M is for Multi-Ethnic
There's an awesome article published in the latest Christianity Today - Harder than Anyone Can Imagine. It is a transcript of a moderated forum of American church leaders including Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church on the thesis proposed by the book, United by Faith that Christian churches should - when possible - be multiracial.
My enjoyment of this article is in great part a feeling of vindication. I wanted to take the English ministry at the Raleigh Chinese Christian Church towards this path as a light to the nations in our multi-ethnic community, but, unfortunately, this vision was not in common with the rest of the eldership. Though not the only reason, it is one of the major reasons I resigned from the church. (Those reasons which I have heard about me through the grapevine that are dead wrong: basket case of ministry burnout, expelled because of some grave, dark sin, booted because I was a "liberal, Blue-state Californian.") It's sad: RCCC's theme at its new building dedication was from Isaiah 54:2 - Enlarge the place of your tent; stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes - a great mission passage, yet the church leadership couldn't even make room for me...
Why do I prefer multi-ethnic? My own journey begins with Galatians 3:28 - There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. The partyline interpretation is that this passage has less to do with racial reconciliation or gender equality than with the specifics of salvation which God opens to all in Jesus Christ. Though I agree that contextually the Apostle Paul is proposing a union in Christ that transcends ethnicity, sexuality and socio-economic position, I must asked how is this to be practiced? How is the depth of this profound theological concept suppose to be expressed visibly to the world if not through the church, the body of Christ? As the CT article points out, racial unity isn't high on the agenda of American churches as less than 6 percent of them are multi-ethnic churches (those which have at least 20 percent of their congregants of another ethnic group). If less than 6 percent of universities or government institutions were integrated wouldn't we be up in arms? Not much has changed since the 1960s when Martin Luther King, Jr. preached that 11 o'clock on Sundays is the most segregated hour...
I have tried to storm the walls of the church as the last bastion of racism and I failed miserably. I realize now that my inability to change the church was forgetting how much God had to do to change me as an individual and that others may not have had the privilege to experience. For instance, my senior year in college I took a course on MLK which profoundly altered my thinking theologically and transformed me spiritually. As part of that class, we attended a seminar by Dr. Charles King (no relation to MLK) who at one point during his lecture marched towards students and brusquely asked, "You're in a car accident. You need help. Before you, equal distance from you, stand two houses - one is a home of a white family, one is a home of a black family. Which house to do go to for help?" To the student who honestly answered that he would go to the white family's home, he shouted, "You know why? It's because you are a racist!" To the poor WASP girl who said that she would go to the black family, King was enraged: "You're worse than a racist... You're a liar!"
Dr. King didn't come around to ask me, though I was fretfully and fearfully preparing what I thought then was a witty answer: "I'm Chinese. We don't ask anybody for help. We'd rather die!" Looking back I did see and still see now that that sophomoric comment revealed to me my deep racism: I hated whites... I feared blacks... Jews were intellectual snobs... Japanese are dishonest... Italians are all part of organized crime... It's amazing what God had to purge out of my system even before I entered into ministry...
I write about this now not only to acknowledge the CT article; not only to commemorate the passing of a great Pope of reconciliation, but to let folks know that the family and I are considering Grace Bible Fellowship (now mostly African-American) as our church home and ask for your prayers.
GBF has a great vision, but yet not a full-service church that meets our needs as a family: Are we willing to sacrifice and serve at great cost? If I start attending and serving in a multi-ethnic church, will I ever return to or be accepted by the Chinese church where prophets and messengers of God's all-encompassing love are few and far between? Would I be blacklisted as a radical? (I don't even like the Asian-American church model as it doesn't go far enough as I believe a multi-ethnic church should. Also, I believe that Asian-American is a monocultural church in disguise as it often ends up catering to a single uppercrust socio-economic class. Worse than racism, it believes its own lie that it is outreaching...) Most important, though GBF may be where I am, is it right for me to drag Carolyn, Stuart and Ethan there? See n say...
My enjoyment of this article is in great part a feeling of vindication. I wanted to take the English ministry at the Raleigh Chinese Christian Church towards this path as a light to the nations in our multi-ethnic community, but, unfortunately, this vision was not in common with the rest of the eldership. Though not the only reason, it is one of the major reasons I resigned from the church. (Those reasons which I have heard about me through the grapevine that are dead wrong: basket case of ministry burnout, expelled because of some grave, dark sin, booted because I was a "liberal, Blue-state Californian.") It's sad: RCCC's theme at its new building dedication was from Isaiah 54:2 - Enlarge the place of your tent; stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes - a great mission passage, yet the church leadership couldn't even make room for me...
Why do I prefer multi-ethnic? My own journey begins with Galatians 3:28 - There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. The partyline interpretation is that this passage has less to do with racial reconciliation or gender equality than with the specifics of salvation which God opens to all in Jesus Christ. Though I agree that contextually the Apostle Paul is proposing a union in Christ that transcends ethnicity, sexuality and socio-economic position, I must asked how is this to be practiced? How is the depth of this profound theological concept suppose to be expressed visibly to the world if not through the church, the body of Christ? As the CT article points out, racial unity isn't high on the agenda of American churches as less than 6 percent of them are multi-ethnic churches (those which have at least 20 percent of their congregants of another ethnic group). If less than 6 percent of universities or government institutions were integrated wouldn't we be up in arms? Not much has changed since the 1960s when Martin Luther King, Jr. preached that 11 o'clock on Sundays is the most segregated hour...
I have tried to storm the walls of the church as the last bastion of racism and I failed miserably. I realize now that my inability to change the church was forgetting how much God had to do to change me as an individual and that others may not have had the privilege to experience. For instance, my senior year in college I took a course on MLK which profoundly altered my thinking theologically and transformed me spiritually. As part of that class, we attended a seminar by Dr. Charles King (no relation to MLK) who at one point during his lecture marched towards students and brusquely asked, "You're in a car accident. You need help. Before you, equal distance from you, stand two houses - one is a home of a white family, one is a home of a black family. Which house to do go to for help?" To the student who honestly answered that he would go to the white family's home, he shouted, "You know why? It's because you are a racist!" To the poor WASP girl who said that she would go to the black family, King was enraged: "You're worse than a racist... You're a liar!"
Dr. King didn't come around to ask me, though I was fretfully and fearfully preparing what I thought then was a witty answer: "I'm Chinese. We don't ask anybody for help. We'd rather die!" Looking back I did see and still see now that that sophomoric comment revealed to me my deep racism: I hated whites... I feared blacks... Jews were intellectual snobs... Japanese are dishonest... Italians are all part of organized crime... It's amazing what God had to purge out of my system even before I entered into ministry...
I write about this now not only to acknowledge the CT article; not only to commemorate the passing of a great Pope of reconciliation, but to let folks know that the family and I are considering Grace Bible Fellowship (now mostly African-American) as our church home and ask for your prayers.
GBF has a great vision, but yet not a full-service church that meets our needs as a family: Are we willing to sacrifice and serve at great cost? If I start attending and serving in a multi-ethnic church, will I ever return to or be accepted by the Chinese church where prophets and messengers of God's all-encompassing love are few and far between? Would I be blacklisted as a radical? (I don't even like the Asian-American church model as it doesn't go far enough as I believe a multi-ethnic church should. Also, I believe that Asian-American is a monocultural church in disguise as it often ends up catering to a single uppercrust socio-economic class. Worse than racism, it believes its own lie that it is outreaching...) Most important, though GBF may be where I am, is it right for me to drag Carolyn, Stuart and Ethan there? See n say...
posted by revdlee | 20:36
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