DownshoreDrift

Could the Multi-Ethnic Church Be the Key To Revival?

Last week I pointed to the shifting demographics and the growing diversity of America. I asked about the impact that this shift would have on the church. This morning, I was reading Tim Keller's The Reason For God. Keller is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and he is having quite an impact by reaching urban professionals. Keller, writing about belief and skeptism in his ministry, says,

As soon as I arrived in New York I realized that the faith and doubt situation was not what the experts thought it was. Older white people who ran the cultural business of the city definitely were quite secular. But among the increasingly multiethnic younger professionals and the working-class immigrants there was a lush, category-defying variety of strong religious beliefs. And Christianity, in particular, was growing rapidly among them.

This is fascinating and I don't know why I have not thought about it before now. Christianity is growing all over the world. In Asia, Africa, and Latin America, Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds. The only place that Christianity is not growing is in North America and Western Europe - basically, every place that has been affected by the modernism that was birthed by Enlightenment thought.  Could it be that God is using the immigrants of the world to come to America to revamp the spiritual landscape? When immigrants from the Third World encounter America with all of its churches and all of our religion, what will the result be?

I have come to believe that the best witness that we can give to a world torn by ethnic strife, pluralism, and competing ideologies, is a church that is one in the midst of its cultural and ethic diversity. This reality is a gospel and missional imperative. It is no longer something that is just an option for the few courageous souls who might attempt it. 

The Power of a Yielded Life: Catherine Rohr and the Prison Entrepeneurship Program

Why would a 27 year old woman who was a Wall Street investor making six figures leave it all to work with prisoners in the Texas penal system?  Simply because she is a follower of Jesus and she saw prisoners through His eyes. She surrendered her life and talents to God and He is doing amazing things through her. Last week at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit, I heard Catherine Rohr's story. It is extraordinary. God is using her to radically change lives by seeing the potential that people have and by working with them to help them become what God created them to be. Through the Prison Entrepeneurship Program (PEP), inmates are exchanging the business skills that they have learned through illegitimate crime for training in developing legitimate businesses. And, business leaders from all over America are helping!  Here is an example of how one Christian with a vision from the Lord can work to change the world (click on the pictures to watch the video).

(After clicking on the picture to view the video, enlarge this video by clicking the little box in the bottom right corner when it begins playing)
Woman leaves Wall Street to teach convicts

1 Corinthians 5:14-19 says, "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation."

I thought about that passage when I saw this next video.

Racial Diversity a Gospel Imperative: Thoughts From the Willow Creek Leadership Summit

Why don't Southern Baptists have conferences like this???  A group of about 10 of us are attending the Willow Creek Leadership Summit at a satellite location here in Montgomery. It has been really good so far, with excellent sessions led by Bill Hybels, Gary Haugen of the International Justice Mission (who said, "Leadership that matters to God involves issues that matter to God"), Wendy Kopp of Teach for America, John Burke of Gateway Community Church, and Bill George. All of the speakers were excellent and very challenging. They gave great foundations for leadership in the church and the world and told amazing stories of risk and adventure in creating new realities. The theme this year seems to be focusing on the issue of justice and social issues.

Probably the most poignant speaker of the day for me was Efrem Smith of  The Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis.  He spoke on the need for a racially diverse, multicultural church witness in America. Here are the notes that I took from his talk:

• The church should be a solution to the racial divide in our country, not a part of the problem.
• Culture should be engaged for Kingdom purposes, not necessarily fully embraced
• We live in a multi-cultural, technological, innovative, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, connected, global world.
• The more diverse that we as a nation get, the more divided we become. We are in need of leaders who will engage this world to bring about peace and prosperity to show that there is a God who brings hope, healing, justice, and transformation.
• 30 years ago, 1 in 100 children born in America were born of a mixed race. Today, it is 1 in 19. The next generation will not be under the rigid racial distinctions of the past.
• We must lead and be prophetic in a multicultural world.
• A leader in this world must be invaded by God to lead multiculturally and multiethnically.
• 1 John 4:7 - Love one another - In order to lead in a multicultural world, we must be a beloved leader. You become this way when you allow yourself to be taken by God and His purposes.
• We must be connected to God so that people can see God through us.
• It is not about qualification to lead multiculturally, it is about being picked up by God and being carried along by His purposes.
• When we have been filled by God, we will address issues of race, class, and ethnicity around the world. Does the church have an answer? Yes!
• If the church really wants to transform where the pain is, we will invest in and plant churches in the inner city and find dwelling places where the hurting people are.
• We must be able to confess where we've gotten in wrong.
• The reason why we've had racial and ethic storms in this world is because man's desire for comfort has come in conflict with God's desire for reconciliation and healing.
• What if we confronted the reasons for why churches are ethnically and racially divided and addressed those reasons? Our primary identity is not racial. We should not have white churches and black churches in cities that are racially and ethnically diverse. The church should represent the community and consist of all people. This is what the Gospel commands. Along these lines Smith says,

