One Failure of the Church

    One of the tragic failures of the church in America is the fact that we have overlooked or just denied the fact that God’s purpose for His church is to be ethnically and culturally diverse.

    The theology of reconciliation proves that God intends His church to be what most of us do not want it to be, ethnically diverse, including “mixed race” families.

    How do I strive to find unity in diversity in a Christian context?

    I begin by realizing that the obvious differences between me and another ethnic believer are put there by God as an act of His sovereign and decreed purposes, predetermined by His will and for His glory. It is no accident that I am black, brown, yellow, red or white by hue. It is not the result of a genetic lottery that is determined by an evolutionary “Wheel of Fortune”.

    Along with the diversity of hue, there are many valuable attributes that the other person brings to the reconciliation table. These attributes are there to cause interdependence with one another and as we demonstrate that we need one another it will demonstrate to the world the power of the gospel and that it does transform lives.

    I recently watched part of a PBS broadcast of a concert that featured Carlos Santana and his band performing in Mexico. On the stage were Latinos, Blacks and Whites demonstrating their interdependence with one another in a powerful way through a well performed and very tight set of songs. They played as if they had been together all of their lives, as if each individual was necessary, and yet was a natural extension of the others and that as a whole they had an identity.

    Beyond the unity in diversity on the stage, it is a known fact that these musicians hang together in their off stage hours and they inter-relate as a normal part of their everyday living. Although the commonality of their relationship across ethnic boundaries is the making of music, it provides an atmosphere for genuine relationships that are necessary for them to reach their common goals, ultimately expressed in the sound that they have as a group, one that distinguishes them from any other band.

    What an embarrassment to the Body of Christ, when the world demonstrates a form of reconciliation better than most churches do on a Sunday morning.

    This simple illustration should bring conviction to our hearts that it is of the utmost importance for the church to take the lead in true reconciliation, because we have been given that ministry “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).

    Christ in His cross work reconciled those in the world who would be His ambassadors, first to Himself and then to each other. Those who are His ambassadors are new creatures in Him. The bondage of sin has been broken and God as judge has declared His new people as being no longer condemned because of their sin but to be the adopted sons of God and heirs of Jesus Christ whereby the Spirit within us now cries “Abba, Father.” As we are reconciled with God by an act of His divine and sovereign grace we are to live according to the standards of the reconciled relationship because we were aliens without hope and without God (Eph.2:12), “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:” (Ephesians 2:13-16).

     We must strive to build unity in diversity.

    Sound doctrine begins with the fact that until man is reconciled with God, there is no hope for true reconciliation between men. Whatever  reconciliation there appears to be between ethnics, if not secured by any supernatural glue, will eventually fall apart. The needed supernatural glue is the Lord Jesus “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist (are held together).” (Colossians 1:17).

    Striving to build unity in diversity involves taking risks.

    We must be willing to take risks in cultivating relationships cross culturally. The greater the risk, the greater the benefits when a relationship works. Jim Elliot (with Nate Saint, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, and Roger Youderian were slain by the Auca Indians in the jungles of Ecuador) said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Elisabeth Elliot, Jim’s widow understood that “Personal sacrifice paves the way for God’s miracles.” This is not a very appealing statement for those involved in signs and wonders movements and mega-church growth movements but it is a necessity for the miracle of true biblical, ethnic reconciliation to be accomplished, person to person and church to church .

    What are you trying to keep that is keeping you from being involved in a cross cultural relationship? Do you see what you could gain and never lose by reaching out cross culturally?

    The idea of taking risks in our safe and comfortable culture of church may be too much too ask in these days of making the church more palatable by marketing our churches as places where no risk is required.  “Just come and be blessed, have it your way, the church will accommodate you in every way possible.”

    “We are not here to challenge you, but to let you experience what you need from God, in whatever way you define that need.”

    Striving to build unity in diversity means taking risks. It will cost you something. Engaging in the ministry of reconciliation cost Jesus His life and we are commanded to count the cost.

    The cost is obedience by faith to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Neither of these is exclusive to the other. They are inextricably bound together. One constantly nourishes the other. One cannot be accomplished without the other.

