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A multi-ethnic church is certainly, in my view, a good thing.
I'm Mr. Multiethnic church.
But I think we need to be clear
when we talk about multi-ethnic church as Christians
that gospel unity...
and multiethnic church
are not exactly the same thing.
So that, in theory, a church could have diverse people
that don't love one another.
So just because there's diversity,
doesn't mean necessarily that there's gospel unity.
But on the other hand, a church could be mono-ethnic
because of the geography of the church
and yet still be pursuing unity
with one another in the gospel.
So when people ask me should every church be multi-ethnic,
my response is always this:
that the church should look like its community.
So if the community in which the church exists
is multi-ethnic, then the church or the churches
in those communities should intentionally
pursue the diverse people in the community
in which they exist.
Otherwise, they're not being
a gospel witness in their community.
So, let me clarify that point though.
It doesn't mean a church that is mono-ethnic
in a multi-ethnic community doesn't believe the gospel.
That's not the point.
The point is that when churches are placed
in communities that are multi-ethnic,
churches should not be content with mono-ethnicity.
They should be willing to pursue the diverse people
in their communities that they find
because Jesus died for some
from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation.
And some of those tribes and peoples and nations are
in our very own communities.
So then we intentionally pursue all people
with zeal and with passion and with a great desire
to see all people unified in Christ.
But there are occasions where churches,
for a variety of reasons, are in mono-ethnic communities.
I mean, I grew up in a very rural part of eastern Kentucky.
And my little town had very few minorities.
We only had, as minorities, black minorities.
We didn't have any other different
ethnic groups in the community.
So it was all white and a few black people in the community.
And so it would be impossible for the church
that transformed my life to be multi-ethnic.
But that church,
predominately white Southern Baptist church,
I was the first person of color to join that church,
that church personified for me
reconciliation and Christian unity
as the members of that church
and the people in that church loved me
in ways that were greater
than some people in my very own family.
And so again, I don't think that church then
or now could ever be multi-ethnic.
Why? There's not a lot of diversity there.
So for those churches that don't have an opportunity
to be multi-ethnic because their context
does not provide the diverse multi-ethnicity,
those churches can still pursue Christian unity
in other ways in their contexts.
But even ethnically they can pray for the nations.
They can serve the nations.
They can take mission trips, right?
They can partner with churches in other communities
that are from different ethnic groups,
but that share the same theology,
that are like-minded theologically.
And I think another thing that needs to be said
about this as well,
is that when we think about multi-ethnic church,
this is so very important,
we are not simply talking about more minorities
who go to predominant white spaces
and become assimilated within predominate white culture.
So when I think multi-ethnic church, I mean
vetted, Godly, qualified diversity
from the pulpit to the pew.
So that you have red and yellow, black and white pastors
serving this red and yellow, black and white church.
When you see ethnic groups submitting
to the leadership of different ethnic groups
for no other reason other
than Jesus has done something in their heart,
that is a glorious manifestation
of the gospel that is uniquely seen
in a multiethnic context.
Now I always got to clarify things here.
Certainly monoethnic contexts gloriously display the gospel.
But if you go to a multi-ethnic church,
a healthy, gospel-centered, multi-ethnic church,
where it is apparent that there are people here
who are different, and there are people
who are in leadership who are different,
and yet they're unified in the gospel,
they're unified in a big God theology,
there's something about that experience
that makes you see God's glory
in a way that you don't often see it displayed
in places where everybody is the same ethnically.
And it's not to say that those places are less God-honoring.
It is just to say that when you get people together,
who have no earthly reason to be together
other than they love Jesus
and they therefore love each other, that is powerful.
So inasmuch as God will let churches be
in places where that can happen,
then we should pursue that with intensity.
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