coweta County over our history. I think it would be nice if we could do what they’ve done in Montgomery where they have the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. They’ve memorialized lynchings that happened in Alabama, and it’s beautifully and tastefully done. It’s very moving. My thought is to put up a memorial to remember those people who were unjustly killed, and it will be a signpost to the future that we need to have peace. And put that in a prominent location.

Carlyle: I’d like to meet with your staff and your people on that, brother.

Patterson: I think the more people included, the better.

Carlyle: When the church makes a statement as significant as that, and we get on the same page with that and we stand hand in hand, that’s going to flip everything around, I guarantee it.

NCM: Where are we wasting time as far as racial reconciliation and where should we refocus our efforts?

Patterson: I think that we shouldn’t focus on the past but on a bright tomorrow.

Carlyle: Exactly. No past. Get off social media, stop getting your opinions from the news. The best way to reconcile is through conversations face to face with people.

Patterson: Sometimes people will ask me why I focus so much on racial harmony, and I say because it’s a gospel issue. My black brothers and sisters bear the same image of God that I do, and Jesus died for them on the cross just like he died for me. It’s a gospel issue.

Carlyle: I’m not a Democrat or Republican. I’m an Independent. Nobody owns my vote. We’re supposed to be Americans. And I think when we get closer to being Americans that’s when we’re going to show the rest of this world how Americans are supposed to live – with brotherly love, helping each other and really coming together. And it’s time past being afraid of each other. I think that’s the biggest problem with race relations – that we’re afraid of each other.

Patterson: It reminds me of what MLK Jr. said: “The reason we hate each other is because we fear each other. And the reason we fear each other is because we don’t know each other. And the reason we don’t know each other is because we don’t talk to each other.”

Chris took the initiative in this relationship by reaching out to me and talking to me and including me in his church. That broke down any barriers of fear or hatred I had.

NCM: Is the answer to racial reconciliation simply relationships?

Patterson: Yes, and we have a relationship.

Carlyle: We’re just talking the truth and that’s where friends and relationships come together. And I’ll say it again, the churches are going to be what fixes this whole thing. When they see us walking hand in hand, and even though we still might disagree about some stuff, guess what, we’re still together. That’s what God is looking for, I believe.

Patterson: Just like the Bible says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens the countenance of another.”  That’s what our relationship has been. But when you sharpen iron against iron, sparks are going to fly. And you can’t sharpen an ax on a pound of butter. You’ve got to have some friction – but in a Godly way. You’ve got to disagree in a Godly way and then come to a place where you’re one, where you’re unified.

NCM: Where do you see this change beginning?

Carlyle: Let’s get to some kind of point to where the community sees that the church is doing black and white together to make a serious change. We’re doing a lot of talking, but something tangible must be put in place. We need to do something physical instead of just having conversations because conversation without action is really just conversation.

The hard thing should be the easy thing to do, especially in love. Especially in church. This thing is hard with that monument out there, I know it is. We need to do something that’s really going to say that these churches in Coweta County are down here to make a movement. As long as you keep telling me the truth and I tell you the truth, that’s where we’re going to really break all of this old stigma about white and black.

Patterson: We could make a difference in our world, and it could emanate from Newnan, Georgia. I believe that. We could be the role model and example for racial harmony for the entire world.

Carlyle: Yes, that’s been my prayer, pastor. You hit it right on that nail and went straight into that wood. That’s been my prayer – to let the world know that this town believes in reconciling racial relationships. It’s the right thing to do. This is the right time to do it.

Patterson: Amen. Let’s partner on changing the world, brother.

Carlyle: Yes, sir. God bless you.