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We must face our fears, mistrust, and ignorance and become a society of one. It is often said that Sundays are the most segregated time in America. I would tend to agree. As I watch the news on the Democratic National Convention and underlying question that is always looking my commentators is whether Obama as to overcome racism in 2008. Simply put, yes he does! Race and racism are still in existence today. However, if we try to drive racism by pointing out differences between black and white culture we are on shaky ground, yet when it comes to the church, I rarely hear anyone take issue with calling a predominantly African-American church in Atlanta, GA a black church or even talking about the black church as if it is its own denomination.

It’s not so mainstream in America, but there is such a thing as the Chinese, Korean, Japanese or more-generic Asian-American church.

Should American churches be black, Chinese, Mexican, Russian, etc.? I say yes, and no. Let me define my point:

1. For first generation immigrants that have a language barrier, yet want to be able to worship, there should be a church that exists to allow that to happen. If Russian-speaking immigrants can gather in the name of the Lord, then that is great!
2. Regardless of language or race inherently the second generation will want to assimilate into American culture and be taught English and encouraged to become Americans. Will this second generation want to stay in an ethnocentric church the rest of their lives? Their friends are diverse ethnically, their school is ethnically diverse, their workplace, etc. Why wouldn’t they want their church to be representative of their Monday-through-Saturday environment?

Looking at Jesus’ ministry on earth, we know that as a Jew he broke away from traditional custom to walk though Samaria on his way to Jerusalem. It is on a walk through Samaria that he encounters the woman at the well. The end result is that a wave of Christ followers came to know salvation even though they weren’t the chosen people of God (Jews). We also read testimony of Jesus being in the company of prostitutes, those with leprosy, and the much-hated tax collectors. Jesus didn’t care whether someone was of the “chosen” or not, because one of the primary things about his gospel was that anyone that believed in him was granted forgiveness of their sins and brought into the brotherhood of God’s people. Looking at the New Testament, most of it was written by the Apostle Paul, whom Jesus called to preach to the Gentiles (non-Jews). Greeks, Romans, Ethiopians, all would come to know the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ through Paul’s outreach. Paul gathered the Jews and Gentiles and assembled them into one church in the community. There were the Ephesian, Galatian, and Thessalonian churches with Jews and Gentiles in unity, not the Jewish Ephesian church, and the Greek Ephesian church on the other side of town, etc. One church, one God, one love for all.

With such examples from the Scripture, why do we so often choose to be segregated during worship? Why must we use Sundays to try and preserve our culture, when God calls us to him above everything else when we come before him in worship?

One argument I hear from some is that if God sends us an Asian-American congregation, then that is who we are to shepherd and minister to. Okay. The problem with this argument is the leader/visionary. I’ve heard (and experienced) that the church will generally take after the senior pastor. If the senior pastor is Caucasian, mid-40’s with a college degree, married and has 2.3 kids then people of similar makeup will be drawn to him/her because they can relate to each other equally. So, me being an Asian-American, it would make sense that I could attract those that have similar cultural backgrounds to me. Therefore, if as Asian-American pastor, I have to be intentional about attracting those that are different than me. Can I as an American cross cultural lines and connect with people that are Hispanic, African-American, Russian-American, etc.? If I can’t, then personally I believe I have a problem because Jesus doesn’t differentiate based on race and I should be doing the work of Jesus, not the work of myself. If the population at large still won’t accept me because I am not of their heritage, then I believe that empowering leaders within the church that represent diversity can help people overcome such personal issues. If I have an Asian-American leadership team and talk about my experiences growing up with racism and certain aspects of Japanese culture, then I am going to relate to Japanese-Americans almost exclusively. It just makes sense. However, if I preach and exemplify the gospel of Christ and do so to Hispanic, African-American, Russian-American people in my community and they see the love of Christ and not a Japanese-American, then they will be drawn in by Christ’s love and not because we are of identical cultures.

To be diverse, I have to agree with DJ Chuang’s position in his blog post and state that it does take being intentional. However, I don’t believe that this is some form of manipulation or relying on some system of diversity rather than trusting God to build his church. If God wants the church to be multi-cultural, then I believe the leadership, attitude, sermon illustrations, etc. must be ethnically/culturally/socio-economically diverse in order to facilitate this happening.

Imagine what it must be like for some Asian guy to invite an African-American unbeliever to his church only to find out that his African-American friend doesn’t fit in and isn’t really welcomed because he is not Asian. Is that the example we should be setting for unbelievers? Would Christ only want to see African-Americans saved in African-American churches? When Scripture states that Christ will return to claim his bride, do we really believe that we are to be a segregated bride seeking solace in our cultural customs rather seeking peace and joy in unity and love? Interesting complementary post to this from Laurence Tom titled, “Is your church more Chinese than Christian?“

We can only stop talking about racism when we start coming together and worshipping together with our community rather than just our cultural community. We can only stop talking about racism when we are viewed as light and love rather than black or white or brown or yellow. I believe the church is an important instrument in this process of change and that someone needs to not be afraid to be a little uncomfortable for the sake of seeing ignorance win in the battle of racism and prejudice. When we should be leading the charge for this in the church, we are the last to embrace this concept!