The Nines on Diversity
I know I’m late to the game, but I wanted to throw in my “two cents” about the Nines. For those of you unaware, The Nines was a series of 75 – 9 minute videos by christian leaders, hosted online as a massive video conference by Leadership Network and Catalyst. By most accounts, the Nines was well received. Their site reports, “During the day of 09/09/09, there were over 20,000 total IP addresses that connected at one time or another to watch part of the conference. There were over 60,000 hits to our video servers throughout the day. We used 8.7 TB (terrabytes) of data to stream the more than 1,685 days of viewing time. THE NINES was the most tweeted topic on Twitter for about three hours on 09/09/09. In fact, over 6,000 tweets contained the hashtag #thenines.” I watch a great deal (but not all) of the videos.
A lot of people have chimed in (both during and following the event), but there were a least two presentations on a topic that I have not seem people responding to. (Admittedly, my circle of friends does not encompass the thousands who watched.) That topic is ethnic diversity.
Many of you know, the church I work with here in San Antonio is bilingual; I am keenly aware of the issues and struggles in blending cultures into one faith community. (Not to mention my experiences and struggles growing up and working in the South or my ministry time on the outskirts of Dayton.) There is something beautiful and mysterious though when people develop a bond and share life together despite (or even because of) their difference. I believe this is too important to be pushed aside.
So, back to the Nines. Scott Williams of LifeChurch.tv and bigisthenewsmall.com made his video available, but it seems to have been taken down already. I guess that’s what I get for waiting a week to post this. I’m hoping they plan to make all the videos available soon.
Mark DeYmaz of Mosaic Church also addressed diversity during the Nines. As a followup, he posted 25 FAQs re. the Multi-ethnic Church. There, he defines “ethnic diversity” and how it exists as a movement of churches:
I intend it as general and inclusive of ethnic, economic, educational and generational diversity within a local church. In fact, I believe that ethnic and economic diversity are two sides of the same coin and that educational privilege is most often a factor of economics. So when I’m talking about a multi-ethnic church, I’m thinking of one that reflects diversity in a variety of forms beyond ethnicity.
I have my reservations about some of the specifics he lays out, and really don’t understand his concerns over churches being reflective of their communities (as opposed to meeting his percentage goals), but the issue of churches being so homogeneous (and I believe often intentionally so) is important enough to me that I am willing to consider his points.
So what’s the deal? Why are churches so divided? Why is Sunday the most segregated day of the week (to paraphrase MLK)? Seriously. Look around you. The American landscape has changed. I doubted I would see an African American elected as President of the US in my lifetime and am proud to live in time when that is possible (and I’m only 29). It seems like our society has come so far, but as is so often the case, churches are decades behind. And I believe this is an area where followers of Jesus should have been leading the charge.
So I guess I’m left with a few questions. First, why is this even still an issue? And Second, what can we be doing to fix it? If we could just skip trite answers, cop-outs and finger pointing usually associated with this topic, that would be great.
church, diversity
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diversity, ethnicity, Leadership Network, Mark DeYmaz, race, Scott Williams, the Nines
There aren’t a lot of black people, Mexicans, etc. in the social circles I move in, so I would expect my church to reflect that absence. I would feel guilty about this only if I went out of my way to avoid people with different ethnicities.
Personally, I don’t lose any sleep over the diversity (or lack thereof) of a local congregation just like I don’t care how many men/women, whether white/other, work in my wife’s admissions department at Clark State (making me a lot different than their HR director).
The only time it bothers me, which is when I think we should “fix it,” is when it’s a symptom of bigotry. Then, people need to be taught to love indiscriminately.
Ofc, if a bunch of rich Christians live in an area and do nothing to help those outside of their social circles, I suppose that’s a problem too. However, I’m certainly not the one with the solution in that circumstance.
I get turned off most of the time when I hear diversity because I believe too many people see it as an end in and of itself. Whatever the solution is, I know it is NOT external quotas and such. It’s a heart issue, not a numbers one.
I think engineered diversity is lame. At the same time, I think natural segregation is sad.
