Christian Compassion without Culture Wars, episode 6 transcript
The Welcoming Church
www.CrossCulturalVoices.org
Sam Chacko: Loft City is a place where if you are not known in the community, it's because you chose not to be known. There's plenty of spaces to be known and engaged. And so we create as many spaces for conversations and dialogues and relationships to be built.
John Yoder: Hi everyone, John Yoder here. Welcome back to our podcast series, “Christian Compassion without Culture Wars”. We're talking about the church today. So far, we've talked about individuals. We've talked about how millions of individuals are building marvelous cross-cultural relationships, not by arguing about racism, but by following Jesus' commands: love one another, listen to one another, forgive one another, and center Christ.
While we must have Christians who walk in love towards others, we must also have churches that are emotionally healthy and multicultural. So today's episode is entitled “The Welcoming Church”, and it shares how we can multiply the number of churches that are multiethnic and emotionally healthy. Today I want to address three great issues concerning the multicultural church.
First, that not enough of them exist. Secondly, that those that do exist are too reflective of white culture, and there is not enough of black, brown, and other cultures reflected. And thirdly, that these churches build up worship but not community. That is, they come together for preaching and program, but don't build relationships outside that timeframe.
I want to encourage you, all three of these are growth areas. We have a lot to do, but over the last 20 years, we have made a lot of progress on all three, and continue to make progress.
This is increasingly important with our younger generations. Gen Z is the first generation of Americans to be majority minority. That is, in most cases, white people are 49% or less of the people in the room. Gen Z are used to multi-ethnic classrooms, workspaces, and communities, and it will feel odd for them if they are engaged in monocultural worship.
Not only is it more urgent for our younger generations to have multicultural churches, it's actually easier. Millennials are the first generation of Americans to be digital natives. Gen Z is the first generation to be multiethnic natives. For those of us older generation of Americans, when we wanted to do something multicultural, it was deliberate and intentional. It was because of our convictions and for us, there was a steep learning curve. But our younger generations do multiethnic things fluidly and instinctively, because they are growing up in multiethnic settings.
I want to make it very clear that I do not believe that all churches need to be multiethnic. There are three kinds of churches that are very popular in the United States because they meet the need of a very specific audience.
They are immigrant churches, primarily white churches, and African American churches. Each one of those styles of churches has a kind of preaching, a kind of music, length of service, amount of emotion, dress code, kinds of food, that meet the need of that target audience. And those kind of churches need not only to exist today. We need to multiply them in the future because there will continue to be groups of people who truly want that kind of worship.
In addition to that, especially to serve our younger generations, we must multiply multicultural churches. So let's ask the first question. Are multiethnic churches growing in number?
And the answer absolutely is Yes. In an article for Christianity Today, 2018, Kate Shellnutt says this:
Kate Shellnutt: Protestant churches in the US have become three times more likely to be racially diverse than they were 20 years ago. The percentage of Protestant churches where no one racial group makes up more than 80% of the congregation tripled from 4% in 1998 to 12% in 2012.
According to new research out this week from Baylor University, evangelicals and Pentecostals show even higher levels of diverse churches, up to 15% and 16% respectively. Overall, nearly one in five of all American worshipers belong to a multiethnic congregation.
The movement has become an established part of the conversation over the future of American Evangelicalism. No longer an idea pastors need to argue or defend, but one that many churches and leaders are eager to embrace.
John Yoder: So praise God., there are more and more multicultural churches every year in the US. Now let's talk about that second issue, that multicultural churches are too white in their flavor, too many white people in leadership, or simply white in their cultural style.
That criticism is legitimate. We need to work on it, but it is getting better with time and especially with our younger generations. In page 38 of his book, “One Body, One Spirit”, African American sociologist George Yancey says this:
George Yancey: With rare exceptions, multiracial churches generally are not merely Eurocentric churches that have somehow managed to attract racial minorities. Multiracial churches that tend to be successful are churches that attempt to meet the needs of members of all races. In this way, multiracial churches are not simply bastions of European American culture, but tend to be a mixture of different racial cultures.
All cultures change. It is a mistake to believe that there is a pristine Native American or Latino American culture that must be preserved against all external influences. All cultures are constantly changing over time and will change regardless of how little or great of an influence they experience from exposure to other cultures.
