Red or Yellow, Black, and White… Is Your Team’s Color Just Right?
I never was a fan or changing those lyrics…
But then again, if I was Losiah, I don’t necessarily think I would want to be labeled as “yellow”.
Alas, if I was writing this song about most church staff in America it would probably sing…
Jesus loves the little staffers
All the staffers in your church.
White White White White White White White
They all dance rea-lly uptight.
Jesus love the little staffers in your church!
Jesus loves the little staffers
All the staffers in your church
Black Black Black Black Black Black Black
I bet none have the name Jack
Jesus love the little staffers in your church!
Jesus loves the little staffers
All the staffers in your church
Brown Brown Brown Brown Brown Brown Brown
We match the color in our town
Jesus love the little staffers in your church!
Jesus loves the little staffers
All the staffers in your church.
Man Man Man Man Man Man Man
She can sing or drive the van
Jesus love the little staffers in your church!
Here’s the deal.
Most of our church staff and leadership are of one race.
Or mostly of one race.
And here are some our excuses…
1. The white church staff – Well, we are simply a reflection of the community we are ministering in. And they are white.
2. The black church staff – If we want to reach young black men, we can’t have old white men trying to reach them.
3. The latino church staff – We don’t need white people coming into our neighborhood to try and save us. We are proud and can help our own.
4. The male church staff – The Bible says we should lead the ladies and they are really good at making necklaces out of dry pasta.
Hear Hear. Take all those with a grain of salt. And pepper if you want to make it a bit more diverse. 
Many churches are now sprinkling diversity on stage during worship and in videos during announcements to try and make themselves a bit more appealing to a more diverse crowd. This is a great start. It really is.
But when the engine that is running the ship is still the same old engine that was running the ship, you can paint the ship whatever color you want…it’s still the same ship.
Some will argue that diversity is not necessary in local church leadership.
Some will argue that diversity is overrated and we should all just sing the songs we like to sing with the people we feel most comfortable with.
Some will argue that you can sprinkle and paint diversity on stage and on screen and that will be enough to bridge the divide.
All are valid.
And all are lazy.
So go ahead and sprinkle some salt and pepper and salsa on this conversation.
Should it even be a conversation?
Bring it don’t sing it…
Los
RAIN IT DOWN
Here’s my team:
http://post.ly/m5PY
I’m not saying it should or shouldn’t be different, but it seems like if we’d all just focus on following God and let him build the church we’d be a lot less stressed. I think we fight that because it may get messy. I mean what if God called someone who is a shepherd personality to be in a director role?! You’d have to be willing to buck the system or say no to a friend who might be applying for the same position. I’m just sayin’. Messy, and a bit uncomfortable.
Amen. Amos 5:21-24
Drop all the other drama and chase God…
Define drama
drama: a state, situation, or series of events involving interesting or intense conflict of forces
see also: church
One of the biggest sins in the church today is racism. Not sure if that has anything to do with how diverse the staff is (I’m sure it does in some churches unfortunately) but it is something that needs to be addressed. I heard a statistic that 90% of blacks go to “black” churches and 95% of whites go to “white” churches. Unfortunately I can’t argue that!
Thanks for bringing this issue up Los….looking forward to the convo
There’s a brown dude in that picture too. The one with the handle bar…that mustache seems ironic.
He’s also the only one wearing jeans… I wonder what his job is?
Jeans? Must be the youth pastor. ha.
Wait, there are jeans on the two nice ladies on the left. The ones in the lovely Christmas sweaters…
The dude with the mustache is the Biker club ministry director
my ministry is to wear jeans so all jean wearing visiters feel at home in church.
Thanks for this Article. I think most people in Church leadership would like to be more diverse but don’t know how. I agree the token _____ guy is a good start but think it is going to take some people with some stones making things uncomfortable to really start a melting pot in our churches. Interested to hear form some people who have been successful at this… we are a church plant in a 50/50 White/Hispanic community and don’t claim to know the answer but are willing to fail miserably by “church growth” standards if it means having a better reflection of the body of Christ.
