Off the Agenda: Conversations for Building Church Leaders

My friend Allen grew up in the Midwest. While globalization had changed things in some places, it had not quite reached where he was living. His world changed drastically, however, when he moved to Southern California. He found more languages, skin tones, and perspectives than he could have ever imagined.

After seminary, Allen moved to the “New South.” He noticed the churches and pastoral gatherings were segmented not just by denomination but also by ethnicity, gender, and social class. Like in California, the community around him was growing in diversity. But the churches were not.

Allen’s theology and ministry practice collided. From his perspective, his church was responsible for all the lost of his city. He felt Scripture did not give him a pass to exclude those who were culturally different from his ministry. He wanted his church actively engaged in our globalized society.

Allen and others like him are running ahead of most of evangelicalism, and we need to catch up. There are many demographic projections out there of what our country is going to look like by the year 2050. Based on projections:

· If your church is doing effective evangelism, every fifth convert may be an immigrant from another country. Unless there is a change in the immigration law, it is highly likely that a good portion of them will be considered illegal.

· When a youth pastor visits the local school to hand out flyers advertising an outreach event, 3 of 10 students will be Latino; 1 will be African American; 1 will be Asian; and 1 will be multiracial.

· When Christians go to their secular workplace 30 percent of the workforce will more than likely be people of color.

How are we going to represent Christ amid such diversity? One step is to examine reconciliation in a new way. Reconciliation is typically viewed as optional; only involving crossing the black/white racial divide; and is solved exclusively through personal friendship building. In today’s world, this is flawed thinking.

We need to address issues that weaken the work of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Scriptures in a way that involves the perspectives of all races. These are things such as racism. But it is also anything that is considered “normal” for Christians that distorts the gospel message and has racial overtones.

In this political year, here is one example. It’s no secret that most African Americans vote Democratic and whites vote Republican. One day while talking to a non-believer, she told me she could never be a Christian. When I asked her why, she stated that she could never vote Republican! It may seem like a joke, but she was serious.

Beliefs like that develop when she visits a local church and the preacher sounds more like Rush Limbaugh (or, in another case, Jeremiah Wright) than Jesus Christ. These actions by Christians distort our faith and cause racial strife by default.

Life experience dictates that we start from different perspectives. These differing perspectives are strengths. But if our perspectives are not given a framework, constructive conversations about reconciliation do not occur. More importantly, kingdom building ministry does not happen.

Our new conversation—and it will include dialogue about race, as well as class and gender—should be rooted in Galatians 3:26–29:

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. (NIV)

This passage does not mean we should ignore the differences that we see. Rather, the message is that the church is intended to carry out God’s original intentions for humanity: unity in Christ Jesus.

The message here is this: outside of the church race/ethnicity means one thing; in the church it should mean something else. Economic status means one thing to non-believers; it changes meaning when you become a Christ-follower. Without Christ, gender means one thing; with Christ, it means something totally different.

What better place than the church to unravel prejudices and stereotypes while seeking what (and whom) we all have in common? I have found that when we create spaces for racial reconsideration conversations, division is reversed and the kingdom grows.

What can you do to start the conversation in your church?

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