Any real attempt at church diversity without a diverse staff and a diverse set of key leaders smacks of phoniness in my book.
Mix up your style, invite the international orphans to sing to your congregation, use hip hop font on your flyers…do those things. But when you do those things with a single-race or single nationality staff or set of key leaders, you cannot say that you are truly passionate about diversity.
I’m not going to get deep about this point. It’s simple. George Bush understood this principle years ago. We can argue about whether or not his staff is politically or socially diverse until the cows come home – that’s another blog series altogether. If you are passionate about diversity, your staff will look like this staff in Atlanta or this staff in Sacramento or this staff in Durham, NC.
I believe so strongly in this for 3 key reasons.
1. Staff budgets are a huge part of an annual church budget. You put your money into what you value. If you value a diverse church, show me on your budget how you value diversity. Jesus said it like this.
2. If people don’t see it up front, it’s not real. If people don’t see that key leaders and staff members come from a diverse background, they will consciously or sub-consciously know that you’re not really serious about being diverse. Basically, you can show people diversity much better than you can tell them about it.
3. For a whole host of reasons, diversity attracts diversity and if you don’t choose to hire a diverse staff, you will have a helluva time attracting a diverse congregation. Some of this is cultural comfort, some of it is experience, but people of various ethnic groups generally feel more comfortable when they see similar looking people in key leadership positions.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about this? Does your church have a diverse staff? Why? Why not?
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shaun, while i agree with you, i think true diversity can be achieved without having such a diverse staff.
case/point, our church, Christian Church Buckhead. we have a highly diverse congregation. all kinds of races, an amazing spread of socioeconomic status, and an even more amazing spread of ages.
let’s not pigeonhole ourselves into believing that the only diversity that matters is racial diversity. there’s a lot more to it than that.
regarding your comment on phoniness, i agree, but encourage you to realize that it works both ways. an all white, traditional church in a black neighborhood having “hip hop praise night” with a token black guy leading the music feels phony, regardless of the intent. likewise, a church that is heavily intent on hiring a diverse staff can look a phony as well. i don’t know how to balance it. you’ll have to decide for yourself..
i say to focus on love, compassion and relationships. be sensitive to the congregation’s experience. love the heck out of people and the diversity will come!
Hey Adam,
Thanks for your comments man! I wholeheartedly agree with you that diversity is not just racial. As a matter of fact, you can have a racially diverse congregation of people that are all a whole lot alike because they share a similar socioeconomic experience, shop at the same places, work in the same offices, etc.
If you look at my post from yesterday, I totally agree with you that LOVE & COMPASSION is a fundamental agreement to diversity. That’s what I’ll be blogging about tomorrow.
However, when a church lacks diversity in its inner circle, I feel very strongly that this church is subconsciously promoting the idea that the race of the inner circle knows best. I can only speak for myself and for others that have shared their feelings with me, but I get very uncomfortable when a church (or business or political party) touts the diversity of the crowd when the inner circle has no diversity at all.
Talk with you soon my friend,
–Shaun & Crew
Hey,
Just stumbled on you here but I’m interested in what you’re doing, and what you’re writing about right now.
I actually have two strong connections to what you’re writing about. Perhaps a distant third would be that my home church back in Canada is about 250 people, with about 30 nationalities represented. More interesting here though, is that:
a) I was a chaperone and the tour leader for the kids in the picture you posted here… that’s the African Children’s Choir, tour #29.
b) I’m still working with the choir, and our new choir is actually based in Durham, NC, at a house that was donated by KPIC, the same church you just referenced. The twenty-six kids and our nine staff all call it our church home now.
Having grown up in a church where it’s always been fairly diverse, even in the middle of a region much less diverse than, say, Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham, Los Angeles, some of the other places you mentioned… it was a real experience for me a couple years ago when I started touring with the choir… we’d get to a church where every single person in a crowd of 500 was white, and then at the next church not a single person in the crowd of 500 was white–and that was weird to me. I understand why they exist, the history, and the present complexities, but it definately wasn’t what I was used to, or what I’m most comfortable with, for that matter. I’m sure I don’t take my home church(es) for granted nearly as much now.
Now, over the last 2+ years of touring, I’ve been in about 400 churches–of all types, across the country and beyond. I’m not sure how many lessons I’ve learned about just what has made the diverse churches the way they are, but I think I’ve observed a couple of things, perhaps only on the periphary…
-I absolutely agree with you about staff. When you’ve got a staff that’s all the same race with people in the church of other cultures, it feels like an “outreach” thing, even when the people are already part of the church. Like, here we are, reaching out to these folks. Maybe that’s harsh of me, but it feels that way sometimes. I think there’s something empowering about seeing someone of your (or a similar) culture in leadership–even if, at the least, it’s an unpaid but still recognized position.
-At a place like KPIC here in Durham, or my home church in Canada–and I think this is huge–they don’t pretend that there isn’t actually anything different about them. It’s really not about skin colours, of course, but the fact is that there are representatives of many different cultures and subcultures. I think for a church to have a thriving diversity, the cultures within the church should be celebrated. Minority groups in both churches are given opportunity to hold on to and share their own culture, food, music, worship preferences, etc., instead of feeling like they have to conform to a pattern. I hope it goes without saying that this is all within the context of love, and of truth…
-diversity breeds diversity–when it has a reason to. When people–especially smaller ethnic groups or individuals within the church–feel like there’s really something great for them, they are empowered and are very inclined to share their experience with friends and family from their own culture who are from outside of the church. Makes sense, right? Tell someone who has just moved from Ghana, “Hey, I have this really diverse church with a great Pan-African Community within the church! We meet monthly, share our food and culture, and fellowship and pray with each other and some of the rest of the church!”… I think he’d be a lot more interested in that than in walking into a lily-white church–or even an all African or African-American church…
just some thoughts off the top of my head. looking forward to reading more of this conversation. i really wish all the best for what’s to come…
First off, it’s good to see another David Turner in this world (wow!!)
Secondly, I think you are on point with this Shaun.
A diverse group of leaders is key in leading this movement.
I pray that Courageous Church will be diverse from the Top on down.
http://www.mosaicchurch.net/html/VISITORS/Leadership.asp
what about these guys?
Not there yet, but its my husband and my dream that one day he will lead a church like you are talking about. The best example I have seen in person of this is New Life Providence in Virginia Beach VA ( http://www.newlifeprovidence.com/index2.asp ).
Hey Dave,
Your insights are very real and very helpful man! It’s amazing we bumped into each other online, but the internet has a way of making our worlds much smaller.
Thank you for the great work you are doing with the African Children’s Choir. I really admire you and the organization.
Let’s stay in touch. Tomorrow I will be talking about the simple, but profound importance of love when you desire a diverse church.
Hey David,
Mosaic of Central Arkansas had a diverse staff indeed man. It speaks immediate volumes to me of how much they value diversity.
-Shaun & Crew
Hey Cyndi,
Glad to hear about the work you and your husband are leading. Diversity is a pursuit…an educational journey that we are always on – not some singular place where we get to and sit on our butt. I hope you all stay tuned for the posts we have ahead.
Take care,
Shaun & Crew
PS – New Life is a great example. I think we have more examples out there than we know.