Forming multi-ethnic churches seems
to be “cool” at first, but unless believers grasp the Gospel in pursuing
diversity, the life of the church may be dried up in a few months.
So the question of the post, “are
we mandated to become multi-ethnic?” Reality is that your church may be located
in an area with virtually no ethnic diversity. Some churches that desire to
diversify, have the desire but lack the resources to effectively pursue
multi-ethnicity. Other churches who have a diverse community and desire, are led by wrong motivations.
Wrong motivations often lead people
into trying to diversify.
The most common
motivation that I have heard is Guilt. --this is especially true for many white
churches. The argument goes: "Whites have marginalized and oppressed
blacks for so long, churches need to make it right by 'reaching out' to
different races and ethnicities." While guilt has its place, this emotion
will hardly give churches the determination they need to persevere through the
difficulties of becoming multi-ethnic.
Another common
motivation is fear. Christians fear lots of things about being in a mono-ethnic
church. We fear that as neighborhood demographics change we will lose people.
We fear that we will become irrelevant in the community. We fear being racist,
or classist, or elitist. Fear, too, has its place. But that won't keep churches
moving toward a multi-ethnic vision.
We should desire to have a
multi-ethnic church because it reflects the true nature of the Gospel and the
nature of God. The Trinity is a picture of three distinct people unified as
one. If the church is to be the “body” of Christ (His representative) then what
a better way to represent God than true diversity?
Lets face it, no church will be
perfect, but we can get a sense and joy out of striving to be more like Him
than we were yesterday.
Is it a mandate for every church
to diversify and become Multi-Ethnic? Short of the Long answer is NO! It is not
a mandate, but it is a beautiful privilege given the opportunity.