Hmm…
You’re right…but I think some of it is that people tend to group with their own races, also. I would feel a little odd if I was the only young, white female on a church staff of old, black men. I would definitely feel a little like a misfit (granted, I’m a suburban gal, there are not too many black people within several square miles…I’m not racist or anything, but I’m used to people my own color, you know?).
So, maybe the easier thing is starting out a church with diversity if the neighborhood requires it. Maybe things look different in the city than the suburbs, but my neighborhood doesn’t really require it.
Is that a lazy view? Definitely.
“Take all those with a grain of salt. And pepper if you want to make it a bit more diverse.”
This made me laugh out loud.
I think about this a bit, but not as much as I used to. ; )
I used to go to a very diverse church, but the staff was all white. Given that I work in corporate America, I know that a company could never truly call itself “diverse” if everyone in management was white. I don’t believe people of color should be given positions of influence for the sake of being P.C. I had a problem with the lack of diversity at my former church because it was done SOOO wrong. They allowed a woman of color who simply could not sing to be on the praise team for the sake of diversity. Her poor singing ability was not just my opinion – the associate pastor made sure that the sound guys never turned her mic on. Yes. you read that right.
For what it’s worth, my current church has far less diversity and no people of color on it’s staff. And I’m okay with that.
Full disclosure: I’m black.
I dunno, sometimes I think someone says “diversity” and its a trigger to feel guilty about how our churches may not be diverse. I think it’s more an issue of culture than of ethnicity. Basic human nature – people will gravitate towards people they feel connected to, and who have same perspectives of life and similar experiences. People who learn to worship God in the context of a black church will be drawn to worship God in a black church… it’s their heart language. the same is true all around. As important as diversity is… don’t know if you can (or should) ask people to leave a place where they feel connected to people and God, just so we can feel better about having multi-ethnic church pictures. Maybe its NOT wrong to worship with people who look at life the same as you. Churches in countries without ethnic diversity don’t really worry about it, do they? Don’t people who understand a certain culture make the best ministers within that culture?
Just some thoughts to stir it up…
Or maybe our comforts are keeping us from actually experiencing true community in a way we have never before.
Good thoughts though. Easy thoughts.
I agree. I think it is important to worship with people that have different experiences than you. I love going to different cultures and worshipping with them. Different styles of worship are interesting to me. When members and leaders in our church have gone to other cultures and worshipped with the people there, they have brought some of that back to our worship experiences and we have incorporated different ideas in our worship with all white people.
Not perfect but that door has definitely been opened at my church!
I dont’ entirely agree with your statment on people will be drawn to worship where they learn to worship. I grew up in a Pentecostal church, now I don’t attend one, in fact I have a hard time walking into one. I worship where God leads me, right now we attend an Evangelical Missionary church which is very diverse.
I think that diversity is key. How can we be the witness God calls us to be in ACTS 1:8 if we don’t surround ourselves with people who can help us understand how to get from our Jerusalem, to the ends of the earth? I think that many times we have a problem seeing that there needs to be diversity within our Jerusalem before we can even begin to expand our sphere of influence.
I agree with this. If you read my comment below you’ll notice that I come from a staff that is all white. But that doesn’t mean I don’t agree with you here. We have a lot of diversity amongst our staff through the different life experiences that each staff member brings to the team. Some of our staff have spent significant time in third-world countries and have experienced vastly different cultural scenarios than others. They are still white… but that doesn’t mean they don’t bring a similar type of diversity to the team.
To be honest I don’t think about this hardly ever. And maybe that’s the point here. Our church is nestled comfortably in a very affluent suburb of Chicago. There’s a lot of white people. There are only a handful of families from other ethnicities that attend our church. That number, however, is slowly growing.
I think the lazy answer… that we are a representation of our community is also an accurate one. I know that we do not go out of our way to look for other ethnicities when hiring staff, that said, we don’t really go out of our way to look for new staff. We tend to hire from within.
