Posted by Steven Rainwater
March 25, 2012
There are those who are concerned that local, Christian, evangelical Christ-following churches in the US are too segregated. (When this is mentioned, it's mostly a statement that WASP-type pew sitters don't easily welcome black Americans into their worship communities.) There are also Christians who can't wait for each opportunity to meet with their community because it is indeed a cultural bastion where they seek and holistically enjoy refuge. (Can you say Brazilian, Korean, Haitian or Hispanic congregation?)
About a week ago I had a chat (via social media) with a friend from my youth (who I've recently reconnected with on said media). He's Canadian but spent most of his life in the US. He finds himself leading a Midwestern local church as an evangelical Christian minister, which has organically grown into a multi-ethnic congregation, given a large hispanic population. My friend has taken and run with what has grown up naturally around them, and there exists a vibrant hispanic community among the local group.
He recently began to support an effort that encourages to churches to proactively promote and attempt to create multi-ethnicity within their communities. I "liked" the group on Facebook because my friend is part of it and I consider him of the highest integrity. But I also shared with him some personal concerns on the issue, and a few (among many) of my own varied multi-ethnic experiences. I pasted below some excerpts from our chat.
Call to action: My blog is new and I only know of a few readers. I'll actually be changing the URL soon. Right now I'd enjoy anyone's comments in addition to mine, as to whether the church should insist on multi-ethnicity, gently nudge, stay-the-heck-out-of the conversation, or simply let nature take it's course.
Here are my comments in discussion with my friend:
Given my marriage and family and being multilingual I have the chance to network with some folks that most " suburban white boys from Indiana with Southern Kentucky parents" never do. Kind of fun actually. And my kids all attend(ed) high schools with large black, hispanic, Haitian, Brazilian, Indian and Arab representations, to name a few. Having said all that I feel every day I'm less of an authority on multi-ethnic issues, but I feel that one of the most important questions that always needs to be asked when it comes to the arena of local church, is whether to raise the issue in the first place.
My youngest son plays on a soccer team where we receive emails about the team's events in two languages, not because it's proper or insisted upon but because our team manager (an anglo retired college professor) by coincidence happened to have spent two years on the peace corps and developed fluent Spanish. All those people who receive the email can read english well enough, but they like getting an email in Spanish too. At training and games I frequently speak English, Spanish and Portuguese, but only because I can. No one insists on anything and for those who only speak English, it all still works fine. We even have one family who speaks the kings English...everyone wishes they had the accent.
My point - sometimes raising the issue is the most confusing thing involved in the whole multi-ethnic lifestyle process. I'm not sure how I feel about churches making a big deal out of this. When it's politically made a big deal out of it always seems counter-productive. Church leaders who say we HAVE to be more open to multiple races, etc..I just don't know. I get where they're coming from, but honestly, some Lutheran leaning Swedes in MN might not be cut out to worship with Pentecostal Japanese.
The whole statement, "Sunday morning is the most segregated time of the week" - in some places it is and some it isn't. I really like letting God lead and not forcing the issue. I'm not against challenging people to be more ethnically open. But I don't want to put them in a box either.
Last year I spent some time teaching English in a language school here in Central Florida. It was a contract position teaching Arab graduate students preparing for English placement exams to do masters degrees. They were wealthier than I can imagine, left class to pray on schedule every day and believe that women shouldn't drive or shop in the same place as men, and that poor people from Pakistan should serve them but shouldn't be citizens. We enjoyed beating each other up about culture. I was candid with them and they with me. I used each of our faiths as springboards for many language learning exercises. It was fascinating. I admit I was not excited about the assignment when I first took it. Two of the students are on my FB friends today. When God gives us opportunities to know others I think we should embrace them, but I think we need to be careful what we force.
Once during my college days, I found myself visiting a friend in the Northeast and we decided find a place to attend church on Sunday morning in a town where neither of us knew any community. Our last minute search ended in our being two of three white people in the pews of an all black congregation. Suffice to say, I was never made to feel so welcome anywhere as I was that day…and I'm fairly sure no integrated group within miles was offering up music like these worshippers!
Thoughts?
slr
