Saturday September 1, 2007 ~
9 Comments
The 9 Marks Journal recently asked me to respond to the issue of race. You can download their full journal here.
I had a small part in the pastor/theologians forum.
I am impressed with many of the responses, but was glad to hear from an old friend Juan Sanchez. Also, Eric Redmond, recently elected Second V.P. of the Southern Baptist Convention, writes one of the most insighful comments.
Redmond points out (my words) that the church typically only repents of racism when the society does. He writes:
There is a race problem in the American church, if for no other reason than the fact that there is a race problem in America, and the evangelical church's progress on race has, historically, mirrored America's progress on race.
Here is my conribution:
Race matters.
I planted my first church among the urban poor in Buffalo. Having been raised in a racially isolated community near New York City, I never thought much about race--but in Buffalo we had little choice. We were forced to address issues of race because our community was a multicultural milieu. It forced us to read the Scriptures with more awareness of race--and an acknowledgement of its challenges.
We found that race matters in scripture. Even though few Anglo churches seem to notice, Scripture frequently demonstrates God's concern for race and ethnicity.
Luke illustrates the coming of the Spirit with diverse expressions of tongues (Acts 2), even identifying the languages being spoken. And a glimpse of eternity in Revelation shows that men and women from every tongue, tribe, and nation make up the choir of eternal praise (Rev. 7:9). If the writers of Scripture take notice of ethnicity, so should we.
Scripture not only identifies race and ethnicity, but John hints at prejudice concerning Jesus in John 1:46, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Furthermore, Jesus intentionally offends ethnic and racial sensibilities with both the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4) and the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10). Why go to so much trouble to emphasize their ethnicity if it does not matter?
Yet the same Spirit that inspired the Scripture to identify race also provides the strength to overcome its challenges. Both our worship and our witness are made more perfect when we model gospel-centered diversity.
At the cross, there is "no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female." Yet at the throne there are men and women from "every tongue, tribe, and nation." We would do well to remember both.
Ed Stetzer is the Director of LifeWay Research and LifeWay Missiologist in Residence. He is also the author, most recently, of Comeback Churches.
Posted on September 1, 2007 at 8:34 PM ~ 9 Comments
Tagged with: 9 marks, racism
Subscribe via RSS or Follow us on Twitter
Share This Post
wow, rather provactive title ed...
i thought you were condeming 9 Marks for having racism in their ranks. :)
not that i wouldn't trust your thoughts on a sensitive issue like that, but now i see the thrust of your entry...
love your quote, "our worship and our witness are made more perfect when we model gospel-centered diversity..." Amen!
OK - there's racism in the church and we're not diverse enough. Those are bad things.
Could someone please define "racism" and "diversity" for me? Just like "missional" if we're going to talk about it we should know what it means.
Wikipedia explains that racism is, "a belief or concept that inherent differences between people, in particular those upon which the concept of race is based, significantly influence cultural or individual achievement, and may involve the idea that one's self-identified race or ethnic group or others' race or ethnic group is superior."
Diversity is a bit more difficult to define as so many use it differently. I would define it as "men and women from every tongue, tribe, and nation."
Then let's start with diversity. If my church doesn't have members from "every tongue, tribe and nation" or specifically provide outreach or worship services or translation to the same, does that mean we are somehow lacking?
And let's not forget that we don't have interpretation for the hearing impaired.
On the subject of racism. The church I currently attend has less the 20 members "of color". The church I used to attend has less the 20 "anglo" members. Are either/both of them racist?
I think the answer to both depends on more than the number of people in attendance by race.
It has to do with the composition of the community, the attitude of its members, and how it relates the two.
Ed, I really like your last response to Larry and am in total agreement. I live in a community where race is a HUGE issue. The population of my city is roughly 70% African American, 25% White and 5% "other." There are deep historical issues at work here, which linger because the majority of our white students attend private "Christian" schools which began, oddly enough, in the late 60's.
Majority white churches here have a bad reputation still because of their reaction and response to the civil rights movement. The church where I minister currently has 20-30 African American attenders out of roughly 850-950 in average worship attendance, yet we pride ourselves in being multi-ethnic. We have not been intentional in ministering to the majority black population here, and it shows. We are not overtly racist, yet we are happy with how we are, and black people are welcome to join if they will act, worship, dress like us.
The biblical teaching in your original post calls for more than that. As the body of Christ we should lead the way to racial reconciliation through and because of the power of the gospel. Thank you for your teaching, I pray that we will take it seriously.
Caleb, what are you willing to do intentionally minister to that black population? Change your worship style? Change you music? Change your clothes? ;)
Maybe I live in a bubble, but I do not see the race problem. I am 27, and attend a predominantly white church. I studied racial politics as an undergrad and studied this issue very much. My current research project is on conservative white pastors in Montgomery, AL in the 50's during MLK's crusade. People attend church with their friends. They typically begin attending a particular church because they were invited by their friends. If their friends are like them (economically, racially, geographically) then you will have churches that are not diverse. In churches is there an equal amount of rich and poor? Probably not. It depends on location of the church many times.
I don't think we should follow the example of the government and force integrate our schools. I realize that much of our separation is due to natural separation along the lines of affinity groups. We tend towards people who are like us with similar backgrounds and experiences.
However, I don't think affinity groups are a good reason not to minister to people from every tribe, tongue and nation in the community God has placed us. That is our calling, not to minister to people just like us, but to people from every tongue, tribe and people group.
What does that look like? I think it can take on different forms in different contexts, but one thing is certain, we must start thinking like missionaries if we are going to take the mission of God seriously (To form a people from all people's for His glory and worship as my church evangelism prof. Dr. Van Sanders says).
Maybe we do decide to change our worship style, dress, etc. Maybe we allow our minority church members to help plan so we have a style that reflects the diversity in our community. Maybe we intentionally plant gospel preaching churches in unreached areas in our community with ethnic and racial segments that are not being reached.
As a student minister, I have formed a long range partnership with a small African American church in a community that needs help. We are constantly partnering with that church and a nearby community center to minister to the people in that community.
It looks different in different communities, but the gospel call is for us to actively seek to disciple people from all walks of life and backgrounds in our communities.