It’s not that we’re intentionally trying to keep our staff white. It’s just that we continually feel that each person we’ve hired, God has called to be on our staff… and they happen to be white. If we were located in a different area… where the population’s ethnicities were more diverse, our staff would naturally reflect that simply because there is a higher chance that someone of a different race would fit with one of our job descriptions.
I really hope I’m not coming off racist here. Because I’m not trying to. It’s simply circumstantial is all I’m getting at.
At least in our case.
For me this begs the question – Does a church culture reflect its staff/leadership?
Or, does a church staff reflect the culture of the church?
I think there are some of both situations. And some, like my church, which don’t make much sense when just looking at skin color. We’re all white. 2 guys and 5 women. But our worship leadership has dark, light, male and female. Would we hire a pastor with dark skin? I think so – if there is a cultural connection and an agreement of belief.
Problem is, in all the openings we’ve had, we have had only very white guys apply.
Good questions… definitely points to ponder.
yeah… each opening we’ve had, only white people have applied. So I suppose in some way that is an argument for the staff reflecting the culture of the church.
Maybe we shouldn’t be looking for applicants.
Hmmmmmm
Good point. And I would agree, but…
then we would have to actually KNOW our people, and mentor them to a place where they are as good as we are. That might ***gasp*** put someone’s JOB at risk!
True. Change up the hiring process in the church! Radical! I like it!
I couldn’t help but wonder if the last “verse” was meant to suggest we should expand some of the offices of church leadership to women in the name of diversity. Maybe I’m just looking for trouble.
Although unpersuaded by it, I see egalitarianism as a (somewhat) Biblical view of church leadership. I only hope that churches choosing to ordain women would do so out of strong Biblical convictions, and not merely to be P.C.
We have four pastors on our staff, 3 men and 1 woman. Throughout our 50 year history there have been times when we’ve had multiple women pastors as well as multiple male pastors. For us… it doesn’t matter what gender you are.
The rest of the staff (excluding pastors) is a lot of women… or so it seems. Being only one of two young 20-something males on a staff of 40ish.
It was meant to rhyme and spur comments like this one
I totally get what your say. I grew up in a small town in texas where my whole church was white white white white white, lol. My best friend was colored so i felt the tenseness when he would come visit my church almost like they were scared. i moved to atlanta two years ago and my pastor here is trinidadian, our congregation is filled with people of all colors..but i still find some of the “old” people feeling uncomfortable…come on people get with the program…lol
Dearest Wormwood;
Looks like we got them again. It’s just so easy sometimes. If you can – disguise yourself as a real strong follower of He-Whom-Shall-Not-Be-Named and post this all around the Internet.
Keep ‘em going on and on about the racial diversity inside their church. Make it a “top priority” to “diversify” – do this right and we can outrun them like the Nisshin Maru outruns the Sea Shepherds (which I find amusing).
While you’re at it, my wet-behind-the-ears nephew, try to use the intense focus on the staff diversity as yet another catalyst to keep their thinking in alignment with the “building IS the church” theory as outlined in the manual on page 638.
Report back. I love hearing the progress.
Your Affectionate Uncle,
Screwtape
Dear screwtape. I’m so glad cs Lewis wrote you and not Jesus.
Or we’d all be screwed.
Your affectionate cs Lewis fan,
Carlos
Dearest Los;
Same thing applies to your blog!
Your affectionate CS Lewis Character,
Screwtape
darn cookies – I was gonna try to spur on a Los vs. Screwtape battle!
Foiled again…
Dearest Tim.
lol.
Instigator.
Dearest Los ~
What can I say? [devilish grin]
Screwtape wouldn’t be a match for you though. I’d have put my money on you…
Your affectionate reader,
tymm
SUCK UP! TEACHER’S PET!
wait… what? Is it that obvious?
I did throw a lot of sunshine on that last comment, didn’t I?
Okay – MAYBE Screwtape could take Los – I am not sure now. I am questioning everything.
Who am I?
