The Offensive Church | The Big 3
When your seventy-something-year-old mother calls to invite you to facilitate a discussion with her small group centered around a book you’ve written, there’s no way you turn this down. So I obliged, and had a really good time, even with the constant reminders to click “unmute” when one of her near octogenarian friends wanted to speak (I think I’ll pay for that observation when my mother reads this!). When we finally logged off, mother called to thank me for taking the time, and then said, “You know, when it comes to the race conversation in the church there are really only three kinds of people: The ready, reluctant and resistant.” For me, everything stopped. And even though she couldn’t recall where she heard this when I pressed her for her source, I knew she was not only right, but had just gifted me with at least a section in my next book. Thanks mama!
The Ready
In my years of serving the church I have come to see there are many within aspiring multiethnic churches who are ready. In fact, many made the decision to lock arms with this particular church because of its vision to be multiethnic. But don’t assume ready means mature. Sadly, some of the most divisive are those who are ready. The problem is they are so anxious to resolve the issue, they lose sight of the people. Words like pace and patience mean little to them. The challenge in shepherding the ready will be to move them from an activist’s posture to a reconciling one. Those two dispositions are very different.
The Resistant
At the other end of the spectrum are the resistant. No matter how gentle, careful and biblical a pastor may be in laying out the case for ethnic unity, this kind of person will not budge. They won’t sign up for the class on race, or if they catch wind of a sermon series on race they won’t be likely to come. What’s more is they tend to be loud in their objections, seeing any mention of race through the lens of some political or ideological, left wing worldview. Leaders should not be quick to label a person as resistant, though, but should instead exercise pastoral patience and slowly come to this conclusion over time. Once a person proves themselves to be in opposition to this portion of the vision (which emerges from the Scripture), normally what follows is an exit. In some cases, I have seen division, which the Bible says should be addressed.
The Reluctant
The bulk of aspiring multiethnic churches just venturing down the path of ethnic unity will be made up of the reluctant. This is especially true if you are an existing church trying to move in this new direction (as opposed to church plants which have this vision from day one). The reluctant are open but cautious. Like the resistant, they won’t be prone to just buy the book or attend the class on race, but with a gentle, careful, biblical, patient and pastoral posture they can be brought along. Beyond the sermon series or class, what will be significant in the pastoral formation of the reluctant will be to immerse themselves in close proximity to ethnically different people. I am convinced the path to ethnic unity must be entered through the relational door, and not the ideological one. Growth in ethnic unity will not happen when we spar over our positions regarding critical race theory, reparations, affirmative action and the like, but when we lock arms with one another in rich conversation and relationship, much like Jesus did with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4).
For more on these three categories, order my book, The Offensive Church.