I argue that it is not wise to fight off all possibly changes that different cultures may experience. A healthier attitude toward interaction with other cultures is to learn from our cultural interaction rather than adopt a bunker mentality by which we attempt to maintain our cultural purity. This learning is more likely within multiracial churches than same race churches.
John Yoder: So what Yancey is telling us is that most multicultural churches are not simply a repetition of white culture, but that people of different ethnicities come together and bring their uniqueness into that congregation. Now if you listen to the media and you listen to some Christian organizations, you will believe that when people of different colors come together, they want to just argue about race.
But Yancey understands that most people, Christians included, are sick and tired of all the arguing, and yet want to get along with people who don't look like them. Here is what Yancey says in page 100 of his book:
George Yancey: Most Americans are either tired of dealing with racism or are frustrated at the lack of results we have experienced in removing racism from our society. Overt efforts to eradicate problems connected to racism and racial prejudice generally meets resistance from both whites and racial minorities. What may be called race fatigue has plagued contemporary efforts to deal with racism. Many individuals believe the best way to deal with racism is to ignore the social reality of race.
Whether or not Christians agree with the ideas of such individuals, it is still important to be ready to deal with them. Since people with such race fatigue will most likely make up a sizable amount of the resistance we face in maintaining a multiracial congregation, church leaders who want to create a multiracial ministry are wise not to put the main focus of their church on the effort to be a multiracial congregation.
John Yoder: In a 2015 article for Christianity Today, Sarah Zylstra shares how churches that foster equality tear down the misperceptions that structural inequities are barriers to the personal growth of minorities.
Sarah Zylstra: Large churches have grown both in numbers and in diversity. Evangelical churches with more than 1000 weekly attendees were five times more likely to be diverse in 2007 than they were in 1998. The bigger the congregation, the less likely you are to see that racial discrimination is a source of inequality. That may be a good thing, said Mark DeYmaz, president of Mosaix Global Network. Assuming these minorities are having a positive interaction with the church, that would inform their belief in this regard.
He said, in a healthy, truly diverse church, the structures of racism are eliminated.
And so it makes sense that congregants would be more likely to believe that disparity is caused by individual choices. I think that's totally encouraging. He said that's what everybody wants. Those minorities are more likely to blame individual choices for disparity since they successfully navigated and overcame structural inequalities to achieve their success.
John Yoder: What Zylstra is saying is that there are millions of Americans of all ethnicities who have done well in the marketplace despite the obstacles in front of them. When they come together for worship, they do not need to bring up as an item of discussion, the institutional barriers that held them back because there were none. Because of this, multicultural churches are becoming less white without arguing about issues of race.
Now let's talk about that third concern, and that is that multicultural churches are building worship but not community. That is, that people come together for the programs of the church, but they do not build relationships outside of that.
First of all, let's talk about why anybody would attend a multiethnic church in the first place. As I said earlier, there are three kinds of churches that people really like because it fits them: primarily white churches, African American churches, and immigrant churches. If you go to our older generations to a baby boomer, white or black, or to a first generation immigrant, and you say to them, “We want you to leave your church and go to a multicultural church”, we're telling them that we want them to leave styles of worship that they have loved for decades and join something new.
That is a big ask. It is going against the grain, but it is something that a minority of people will do. But when they do it, most of them will see it as their mission for the Lord, something they give two or three hours a week to, but the rest of the time go back to their family and friends.
Now, once we realize this, we can go back to those same people and say, “We don't want you to just come to the worship service. We don't want you to just leave your church. We want you to build a new community. We want you to stop spending so much time with your existing family and friends and make new friends. We want you to make new decisions about what you're going to do with Christmas and Thanksgiving and Mother's Day”. That is a completely different ask, and the number of people who are willing to do that are few indeed.
Now let's say that you make that very same request to somebody who's Gen Z. So you ask them to do something multiethnic. You didn't even ask them to change. Their schools are multiethnic. Their workplaces, their communities, the gym is multiethnic. So if you ask them to do something multiethnic, you're asking them to do what they already do everyday anyway.
And you may not be asking them to make a big relational change. They may not have to say goodbye to all of their friends, because their friends might really want to go to a multicultural church. Maybe their friends already do go to a multicultural church. And when they walk in the doors, instead of saying to themselves, “Oh no, I've got to walk into a room of people who are really different than me”, they're walking into a room full of people who are multiethnic just like they are.