“I think engineered diversity is lame. At the same time, I think natural segregation is sad.” agreed. academic institutions suffer from the former. churches from the latter (maybe…but, maybe not. i’ve met a lot of people in a lot of churches who almost go out of there way to avoid diversity). it is hard for me to justify there not being many people of other ethnic and cultural backgrounds in my social circles when there are so many around me. i have to think that is because someone (or possible everyone) is closed to the idea. as far as the affirmative action type stuff, i agree ethnicity shouldn’t matter (in a sense). people should be in a college based on academic standards not ethnicity. on the same token, people should be in a church because of proximity not ethnicity. if your church doesn’t reflect your community, it is quite likely an indication that something is wrong. unfortunately, this is often engineered to be the case. its almost like the busing system back in the day.
am i alone? anyone else think this is a problem? if so, lets offer up some “solutions”.
I’ve read this since the day you posted it. Finally decided to let my insomnia lead me somewhere beneficial..so here I am. If you guys didn’t take the time, read the 25 faqs…interesting stuff there. He makes a great point about leadership of a “diverse” church needing to reflect such. My only argument that I could bring to myself was that I wouldn’t say our churches have diverse leadership, but as a biblical mandate I struck that.
I applaud the dude in that he studies his community and apparently strives to meet their needs. If it is just to say, hey we are diverse and you guys aren’t then I’m not sure that is a great motive but the procedure itself is a good one.
Perhaps the biggest thing here to me is the “team teaching” idea. This appeals very very much to me. It is another way (and something he doesn’t touch on much) to address diversity. One of the worst ways we (as church leaders) deal with diversity is running things by ourselves. That, by definition i suppose, isn’t diverse at all. I am guilty of this, and this, more so then the lack of a multi-ethnic culture in the church, is a problem.
The most interesting thing to me is looking at “diversity” as not just a red/yellow/black/white issue but as a monetary issue. For a church to be RYBW diverse is one thing, but for it to be social “cast” diverse is HUGE. Sometimes i think this is impossible. I can see the leaders at HCC saying, “You want to invite people great, but how are we going to afford it?” I am feeble minded though. This single point he makes is bigger to me than all the other stuff on race that he says.
Early on in my christian life I was surrounded by people who repeatedly said, “I like small churches, and there are a lot of people who like small churches.” The funny thing is I never met anyone that was a guest at the church that said, “I like small churches…” My argument to them was that if you fill a room with only people who like small churches then the church would be huge…because people only say they like those things to either rationalize their own evangelistic meekness or their lack of understanding culture.
The only thing I didn’t really care for was his Korean wife/military husband example. Wouldn’t the husband go to the english speaking service at the church and the wife go to the korean speaking service? You can have different services under the same roof without being very diverse (see most churches that have a traditional and contemporary services..if you can’t, I know a place you can come to observe it).
There may be two sides to diversity. While churches probably need to be able rethink how to assimilate those outside the norm for the church, I think ultimately the person who is an outsider has to be able to facilitate this as well. I know this is the case for me economically; i simply do not feel comfortable around people who makes twice what I do. So both sides really need to be open to this sort of conglomeration. I think diversity would reflect that of the community though, speaking as a minister in a situation that is almost monolithic in being white, poor, and uneducated
@greg, “For a church to be RYBW diverse is one thing, but for it to be social ‘cast’ diverse is HUGE.” this is so true and so difficult. a lot of the rybw issues seem to be heightened by this too.
as a side note, i think there is something wrong with the way we do church if our efforts include more people are restricted by budgets. i have experienced this complication too, and it pains me.
@brent, i wouldn’t expect a church in your community to have the same diverse population as i would one closer to dayton or cincinnati (or any other place on the planet containing more that 3 families). but i would expect them to be just as open. and, i get what you are saying about it being a two way street, but i believe churches have more to loose in the game and more of a moral obligation. i don’t think its a meet half way deal. i think churches have to be willing to make all the necessary concessions and when open individuals come along, they will take advantage if it.