He’s got a point …. It does.
Great point about advertised diversity vs actual diveristy. Poop with a bowtie is still poop.
our ministry is called every nation.
and we LITERALLY have different nations in our leadership/staff and in our congregation.
our church (though not perfect) is so mixed with race that it’s like having a little piece of heaven here on earth. =]
I used to lead worship at a very diverse church where various elasticities were essentially complaining about not being represented musically. The pastors thought the solution was to try to represent everyone. I don’t think worship flowed well, some did, but it was just a sad experience. Everything was so touchy.
I live in an area of the country where a racial divide is VISIBLE when you walk down the streets. In Rapid City, SD there is more stereotyping and finger-pointing towards the Native Sioux people than I have witnessed anywhere to any race any other place in the country (I have lived in Michigan, Kentucky, Alabama, Minnesota, & SD and have traveled to 40+ continental states).
When I was on a local church staff, I constantly questioned wby we didn’t do more to reach out and towards the Native people – hiring a native staff person may have been the crucial step towards opening the doors of our church to ALL people. Instead, our church stayed affluent & white. The only black dude (in a church of 400+) was my white friend Laura’s husband and their was ONE Native family that ever came back for a second visit.
How do we fix these divides? I think that embracing staff and volunteers that come from diverse ethnic, cultural, economic, and life experience pasts is a first step towards showing the community how to live as one. If the staff doesn’t demonstrate the all-encompassing love and acceptance that Jesus called us to – who will?
As someone who grew up in an area with lots of “Yellow” churches (Who came up with that color anyway? My skin is definitely nowhere near yellow), I do think it’s important to keep in mind that some people are often more comfortable with their own culture/ethnicity. Lots of Chinese people I know retain their culture and language by having services and churches that speak that language. Same with a lot of Hispanic people I’ve interacted with. Many of the people in those groups simply don’t have the English to feel comfortable in a “white/multi-ethnic” church. They often need to be able to talk to a pastor in their first language too.
However, it would seem extremely odd to me to walk into a church that was 100% white people. I think that in some ways, the “white” churches don’t have the excuses of language or culture to support their ethnic breakdown, but also have to overcome the “superiority” impression that a lack of diversity can give.
When I’m in the UK (90% of my year), I go to a very colourfully mixed congregation but all-white staffed church. When I’m in the US, I go to a mostly white congregation led by nearly all-white staffed church. But at both of these churches, I (and my family, when I’m in the US) are the extra colour, because we’re Korean! When I was younger, we went to a Korean church, and there was usually a white youth pastor who would be there for two to three years before being replaced. I think that the mono-colour staffs (and often, congretations) definitely has a LOT to do with being complacent and comfortable (and sometimes, racism!) with our own language, culture, etc…
I wouldn’t say that there isn’t an influence of geography to consider, but I think that it’d be nice if churches could be the ones that started to influence communities to welcome more diversity!
“stay focused if you aint got no ride
your life aint wrapped up in what you drive
the clothes you wear the job you work
the color your skin naw we Christian first.” – Lecrae
great lyric.
Make the focus Christ and race will line up where it needs to be. If Chris is the focus we would not have an issue with race(ism) Jesus looks on the heart, not the color of your skin, so the same should be said of us!
peace & love y’all!
CG
oops meant CHRIST not CHRIS.
that’s a great lyrical sample right there – and an even greater typo…
Imagine if CHRIS was the focus? Things would be weird. Chris would probably start thinking he was pretty tough..
@Tymm
I like you man!!! You and i would get a long JUST FINE!!
@Caleb
I like you back man! Did Ragamuffin Soul just facilitate a bromance?
Let’s go find CHRIS together and see if he likes us…
@Tymm
ME THINKS it has. a little spooky…but i think i like it. ok that sounds a little (OK ALOT) creepy.
let’s see
CHRIS might dig us, not sure though…if you find out before i do please let me know!
I remember Erwin McManus speaking on a panel about how to encourage diversity in churches as he had had some success in it during his ministry.