So if you are starting a multicultural church and you want strong headwinds, you want to invite American whites and blacks who are Gen X and older, and you want to invite first generation immigrants.
But if you want sociological tailwinds, and you want this to go easier, the kind of people you need to involve are the children of immigrants, people who grew up overseas, people of mixed race, people in mixed marriages, those who are new to the faith (so they're not leaving a religious tradition), those who are new to a town (not just from one suburb to another, but out of state so they don't have relational ties), and especially our younger generations.
Now friends in this podcast, we do not have time to talk about the practicalities of running a multiethnic church. What it looks like to have really healthy, multiethnic leadership and preaching and worship and more. I will simply say one thing quickly. If you are working with our younger generations, it is not enough to have great preaching. They want to discuss and dialogue about the word they want to build relationships. Here is what our friend Pastor Sam Chacko has to say.
Sam Chacko: Loft City is a place where if you are not known in the community, it's because you chose not to be known. There's plenty of spaces to be known and engaged. And so we create as many spaces for conversations and dialogues and relationships to be built.
John Yoder: So friends, we need to multiply emotionally healthy, multicultural churches. Now let me ask the question. “Who is qualified to lead a church like that”? Now, obviously your membership is going to be diverse, so I hope your board is diverse, and I hope your worship team is diverse, but ultimately one person needs to be the lead pastor.
What kind of person should that be? We're assuming that this is a godly person who loves the Lord and who meets the qualifications for an elder found in one Timothy chapter three.
With that said, anyone who relates well with people of all ethnicities can lead a multicultural church. Now we need to understand that our skills are at various levels in our ability to do that.
I got my first computer in my twenties. I got my first cell phone in my forties. I use them well, but I am not a digital native. I learned Mandarin Chinese, or at least I started when I was 42. I've preached in Mandarin, I can hold conversations in Mandarin, but you would never believe that I'm a native speaker. And I relate well with people of all ethnicities, but I am not as natively skilled at it as someone who grew up in a multicultural setting.
It is very clear that the future of America's population is mostly multicultural. Our younger generations are already there. The question for us today is whether the church of Jesus Christ will empower them for leadership.
Now I've said earlier that there are three kinds of monocultural churches in the US that people like and they are not wrong. And they are immigrant churches, primarily white churches and primarily black churches. If you attend one of those churches, you probably empower your own for leadership. If you grew up in a Russian church, Russian people, you empower Russian people for leadership. If you're in a Korean church, you empower Koreans for leadership. If you grew up in a mostly white church or a black church, you know your kids, your grandkids, people who grew up in the youth group, you know them. You empower them for leadership.
I want you to please keep doing that. We need their spiritual giftedness in leadership. But there are wonderful, young, multicultural Christians who did not grow up in your church. You don't know them, but they are empowered by God for leadership and they need your help to be released in ministry.
Sadly, many of our young people today have no interest in spiritual things. And also sadly, some of the Christian influence that they hear teach new ideas regarding theology, regarding gender, regarding race that have been rejected by the church as erroneous for 2000 years.
The reason we launched Cross-Cultural Voices was to amplify the message of young, diverse Christians, pastors, counselors, those in the business world who hold to the Orthodox teachings and morals that the Church of Jesus Christ has upheld for 2000 years. In most cases, their platforms are small, their audiences are small, and it is our vision to bring their message to the attention of a broader audience.
Friends, there exist across North America, millions of young people who need to hear their voices, who need to see them as role models of the kind of young people that they could become. The future demographics of North America are multicultural. The church of Jesus Christ is not ready. Let's change that.
Will you help us amplify the voices of these young people? All of our resources are on our website, www.CrossCulturalVoices.org. One thing you can do is you can subscribe either to our podcast or our blog every week to stay informed. A second thing you can do is share. We make it very easy to share all of our resources on multiple social platforms. And a third thing you can do is give, whether that's a small monthly amount or a large amount, everything that you give helps us make these resources free of charge to young people at the beginning of their earnings potential.
You personally may never be involved in a multicultural church. That's okay. Not everybody should be. But we all need to understand that this is the future of our nation, and if the faith of Jesus Christ will remain strong here for the long term, it is because we work together to launch more emotionally healthy, multicultural congregations. I'll talk to you next time.