"The Church must wrestle with what it means to equip the saints to advance the Kingdom of God in an ever-increasing multi-ethnic and multicultural world. In order for this to happen, pastors and ministry leaders must begin by seeing reconciliation as theology and Christian formation. Reconciliation must be seen as spiritual discipline on the same level as prayer, fasting, and stewardship. One of the major issues with which we still struggle in the body of Christ is racial segregation. There still exists a belief among many church leaders that a homogenous church model is the best for church development and growth. Within an ever-increasing multi-ethnic and multicultural society, when sociologists want to prove that there is yet a racial divide, many look no further than the church to make this point."

Efrem Smith went on to say that the only proper response to a multi-cultural society is a multi-cultural church. I agree. Raffi Shahinian left a comment on my post from the other day on this issue pointing me to a post that he had written on the subject. Raffi said that the church has always had a problem with racial and cultural divisions. That is why Paul talked about it so much. But, the point was that they were not allowed to stay in those divisions. Paul prophetically called them out of their inward focus to a broader reality of the diverse Body of Christ. Raffi says that a great deal of Paul's writings dealt directly with this issue of prejudice between differing groups based on race, culture, background, and ethnicity. Romans should be read in this context because we are all equally sinners and justified by faith - whether Jew or Gentile. This is why Romans 1-8 sets up the rest of the letter in calling Jews and Gentiles (who are both reconciled to God the same way) to love one another and accept on another. Galatians deals with this, as does Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Corinthians, etc. It goes on and on. I have never thought about it that way, but he is right.  The Gospel is made up of both vertical reconciliation (between us and God) as well as horizontal reconciliation (between man and man).  For the Church not to display this in a racially divided land is to not display a holistic Gospel witness.

Here are thoughts from Efrem after he spoke at the Summit:

Compassion and mercy ministries lead to engaging in justice advocacy.  That is worth thinking about.

God continues to speak to me on this issue. I am working on a book on this subject with the Montgomery story as a background. I have come to believe that reconciliation is a gospel issue - it is not a preference issue. Our churches must deal with this to be able to effectively proclaim the gospel to the mission field of America. If we do not, any claim to be serious about reaching our country is just words.

UPDATE:  This is a great post on the detrimental nature of silence on the racial issue in our churches. Pretending like it is not a problem, or like if it ever was a problem it was dealt with in the past, is not a helpful take on the current issue within the church.   

How Long Until the Church Effectively Deals With Its Prejudice?

CNN is producing a great series on being "Black in America." Yesterday, they dealt with the issue of race in the church by confronting Why Many Americans Prefer Their Sundays Segregated (HT: Jim West). This is a fascinating article. Here are some excerpts:

• Only 5 percent of our nation's churches are considered racially integrated (at least 20% of a minority race attends)
• Many who want segregated churches are looking for a place of refuge where they don't have to experience racism on Sundays
• Fear of interracial dating may keep churches segregated
• Integrated churches could help heal racial divides in America

I have said a lot about this in the past and I plan to say a good deal more about it in the future. At any rate, I think that it is significant that a secular world looks at the church and takes notice that we are just as segregated as they are, if not more so. Clearly, the Bible teaches that racial distinctions are to fade away in Christ, yet they remain in His Church. How do you think this affects our witness and what can we do about it?

Obviously, repentance and heart change is necessary. Maybe we will start to consider that when we realize that our preferences, beyond just being incompatible with the Gospel, are also destroying our witness in America, the land of multiculturalism.

How Beautiful Is the Body of Christ

I pastor an amazing church. I have a lot of pastor friends that are miserable in their churches because of one problem or another. I am not one of those pastors - there is literally nowhere else that I would rather be. I was moved to tears yesterday - there was such an amazing sense of God's presence. It started in worship as our teachers for our new Sunday School classes shared about the classes that God was leading them to teach. Each person shared from their heart. One of our teachers was gone because he was preaching in another church, so I read his description. Parenting, living from an overflow of Christ, an exposition of Psalm 23 - those were some of the topics. Our young adults teacher is a young Brazilian man, who after sharing about his class shared about the sports camp that he and another man led on Saturday. With little notice, they taught the kids in the neighborhood soccer and football. A kid from the neighborhood came to Christ.