He said,
“Well, you need to find neighbors and people in your community that are in another ethnicity than you and invite them over to your house for dinner.”
“You must’ve misunderstood,” they said, “We want to learn how to encourage diversity in the church.”
McManus then went on to make the point that unless we are actively working to build authentic relationships with people of varied ethnicities and backgrounds within our community, then it’s a waste of time trying to do it at some strategic program level.
People worship God with people they think will love and accept them as they are…and hopefully help them become who God desires them to be.
It’s pretty simple. Change the rhythm of your life so you can rub shoulders with different people from different backgrounds. Know them, love them and then go to church with them.
There…diversity without strategy.
Thanks for this Los. I spent a lot of time recently trying to find a church in NYC and pretty much the factor that was holding me back? Diversity. You see, I’ve grown up attending all-white churches and all-Black churches (I’m half Black, half Native American), and I don’t think I ever truly felt comfortable in one over the other. When I was living in LA I happened to start attending a very diverse church and well…it turns out I loved it over any of the others.
As MLK said, the most segregated hour in America is 11 am on Sunday mornings. This is no accident and no this isn’t just a neighborhood problem (case in point, I used to drive an hour to an all-Black church because I lived in a very all0white neighborhood). I think we should actively seek to diversify our churches where possible.
Anyway, I found a church in NYC I really like, and while it’s not as diverse as my LA church, it seems to be the closest I can get while meeting my other needs. I didn’t really understand how much diversity in church meant to me until I didn’t have it anymore and had to actively search for it.
I just read through my comments from a couple hours ago. It seems like I took a weird defensive approach. Didn’t mean to do that… hmm… thinking about what that says about me.
Dang Los… there you go again making me think! haha.
I like it!
I think it shouldn’t even be a conversation that it should be a conversation. People of different ethnicities, backgrounds, genders and ages all have way too much to offer to ignore. When it is the same people leading all of the time, there is no chance to grow. I think it’s time for churches to let go of control, and to embrace the variety of opinions and wisdom that the worlds has to offer.
I totally agree! I’m deffinitely bringing this up in my next “halfway intellectual church conversation.”
There’s a good book titled,”Gracism, The Art of Inclusion” by David A. Anderson. Definitely worth the read.
Dude, I think there definitely needs to be more diversity. But if I’m being completely honest, I’m torn. I’ve seen pastor’s who have brought the wrong guy on staff in the name of diversity and not had it work out well either. As a white guy who loves Jesus and works in ministry, should I feel guilty for being white? I know that sounds like I’m just being dumb, but I’ve honestly had those thoughts before. I’ve looked at our church staff at past churches and said, “Dang…we are so WHITE!” Then I realize I am too, so I guess that makes me part of the problem.
I guess part of what I’m getting at is that I want to see more diversity, yet I also want to see a day when we truly don’t think of color at all. And I don’t always know how to live in that tension. Perhaps the reality is that “color blindness” in this sort of situation really isn’t possible at all. I dunno.
I am in fact drawn to those with different backgrounds and cultures than mine and I make an effort, but I’m also going to do my best to love and reach out to the people that God seems to be bringing into my life, and pray that he makes that a diverse group in the process.
Our staff? Not massively diverse, but then again we don’t have a very large staff. We’re reliant on volunteers and that’s where the diversity kicks in. I think every team has a real mix of gender, race, nationality and experience. Which is great, as it’s a very diverse church.
But what I’d really love to see is this never being an issue in the Church. Shouldn’t we be the one place on earth where people are loved, accepted, treasured, developed, encouraged, discipled, with no barriers of race? Maybe I’m being utopian, maybe biblical, but I long for the day when the colour of someone’s skin makes no more difference than the colour of their shirt.
There’s a lot more to it than simply trying to be diverse. When you look back over church history, churches split on various issues, including doctrine, theology, methods, worship styles…the list goes on and on.