    We expect this obedience of our missionaries when we send them to the pagan peoples, “savages”( a nice ethnic slur), and uttermost parts of the world. We demand this of missionaries who go to the most civilized yet under evangelized nations. But somehow it becomes meaningless in the context of the local church that has its corporate eyes closed to the changes that God continues to bring to this nation, ethnically.

    We promote frontier missions and evangelizing unreached people groups and this is good, but we are negligent in recognizing that the borders of many frontier nations are expanding to our own shore and have already re-established their nations in the urban centers of America.

    But, why should we worry when we have only marginally begun to address our failure in the ministry of reconciliation among our “native” ethnics (Native Americans, Afro Americans, Hispanics, and Anglo Europeans) who fill our churches on Sunday mornings.

    These churches have names attached to them like Grace, Mt Olive, Antioch, New Jerusalem and a host of others. These names are supposed to signify something about the people who gather there for worship and what they believe. But I walk into these churches and something is missing.

    I wonder if they read the same Bible I do and if they know what these words from the Bible mean.

    Antioch was not a segregated church. Mt. Olive is where Jesus said reach Samaria, cross the ethnic divide and be my witnesses. Grace is for all peoples who will believe. New Jerusalem contains those from every nation, tribe, kindred and tongue.

    How can we be content with such hypocrisy?

    This kind of ethnic segregation is the antithesis of the biblical record which proves that ethnic diversity within the body of Christ is cause for celebration not consternation.

    However, in the American church, we see devastating signs of pagan cultural norms and attitudes, like racism, overtaking Christian distinctives regarding the reconciliation Christ has afforded us through the blood of the cross. How can we neglect so great a salvation in the name of segregation?

    There are churches that will not accept cross cultural ministry as an accepted Christian norm. There are churches that will never go to Samaria or reach out to Samaritans.

    There are Christians who will tolerate Samaritans in a broad socio-cultural context but will not invite them to church or, God forbid, visit one of their homes and attempt to build a meaningful cross cultural relationship within the narrower culture of Christ.

    Daniel Alexander Payne (1811-1893) said, “The pastor who would turn away from God’s sanctuary any human on account of color was not fit to have charge of a gang of dogs.” I would add “any Christian” to that statement. We must give serious consideration to this statement in light of the churches current failure to see itself as God intends it to be.

    Why are we complacent about practicing a form of apartheid in a Christian context? How out spoken were many of our black and white pastors about the inequities of South African society. But their churches are no more ethnically mixed than the society of South Africa. This attitude has been a part of our history and culture for too long and we are still not taking substantive corrective measures in the general populace of the church in America.

    How are Christians influencing the common or predominant culture regarding “racism”? Too many churches, regrettably, do not even qualify to have charge of a gang of dogs.

    This glaring failure of the church can be attributed to the lack of cultivating a Christian world view. The church has been progressively becoming materialistic and relativistic, corporate and media-market minded rather than demonstrating fruits of repentance and righteousness and progressing in her sanctification with glorifying Christ as the ultimate goal.

    There is an incredible lack of understanding that we as Christians are part of a culture, a sub-culture within our dominant pagan culture. We belong to the culture of Christ and need to cultivate a Christian world view. We need to be renewing our minds with the word of God, which does its cleansing and transforming work in our lives. We need to learn that we are to interpret all the events of the world and our lives by observing them through the lens of the Bible.

    The Word is necessary. It was for Adam, and he was created perfect. We are fallen, destitute, marred and scarred by sin. Can we live Great Commandment-Great Commission lives without the Word of God?

    Have we so easily turned a deaf ear to the Bible and theologians like Francis Schaeffer and David Wells whom God gifted with incredible insights to our failure to live according to the culture of Christ in our contemporary society?

    Are we inviting God to bring severe persecution to the church in America so His purposes will be accomplished as they were in the church in Jerusalem?

    I do not like to believe that most Christians, once they are aware of our failure to seek unity in diversity, will continue on that disobedient path. But, sadly, an honest examination of the history of the church in America regarding racism allows for this despondent view because there are too many anecdotes and documented cases of this being the norm.

            Seeking unity in diversity in obedience to God’s Word does not mean that our ethnic and cultural nuances have to be neglected. However, the distinctives of ancestral ethnicity and culture that are in direct opposition or conflict to the Christ culture need to be subjugated to the Word of God and if necessary, eliminated.

    We need to be known as Christians first: