Margin
Dr. Richard Swenson has defined margin as the space between our loads and our limits. Overload tends to happen when we exceed our limits, or as one of my southern mentors says, “When we out-punt our coverage”. I think I know what he means. Naturally, God wants us to experience margin, not overload. In fact, the more I study the Scriptures and navigate life, the more I believe He has intentionally designed the Christian journey so that it’s impossible to thrive without margin.
The only way we can be financially generous is if we have margin. My neighbors will only be loved by me in ways they can feel if I have margin with my time. Jesus models this. Have you ever thought about the amount of ministry Jesus does that was never scheduled in advance? He gets finished preaching the Sermon on the Mount when a leper shows up needing help. Or he’s on his way to the home of a synagogue leader, when a woman touches the hem of his garment. In both of these instances and more we don’t meet an inconvenienced or harried Jesus, instead we see a compassionate and caring one. Jesus had margin (As a preacher I’ve always wanted to teach a series of sermons on these unscheduled encounters. I think I would call it, “The Ministry of Interruptions.”).
Margin is that vintage car, or the aging wine who becomes more precious with time, and needs to be carefully and vigorously protected, even to the disappointment of others. No, I’m not advocating laziness. As Kevin DeYoung puts it in his book, Crazy Busy, God expects us to be, well, busy. Yet within the busy-ness there needs to be margin.
Mark 1 beautifully teaches this. Verse twenty-one begins the first day of Jesus’ ministry, where he walks into a synagogue and astonishes the crowd with his preaching. No sooner does the sermon end that a demon oppressed man is brought to him and he heals him. Immediately- a favorite word of Mark’s- Jesus heads over to Peter’s house where his mother-in-law is sick with a fever. Having just quit the family business, I’m sure Peter is wanting Jesus to work his “magic,” thus putting his in-laws at ease he had made the right decision in giving up his paycheck. Sure enough, Jesus heals her, and at the end of the day Mark says the whole city comes out to Jesus bringing all who were sick and afflicted, while Jesus heals many.
Talk about a terrific start to ministry. Who wouldn’t kill for this? With all this momentum the average leader would strategize on how to make the most of it. Maybe do multiple services the next week while we start a building campaign. But not Jesus. Instead, the next morning, while it is still dark, he slips out of the bed and goes to a desolate place to pray, telling no one as to his whereabouts. Even more astounding, is when Peter catches up to him and suggests he go back, Jesus responds by saying they are leaving to go to the next place.
Progress and notoriety is not the friend of margin, many times it’s the foe. The bigger things become, the more requests roll in, the more opportunities that are presented, you and I will find ourselves easily venturing from margin to overload. We’ll “out-punt our coverage”. Jesus in his humanity, submitted to certain limits, and so should we. When all the sick were brought to him, Jesus chose to just heal the many, and not the all, which meant some heard him say “no”. When the widows needed to be cared for in Acts 6, the apostles said choose seven men to minister to them, we can, but we won’t.
No sounds harsh and uncaring doesn’t it? Actually, no is the kindest and most compassionate thing you can say. No really is the most liberating word in the English language. Learn to say the word. Go to war with the people pleaser in you, or your drive to have or do more. Figure out your priorities- relationship with God, family, work, etc- come up with a plan to ensure you’re allocating your time to what matters most. Stay attune to your rhythms. What seasons do you find yourself venturing over the edge of your limits? Scale back.
Touching
My experience in multiethnic churches has lead to this grand conclusion: Something essential is missing in my life when I only do life with people like me. With the absence of what Volf calls “the other,” I am incredibly incomplete.
I’ve always maintained the deep conviction that healthy multiethnic movements can only happen when there is a diverse cohort of leaders at the highest levels of the organization. Nothing new here. But this statement is rather ambiguous, requiring a bit of unpacking. I know of several churches trending into multi ethnicity among their leadership teams, yet are feeling frustrated that this is not being experienced at the congregational level. While there can be many factors contributing to sustained homogeneity, I want the focus of this post to clarify what I mean by diversity at the highest levels.