For instance, African-American worship is primarily rooted in their worship practices when slavery plagued this nation. The one area where slaves were given freedom was in their worship. They could directly relate to the oppression that the Isralites experienced during their bondage in Egypt. Therefore, their worship is celebratory and expressive (which I like, and I’m white). Their style of music, preaching, prayers…everything about how they do church is influenced by that dark period of church history.
Then, you have the Reformation period which, to make a long story short, many different denominations and worship styles resulted. Much of the worship of this time is rooted in liturgies of the Roman Catholic Church and the English Church. Hence, we end up with the uptight white worship where people freak out if someone raises hands or, God-forbid, sways back and forth.
These are just two examples. My point is this…there is a lot more that goes into being diverse than simply hiring salt, pepper and salsa. It actually takes those salt, pepper and salsa people to WANT to interview at churches that are different from the churches they grew up in.
I would love to see more diversity in churches…churches are probably the most segregated institutions we have across the globe. It’s a two-way street (and yes, another excuse to add to the list of why churches are the way they are, unfortunately).
Sometimes I wonder if music tastes drive us apart. The music/energy at my church is way reserved. We do have three or four black families at any one service and I wonder what they think of the music.
As our family has changed (through adoption), we realized how ‘white’ our church was. We have purposed to live in a more diverse area and we changed churches so that our children could grow up with a more diverse group of people. When we left our church, many in leadership didn’t ‘get it’. They really didn’t understand the need to be more diverse. Now I understand why everyone who was not white left. We are now part of a Sovereign Grace church and loving it!!!! We are very diverse with families from all nations and the icing on the cake for us is how adoption is valued. Not only do we have a wide mix of nationalities within our body, but we also have a large number of adoptive families with quite the mix of children. I love going to church and my children see other families that look just like us. Love, love, love going to our new church home and am so grateful for their openness to discuss racial issues head on. Keep up the conversation and hopefully God will use it to open eyes and hearts.
I don’t like that church has become a business…where it has budgets and staff. True I have dreamed of being a Tech Director at a large church..cuz they might have the money to hire me…I really think the whole church as a business issue is more the root cause of non diversity. People buy what they want. Ministers are almost trapped into providing what people want to buy. The majority would certainly protest that cynical view but I believe it is true….not right but true. I ask this…what if religious freedom was restricted severely in our country and all the mega structures that house the USA Church Show were shut down, burned down and believers had to find a way to worship in hiding. What then? Would anyone give a rats part what color your skin was? I think not.
I think about this often because I’m on staff at my church as the worship leader and have been wanting to go to some leadership/worship conferences. The problem I run into is that there is little diversity in speakers and worship leaders at the conferences I’ve been looking at. I think to myself, “why aren’t there any people of color leading worship or speaking at this conference?” and the same is true when I look at a conference hosted by someone like T.D. Jakes. It’s weird how segregation is so tolerable in the church when the book of Revelation shows a vision of the future where we ALL sing together, no matter what race, color, class, creed, etc.
Many churches tend to stick to their “own kind” for whatever reason. Outsiders are shunned whether it is because of skin color, accent, the clothing they wear, or slightly varying beliefs (and I mean the minor ones!) I feel it too. I have had more than one “discussion” with our choir director because I refuse to wear a jacket and tie when singing solo on an upbeat contemporary song. Diversity can be extended to include anything or anybody that is different from us.
Unfortunately, most people sitting in the pews view themselves (ourselves) as a community of saints, when really all they (we) are is a community of sinners who have been touched by grace.
Not until recently have I seen the disparity of this played out in the 21st century church. It pains me to no end.
Here’s a book that is ROCKING MY WORLD:
New Evangelicalism (Soong-Chan Rah)
I’m so amped on this book, I’ll buy it for you and mail it to. It’s a must-read. F’real!
This “problem” of the lack of diversity in our churches is systemic in nature. At one time it was overt racism that created the wedge. Today, it’s our system of networks and relational channels. Here’s a quick test everyone can take: quickly list the top 5 to 8 people in your inner circle (people you’d go to for references if you were hiring someone or wanted to find work). What is the majority color of your inner circle? Bottom line, if your inner circle looks like you, your promotional channels, your new hires, your partnerships, your guest speakers, etc. will most likely look like you. If we continue to do what we’ve always done… we’ll always get what we’ve always gotten!
