One of the big stories making the rounds this week is Time magazine’s major report on Willow Creek and the progress being made in evangelical megachurches to bridge the racial divide. Time religion reporter David Van Biema uses Willow Creek’s journey, and senior pastor Bill Hybel’s personal spiritual awakening on the issue of race in America, as a window to how the larger evangelical church is doing in this arena. Recounting the American church’s long struggle to overcome its complicated racial historyView Post, Van Biema writes:
Since Reconstruction, when African Americans fled or were ejected from white churches, black and white Christianity have developed striking differences of style and substance. The argument can be made that people attend the church they are used to; many minorities have scant desire to attend a white church, seeing their faith as an important vessel of cultural identity. But those many who desire a transracial faith life have found themselves discouraged — subtly, often unintentionally, but remarkably consistently. In an age of mixed-race malls, mixed-race pop-music charts and, yes, a mixed-race President, the church divide seems increasingly peculiar. It is troubling, even scandalous, that our most intimate public gatherings — and those most safely beyond the law’s reach — remain color-coded.
Among the article’s most revealing claims is that Willow Creek’s congregation is now 20% minority (20% is cited as the quantitative threshold of a truly integrated congregation). Van Biema points out, however, that even though Willow has increased its numbers of non-white attendees, the primary pastoral leadership of the 23,400-person church remains entirely white. Van Biema writes:
Willow’s predicament is hardly surprising. To some white congregants, naming a person of another color to tell you what Scripture means, week in and week out, crosses an internal boundary between “diversity” (positive) and “affirmative action” (potentially unnerving).
This sobering observation serves to remind readers that the journey toward true diversity and racial reconciliation in the church is not an easy road. Megachurches like Willow are often looked to for their dynamic ministry models of “how to do it right.” But addressing racial and cultural issues in the local church context does not lend itself to simplistic formulas or 40-day adventures.
Overall, though, it’s interesting to see the mainstream press paying so much attention to racial reconciliation issues in the evangelical church. It’s a good reminder that what we do both individually and corporately as Christians is being watched and surveyed by many in the wider culture.
Read the entire article here, and stay tuned to UrbanFaith for our upcoming interview with Time‘s David Van Biema.
“the journey toward true diversity and racial reconciliation in the church is not an easy road.” That’s an understatement. I sent a letter to the editor since this issue hits close to home for me. I currently serve in a predominantly white church and my experience has made me skeptical of true reconciliation being possible in the Church. I’m also reading through “Reconciliation Blues” and I’m glad to see that I’m not alone in much of what I have experienced. Desegrating a church is certainly not a feat for the faint of heart, but it may be easier in a church that purposes to do this versus a congregation that is not making that its goal, but rather has minorities in it that have chosen to worship there. My premise is that if a church is being intentional then maybe some of the angst that some of us experience might not be so prevalent or at least there would be a venue for working consciously against those issues.
I too have some “angst” about racial reconciliation in the church as well. For awhile, I worked for a ministry(not the church I attend) which was founded by a church that is probably 99% white. I was the only black staff person in a line of black people who had gone before me. The ministry focused on poor black families in a targetted community. I found that those white christians had awesome intentions, but failed to receive the innate wisdom of those blacks who sat among them at staff meetings. These blacks were individuals who had the real life experiences of the people to whom they ministered. I think the response of these white Christians was based upon an ingrained belief that – in a group of whites and blacks – whites know better, regardless of the subject matter. I found that whites are not typically inclined to submit to the wisdom of blacks. I don’t blame them. It is been apart of their experience as white Americans for generations. Racial reconciliation requires a deep work of the Holy Spirit, starting with the leader of a given ministry. Also, God let me know that a vision which is “wet” with the anointing of the Holy Spirit will saturate and permeate and cut through all of the dividing issues of race. These people were extremely hard-working, but the vision was somewhat “dry”. It was prophecied to me that I was there to establish peace. However, I had already learned that establishing peace almost always involves addressing the issues that hinder the peacemaking process, and can get pretty hairy. I saw what I saw, prayed what God told me to pray, said what God told me to say, then God told me it was time to go. The rest is up to the leadership of that ministry. I also realized that two groups cannot unite and work together effectively for a cause if one group feels superior and the other group feels inferior. Racial reconciliation PERIOD is not for the faint-hearted, even in the church.