I totally connect with this conversation.
It aches me incessantly how divided the church remains… but I’m totally stoked about the opportunities and the journey ahead.
What do we need to start doing today to get this right?
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Posts tagged as:
multiethnic
Recently I finished a relatively old urban ministry book – Ray Bakke’s “a theology as big as the city“. This book rocks, and is filled with insights on God’s love for the city and our roles in it.One practical and disputable insight I’ve been mulling over comes from this quote of his “The local city church staff should increasingly match the ethnicity, class, and culture of the church’s members”.
Coming from a predominantly ethnic church background myself I have long desired a church that is multi-ethnic. Even mono-ethnic churches are quite diverse underneath it all, however there is something indescribably beautiful when entering a community that is blatantly ethnically diverse as well.
The key to Bakke’s principle is leadership. If the staff and leaders can be intentionally diverse and move forward together then there is hope for the congregation. This sends the message that not only will we tolerate and accept those who are diverse, we also welcome them, embrace them, and desire that they influence and lead us as a community as well.
My questions going forward
- Bakke goes beyond race and culture, but suggests having class diversity in leadership. Will we really allow the ‘poor’ to lead us?
- Do we now ‘profile’ people to attain a diverse staff?
- Would this work better if leadership was a reflection of the neighborhood as opposed to the ‘members’?
- What do small churches with a single staff member do for diversity?
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I think I’ll start highlighting some slightly ‘out-there’ ideas I’ve been pondering over the next couple weeks. Here’s one.
I’ve spent the bulk of my church-life in ethnic churches. I’m a firm believer in the ethnic church and it’s role critical role in developing community, evangelism, identity, perspectives, etc. However, like many others in my generation, we struggle with also being a multi-ethnic church in a multi-ethnic culture.
While there is undoubtedly incredible diversity even within an ethnic community, there’s something indescribably beautiful about entering a community where the diversity is almost blatant.
Many of us have been there before, where we’ve invited, or wanted to invite a friend from a different, only to find that the whole ‘race-thing’ can become just one more barrier to Christ.
So the big question is how on earth do you transition a church that’s mono-ethnic into a multi-ethnic church?
Here’s one simple idea I’ve been bouncing around…
We declare a month where everyone commits to bringing someone who’s not like themselves.
This way no one feels awkward, no one knows it’s an ethnic church
In a month’s time you’re a completely different church!
What do you think? Too radical? Too naive? I know there are other factors and issues such as multiethnic staffing/leadership, integration, etc. I’d love to know what people think.
(I know multiculturalism is the even bigger issue, but one thing at a time folks…)
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