The worship was amazing. I looked around the church and saw hands and hearts lifted to the Lord. People sang passionately. Our praise team is full of young people that use their talents for the Lord. Our church never lacks for singers and musicians. As I looked across the sanctuary my heart warmed to see people in love with their Lord instead of just going through the motions.

Our youth had just returned from a mission trip in Houston, Texas where they ministered to homeless people for a week. Our youth minister got choked up as he talked about the selfless attitudes of the youth, their heart for service, and their love for people. Three youth and a parent shared about how God had met them and what a life changing experience it was. They are all saying that they want to continue doing compassion ministry here and we are talking about revamping our youth group to center it around ministering to those in need. They are leading our church in this.

We took Communion yesterday. I spoke briefly about how in Christ, we are to regard no one from a worldly point of view - we are not to look on outward appearances. All that are in Christ are new creations. At our church, we all come forward to take Communion. I said that is significant because it reminds us that we all approach the Lord's Table the same way. In humility and repentance, we all arise and partake of the elements that remind us that Christ's blood was shed and His body was broken to take away our sins and to give us new life. As our church arose to come to the Lord's Table, I looked at the lines of people - people that I GET to serve as pastor. I knew their hurts, their pain, their triumphs, and their victories. I was shaken as I viewed the Body of Christ. Our church is beginning to become more multicultural and in the lines for Communion were whites, blacks, hispanics, and Asians - all approaching the Lord's Table together. It was beautiful.

At the end of the service, we introduced three girls - two teenagers and a younger girl who had come to know the Lord. The younger girl came to Christ this week in a Back Yard Bible Club that some of our folks were doing in a neighborhood. She was the daughter of the one of the guys that led the sports camp on Saturday where the kid from the neighborhood came to Christ. His teenage daughter also became a Christian as well as her friend that had been staying with them this summer. After the service, our deacons told a man in our church whose wife is in a wheel chair that people, on their own, gave money to help them get a van that they needed to be able to get around. I heard about it after it was done. God is at work in a powerful way and I praise Him.

Last night, our LIFE Group came over to the house. Including children, we had over 30 people come over. We grilled out, talked, laughed, and had a great time. It was a huge party. About once every three months we have a big meal together and just hang out. Our group is made up of young families that are learning how to raise their kids and walk with the Lord. What is cool is that we are doing this together.

This was supposed to be a pretty ordinary weekend. To a lot of people, I guess it was. But, when the Body of Christ came together, God showed up and changed everything. I praise God that I get to serve a church that looks expectantly to the Lord to work in our lives. How beautiful is the Body of Christ!

Russell Moore on Spiritual Warfare, the Family, and the Rule of Appetites

Either the prophetic cry regarding our lifestyle choices and pursuit of the American Dream is getting louder, or I am just paying closer attention. As our economy tanks and our culture declines, I think that more and more Christians will begin to consider how we are living. Russell Moore from Southern Seminary takes aim at Southern Baptists' acquiesance to a culture run amok in materialism and hedonism. He hits this topic much harder than I have over the past few weeks as he talks to Southern Baptists about some timely issues. He says, "both left and right in the American mainstream are captive to the ideology that the appetites are to be indulged; the heart wants what it wants, by whatever system will do it most efficiently."  Moore is at his best in this article when he exposes the spiritual warfare that is taking place in our midst and how we have been deceived as we fall in line with the materialistic pursuit of our culture. He aptly points out that our enemy is not flesh and blood.

Moore's only weakness is that he is writing from a middle-class perspective as he critiques families where both parents are working. This is the reality for many families and there is really nothing that can be done about it. Instead of making families who HAVE to do this to survive feel bad, we should help them and support them as they provide for their families. His focus, however, is rightly placed on those families who could easily make it on one income, but choose to put children in day care to pursue a lifestyle of affluence. That action does require some analysis and alternatives need to be considered.

Overall, however, his take on this subject is timely - especially his comments on spiritual warfare. 