Some great thoughts! I think that it’s easy to get caught up in striving for diversity for the sake of diversity when everything should be done for the sake of Christ. As the church we should asking God/crying out for the NATIONS – to me that has diversity written all over it.
Rachel
Just dropping by to note how sick I am of the chorus of voices constantly proclaiming the received wisdom that white = uptight. Look at the funny white people try to dance hurr hurr. And those highly liturgical forms of worship are just too white to be right, didn’t you know, jive turkey? Would we accept that kind of cultural, racial chauvinism if it were directed at any other group? Sorry, but I reject this false dilemma between evil white church and beatific, slightly browned-up, expressive, soulful church. I’m beyond tired of hearing traditional, predominately white styles of church (and culture) being trashed and held up as some kind of cautionary tale, when everyone knows they were/are often pretty accurate reflections of the surrounding culture, which is sort of the….I don’t know…IDEA.
Sincerely,
Whitey
Your characterization isn’t valid. The janitor is clearly hispanic and there’s also an Asian who’s probably the I.T. guy or some such. Brown and yellow representin’.
I think it’s important to ask, “Why is there no diversity?” If you are un-diverse because of prejudice or desire to be comfortable, that is definitely wrong. However, in a region that is 99.6% white (where I find myself at this point), it gets a little bit difficult to practice a strong discipleship emphasis to raise up leaders from within (which I think the Bible mandates over other values in the church) and find diversity in the leadership at the same time. That’s not lazy, it’s just reality. I really miss the city and the diversity it affords, but I’m not going to sweat out the secondary issues when there are primary ones to tend. I still tenaciously fight racism and prejudice when it rears its ugly head in our area (which it occasionally does), but without diverse resources from which to draw, it becomes nearly impossible to create a diverse staff.
I forgot to mention… there are more ways we can embrace diversity as well in a racially homogenous context. Diversity of social class, background experiences, and personalities ARE something we strive for in diversity.
1. I hear there are tons of churches in China, that have all Chinese people! The horror.
2. This one is real. Just this week, my boys asked my if he continues to get darker and darker (from the sun) will he start speaking Spanish… (He’s 4, don’t know where they get it)
I think we all go where we are feel comfortable. ie. You all only want the multi ethnic, chic, hip church if they are playing the right kinds of music and let you wear jeans and designer t’s.
soon as they don’t. your gone. diverse or not.
I will be honest…I don’t have time right now to sift through all the comments, but I will be back to read them…but I just wanted to throw my idea down there.
I think far too many in the church are concerned with pointing out that the church is a segregated community and so they just ignore it like that makes it all better. Churches want to say that they are all for diversity…and just hope that saying it will bring about diversity. Our church is painstakingly finding out that in order to have a diverse church, you have to be proactive and intentional about it. The definition of a diverse church is one where there is no single ethnic or race above 80%. Our church is about 87% white. This has been a struggle for years. The entire church staff is dedicated to the reality that the church is supposed to be a reflection of heaven, and most likely, white people will be a minority in heaven. Our church has intentionally sought after and hired talented, gifted, anointed black men and women to serve. We have just recently hired a young Asian man as a staff pastor at another church in our network. It’s exciting to see it. Now, our local church has begun to change up the style of worship. Many of our dedicated black members have said time and time again that on the way to church they are worshipping in their car to their gospel music, and then at church they worship to Hillsong, and then go right back to their gospel in their car. Nothing wrong with Hillsong at all, and we love it, but if a church desires to become diverse, it might mean sacrificing that in order to make the music more appealing to others. So we have started a gospel choir and are singing more gospel songs. It is not a all-the-time thing yet, but it may be someday. 1 Cor 9:19-21 makes it clear that as Christians, we should be willing to change our demands in order to bring in others, following after Christ’s example. I hope this catches on more widespread.
yea, i love our leaders at our church. mainly black. but our worship leader is a white man (who’s married to a black woman), & our drummer is latino LOL. We have many female leaders, and our pastor’s wife plays a big part in EVERYTHING.
