So I just heard through a casual conversation about a white church that is strongly resisting the cross-racial appointment of a black pastor. The gripe, which was publicly verbalized, is that their white church will eventually end up “filled with [black people] or “their kind”. Is this a form of xenophobia? Are we still considered foreigners and strangers? Haven't we been American long enough to render our African side less foreign by now, especially in worship?
About Me
- Cross-Racial Clergy
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Joyce M. Anderson is a Provisional Elder in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church. She draws on her MBA and MDiv education and nonprofit and for-profit corporate work experiences to encourage an “Art of War” approach to spiritual warfare.
In 2012 I didn't realize there were all white churches that exist. How can a church that *should* profess love for one another, take such an immature stance as that. Diversity is what makes one grow, and to experience Black, Latino, Korean, Brazilian people is an enriching experience. These people need to grow up and be realistic. I have been fortunate to share with people of many cultures-and have learned many things from all of them~and hope the opportunity continues within the life of my church. The world is a changin'-too bad these biased people can't live in 2012.
ReplyDeleteWhen you have attended seminary for the last several years, as I have, you get to meet pastors from all over the world, and more of them from America than you can imagine will tell you that they lead churches of hundreds, even thousands of members and have not one single person of color or non-white ethnicity. Many pastors lament this, and sincerely ask what they can do to precipitate change. It speaks to the fact that too many neighborhoods across the country still reflect racial segregation, and "community" churches largely, and inevitably follow suit.
DeleteI love the comment, "I didn't realize there were all white churches that exist." It shows that there a different realities out there. I know my church is changing - slowly, but changing. It is a white church with a white pastor, but we have members of color from Haiti, Liberia, and West Philadelphia. The young people expect that churches welcome everybody and for the most part they are not really interested in all white church.
ReplyDeleteChange is slow, and risky, but necessary.
By the way, I recommend the book "The Warmth of Other Suns" for African American history month. It tells the history of the great migration of Black folks from the US south to the north and west, starting during World War II and lasting right up to the 1960's. It follows three families in particular and shows how similar their paths were at different times and places within the great migration. It's a painful story, but with lots of pockets of persistence and hope.
Pastor David-my point exactly. As the world is changing, I thought churches were as well.
DeleteIt begs the question: Why is this critical change so slow? What are we afraid of? Being stuck with worship styles that cause us to chafe?
DeleteThank you for the book recommendation, Pastor David. If I ever graduate, I'll add it to my reading list.
A persistent trend of the Church is that we are NOT Leaders of Society, but rather Followers of Society. In fact, more accurately, we are Trailers of Society, since the Church typically trails behind societal trends and ethos by at least 5-7 years. So what we may experience in popular culture today won't be acceptable norms in our churches until almost five years go by. Of all the great institutions of our time, sadly, the Church is most resistant to change, to take on the risk. What does this say in our collective faith in God to carry us through the change to the other side of transformation?
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking it's okay to "trail" if we just blazed our own, and it followed the path of Christ and his disciples.
Delete"Associated Luke" wrote this post that showed up in my email but not on the Blog for some reason, so I will paste and quote here:
ReplyDelete"sigh.
News like this really makes me mad. We're currently going through our Open and Affirming Process and one complaint is that "we don't want the church to fill up with gays."
God forbid that a church grow. God forbid that we mix all parts of society so that "In Christ there is no longer jew nor greek, slave nor free, male nor female..."
ugh."
When we read scriptures about the early church like the one from Acts 4:4 that says, "But many of those who heard the word believed; and they numbered about five thousand", do we imagine or surmise that all of these converts were the 1st century version of white suburbia?
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