Andrew Jones Gives the "Skinny" on Missional

Check out Andrew's synopsis of the term "missional" and the movement that it has inspired HERE. This is really good stuff. I really like the term and since I picked it up in San Francisco at GGBTS in the late 90's from Andrew, Thom Wolf, Linda and Eric Berquist, Jonathon Campbell, Dr. Francis Dubose, and others,  then I feel pretty good about using it. I think that it is a helpful term, especially in describing the movement of God that flows from a missiological reading of the Bible. If we see God as the God who is coming after us and then sending us to help rescue others, then our reading of Scripture begins to make a lot more sense. Anyway, check out Andrew's post for some background of the term.

IMB Trustees, It's Time to Change the Restrictive Policies/Guidelines

A group of former IMB trustees, missionaries, and SBC pastors have issued a call to change the restrictive policies/guidelines of the IMB regarding baptism and private prayer language in a statement called:

Time to Change: Southern Baptists Committed to Reversing the Recent IMB Guideline Changes.

As many of you know, I have been very passionate about this issue for over two years. This is THE issue in the SBC, as far as I am concerned. In November, 2005, the current trustees passed policies that kept anyone from the mission field who had not been baptized in a church that was either Southern Baptist or that exactly shared our theology on issues like the security of the believer. They also passed a policy that kept anyone from the mission field that had a private prayer language. Neither of these issues are spoken against in our statement of faith, the Baptist Faith and Message. They are also extra-biblical qualifications. We need to be putting more people on the mission field, not less.  Southern Baptists have always been able to work together for the sake of global missions, even though we might hold minor differences in peripheral issues of our theology. The group that currently leads the IMB does not see things that way and they want us to be uniform on every issue of importance to them. That perspective cannot stand and I praise God that there are people of courage who are stepping up to refute these guidelines.

If you want to view the signatories and add your name to the statement, click HERE.

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On a related note, I have been in contact with several missionaries from three different regions of the IMB over the past few weeks. They have told me stories related to low missionary morale, questionable baptism and church planting numbers, and mass frustration from the missionary force on the field related to the actions of the trustees and IMB leadership. Of course this might not apply to all missionaries, but I am hearing enough of a rumble with corroborating evidence from multiple regions and sources to see a pattern.  I will be releasing a post detailing this evidence in the next few days.

Yes, it is time to change. 

Southern Baptists Are On the Decline

For the first time in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention, the world's largest protestant denomination is in decline(HT: SBCOutpost). You can read the article from Lifeway HERE.  We have lost almost 40,000 members in the past year, and our baptisms have dropped over 18,000 from 2006 to 2007. That is the third straight year of baptismal decline and the seventh out of the past eight. When you combine this with the fact that the evangelical church has not shown growth in one single county in the U.S. (save Hawaii) in the past decade and church attendence for Twentysomethings is somewhere around 5% of the total population, you have some very interesting days ahead, especially as Baby Boomers and the Builders continue to age.

Regarding Southern Baptists, Ed Stetzer from Lifeway Research engages in some lively commentary as to some of the reasons for the decline. He points out 3 central issues that must be addressed (I am quoting him on each three):

1. We have to deal with the continued loss of SBC leaders. As we have recently reported in Facts & Trends, we have witnessed a serious (and increasing) depopulation of young leaders at our convention. Also, ethnic leadership remains absent after decades of ethnic change in America. Vacant seats still exist at the SBC table for the ethnic and generational diversity that matches the America we are attempting to reach. The departure by the future leaders of our convention has led to fewer church plants, missionaries, and energetic pastors to lead our faltering churches. We must retain these leaders not because we need them for our churches. We need them to reach the lost whom our churches have yet to touched.
2. A second issue is the infighting which defines so much of the SBC—its meetings, its churches, and its blogs. It is public knowledge that we do not always settle our differences amicably. The national caricature once again colors many local scenes where First, Second, and even Third Baptist Churches exist in one town because of past infighting. Satan has used our incessant bickering over non-essentials to promote his last great mission on earth—to keep lost people lost. The communities in which we live simply do not want to hear what we have to say when we can speak kindly to one another. If the focus of every SBC meeting is a new controversy to be debated, new parameters to be narrowed, and new issues to be fought, the trend toward decline will only accelerate.
3. The third, and most important, issue is our loss of focus on the Gospel. I find it difficult to even say such a thing, but, I believe it to be true. We must recover a gospel centrality and cooperate in proclaiming that gospel locally and globally. David Dockery and Timothy George pointed the way with their helpful booklet, Building Bridges, in last year’s SBC messenger’s packet. They called for a unity around the Gospel, and the time grows increasingly urgent.