IT’S GREAT WHEN THINGS ARE ABOUT THE KINGDOM OF GOD & NOT ABOUT COLOR, CLASS, STYLE OR ANY OF THAT OTHER STUFF THAT DOESN’T MATTER.
maybe i’m naive, or perhaps my thoughts conflict, but — i think that the more the church’s teaching and practice reflect grace and truth, then the more likely you’ll have a diverse congregation — provided it’s located in an area that has a diverse population. and diversity isn’t just about color. it’s about age, wealth, marital status, education, and probably a few other things too. one of the first things i heard at my church was ‘in things essential, unity. in things nonessential, liberty. in all things, charity.’ I think that such an attitude makes for a resilient and gracious church, attractive to a wide variety of people.
Tribes based on cultural themes and preferences is common throughout our global society. We infer racism into that because in America we are still insecure about our history. I think church people worry more about “diversity” than the people we are supposedly trying to reach. No white, black, brown, red, or yellow person makes a decision to visit or stay at your church because of the ethnicities you displayed on stage or in your advertising. They don’t pay attention long enough to notice unless the contrast between who they are and what they see is blatant. The quality of the work, the colors, the “language”, and the channel of distribution speaks much louder than the people in the pictures or on the stage.
Take this argument to an area like Clarkston, GA where there are large pockets of Philipinos and Sudanese. Try to plant a “diverse” church there that mixes those cultures and see how successful you are. I’ve been told by people who tried that successful ministry in the area will have to target either culture individually. Our tribal tendencies are not just white and American, but human and global.
My opinion for staffing a ministry is the same as my opinion for staffing the business I own: Develop a clear vision (as far out as you can see) of what God wants you to do and hire the people best equipped to help you make that vision a reality regardless of race, gender, denomination, or (for my business) even faith.
My argument is probably week, but its truly how I feel. Most of all I am thankful that the story God has written, Jesus is producing, and the Holy Spirit is directing plays out perfectly with me, for me, and totally in spite of me.
The “safe” position for a female staff member: Children’ s ministry.
What if God has given me a heart for people older than the age of 12? Just a thought.
I may get flamed for this and I don’t really care because political correctness is a big irk of mine. What does it freakin matter if a staff is all white, black, Mexican, Chinese, etc. In my area most of the black people go to the “black churches” in the area. At the church I’m at now we have a few black people, and an all white staff. If you’re tagging on a staff because of the color and shouting racism, you’re the one with the racism problem (that was a general comment, not aimed at anyone specific)! People are going to go to church where they want to, and people in America (again, large scale speaking) have trouble looking past skin color and in my area, the “minority groups” are the worst because they’re too worried about being black, yellow, orange, etc so they go to an all whatever church because that’s where they’re comfortable and such. White people aren’t very welcome in those environments. I also realize that I live in the buttcrack of America with the worst possible demographics though…Personally, I don’t give a rip what color anyone is, and of the guy is the right guy for the job what does it matter if it’s another white guy on staff or a black guy?
I used to go to a “mixed” church (I live in the South but am originally from Cali). There was a deacon (white) there whom I kept hearing was racist. He would smile in everybody’s face but I would see him do things like make sure he never held a black person’s hands. The youth ministers were a mixed couple and he called the mom of what of one of the teenagers to warn her that her daughter was “hanging out” with these people. It still lingers with me to this day that this man was (possible is) in such a position in a church. I don’t understand how someone can be a “Christian” and take a position like that knowing how they truly feel and then, even worse, acting on those feelings. No one is perfect, I know this; however, he should have never taken that position and should definitely not been allowed to keep it. So many people go to church and look for guidance there, maybe if there was more acceptance there it would flow into everyday life????