The Conservative Resurgence failed to produce a Great Commission Resurgence. It restored our denomination’s value of Scripture but application is often absent, at least in the area of evangelism.

If we commit ourselves once again to the Gospel which guided the Apostles and the early church, then perhaps we can reply to Christ’s call made to the church of Sardis in Revelation 3.

I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.

Well said, Ed. I agree wholeheartedly.

I want to take moment to discuss his three points. Much of what he is suggesting is what I have been saying for some time and I think that it is very important that we realize that our problems are systemic. A new program or emphasis will not solve the foundational problems that we are facing.

First of all, he says that young leaders are not engaging. I can attest to that. I am 33 years old and everywhere I go in Southern Baptist life, I am one of the youngest people in the room - by far. It is almost impossible to be involved and to speak into any processes related to the national convention, as I have found the past two years. As far as ethnic diversity, Stetzer is dead on. We have a racist past as a denomination and it continues to haunt us. I have been writing a lot about that lately for a reason: until we recognize that repentance on this issue involves more than just saying you're sorry, we will continue to have a stunted witness in America. We are defined by our horrible errors on the issue of race. It continues to plague us. We must be far more proactive in bringing healing than we have been. To do that means that we must humble ourselves and walk the long, hard road of submission.

Secondly, he speaks to the continuing fragmentation and in fighting within the SBC. This is a given. Apparently, we would rather fight and exclude one another than reach the world for Jesus. We are constantly redrawing the lines of cooperation so that more and more people are excluded on some new basis. The baptism and private prayer language policies of the IMB are a perfect case in point. Why continue to separate over non-essential issues? We have far more in common than what divides us. If we are unnecessarily dividing the Body of Christ, is that not being a schismatic, which has been condemned as heresy?

Thirdly, he says that we have lost our focus on the gospel. I agree. But, I wonder how much we have ever focused on the gospel that Jesus preached? It seems that we have reduced the gospel to a ticket to heaven and we have left out the reign and rule of God that Jesus proclaimed. If we just tell people to give a gospel presentation to people, but we don't teach them or direct them to live as disciples of Christ, then it makes sense that our gospel witness will be neutered. Do we even know the gospel? Do we even understand that Jesus came to reconcile us to God? Do we know what that means? Of course, forgiveness of sin is central to that message. But, the gospel is the Man, the Message, and the Mission. It is all connected (Luke 24:45-49). We have divided it up almost beyond recognition and we wonder why we are ineffective.  I plan to say a great deal more about this in the future.

At any rate, it appears that a great decline has begun. What will bring us out of it? When churches begin a decline, it is very difficult to change things. The SBC member to baptism ratio is now 47:1. Wow.

As I think about all of this, maybe it is not the worst thing. Maybe God is pruning us so that we can be more effective. Maybe He is getting our focus off our our size and strength so that we will begin to depend upon Him. Maybe He is humbling us and opening our eyes to the staggering lostness all around us. I hope so. Wake us up, Lord. There are over 6 billion people in the world and we keep being prideful that there are over 16 million Southern Baptists in America! God, forgive us and turn our hearts toward you and the people that you came to save!

UPDATE:  Check out the video interview of Dr. Stetzer on this issue HERE.

Oprah's Full Blown New Age Beliefs

There is no doubt that Oprah Winfrey has a HUGE following in America today. She has become the guide for many, many women throughout our country and is seen as a very positive influence. Recently, she has been hawking a book called "The New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle that repackages gnostic and new age teaching.  This is an enlightening segment:

Of course, we have heard this before: There are many ways to heaven, Jesus only embodied the God-consciousness that showed us how God wanted us to live, Jesus is not the only way to God, Christianity is a restrictive ideology that actually keeps us from God, God is bigger than religion, all religions should be sampled, there is no authority except for yourself and you can choose from different religions to piece together what is best for you, you listen within for your own definitions of spirituality, etc., etc. Everyday, Oprah is speaking this to millions and millions of people. In reality, this book is really just a restating of Buddhism (we must escape desire to enter enlightenment). Eckhart just says that we have to bypass our "ego" to tap into our true self where true peace and spiritual enlightenment is attainable. Again, straight Buddhism and Oprah thinks it's wonderful and has made it compatible with her new form of "Christianity." If you combine Oprah's philosophy with that of the prosperity gospel that also tells people that life is all about us and that we can gain God's blessings through our gifts, our thoughts on spirituality in America are devolving into a mish-mash of heresy and paganism. Yes, America has become quite the mission field, hasn't it? How will we respond?