Simply put, just getting diverse people around a table together is not enough. I mean, each night when I sit down to dinner there’s diversity on my plate, but call it a touch of OCD, I don’t want these items touching. They’re in the same place, but my macaroni and cheese has no real community with the green beans. In similar ways you can have a diverse table without true community, and if the latter is missing, don’t be surprised if your constituency fails to truly embrace one another in Christ-exalting diversity. They are, after all, following our lead.
Healthy movements are the product of healthy teams (certainly not perfect teams), who experience high touch with each other. Think of the example of Jesus and his disciples. There’s diversity. It doesn’t get any more diverse than a tax collector (Matthew), and a Zealot (Simon). Yet in spite of such book end differences, Jesus prays for more than a sense of touch among his team, but a profound intertwining of lives (John 17), tethered together by the bond of love (John 13).To begin this process they shared meals together, walked through grain fields together and stared death in the face together.
But why is this important, this sense of community, especially at the “executive leadership team” level? Miroslav Volf speaks to this in his book, Exclusion and Embrace:
“I am who I am in relation to the other; to be Croat is, among other things, to have Serbs as neighbors; to be white in the U.S. is to enter a whole history of relation to African Americans. Hence the will to be oneself, if it is to be healthy, must entail the will to let the other inhabit the self; the other must be part of who I am as I will to be myself.”
My experience in multiethnic churches has lead to this grand conclusion: Something essential is missing in my life when I only do life with people like me. With the absence of what Volf calls “the other,” I am incredibly incomplete.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer understood this. His frustrated attempts at finding a white, Bible teaching church in New York City, lead him to “the other,”- Abyssinian Baptist in Harlem, a black church. There this white, blond headed man, immersed himself into the narratives and experiences of “the other”. Specifically, he befriended a black man named Albert Fisher (who he actually met at seminary). This relationship between a white German man and an Alabama born black man would change Bonhoeffer’s life, as he began to submit his worldview and biases to Fisher, a glorious exchange took place, that would ultimately lead to Bonhoeffer’s deep seeded commitment to see the gospel in all of its social implications applied to his home country of Germany. Were it not for this exchange with “the other,” I’m not so sure “The Cost of Discipleship,” would have had the potency it did, or that Bonhoeffer would have even returned to Germany. In short, Bonhoeffer’s life was broadened, and the Imago Dei further illumined because of his experience with “the other”.
What does this mean for our teams? Truly embracing “the other,” as Volf argues in his volume, begins with the realization that a lot of how I perceive truth has been shaped profoundly by my experiences, or lack thereof. Our worldview, and perception of truth, in many regards, has been held captive by our culture. Objectivity is an endangered species for all of us. There’s a necessary humility in recognizing and listening to other opinions and perspectives, to even allow ourselves to be shaped by them. My perception of law enforcement could be wrong. My view on such combustible topics like gender identity, role of government, race, etc, is probably flawed due to a warped formulation of my narrow experiences and upbringing. As Jack Deere put it in his book, Surprised by the Spirit, charismatics tend to fall victim to their experience, while conservatives to their lack of experience. While this statement was directed at a specific theological topic, I find it good medicine in general. None of us are completely objective, and certainly not omniscient. We need to humbly submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21), and give ear to one another.
Clothed in humility, the next domino to fall now becomes the abdication of fear in talking about tough subjects. Our silence is replaced by a courageously inquisitive dialog, because we have the humility to at least admit we could be wrong. After a particularly spirited message that I gave, one of the white leaders on our team mustered the courage to ask about the role of emotions in preaching. This lead to a wonderful exchange as we ventured down roads of traditional African American preaching, to the Greek model of rhetoric (logos, ethos and pathos), and my question as it relates to why his preaching seemed to be devoid of what the Greeks called “pathos”? Through our exchange we talked about the importance of conviction in preaching, and the people needing to feel as if we actually believed what we were talking about. Years later he wrote me a letter saying he became a better preacher because of that conversation. Humbly, and courageous exchanging with “the other,” made us both better.
Let me end with this somber note. It was sociologist Michael Emerson who argued that homogenous churches actually become allies to racism. How so? When the church is filled with people of the same race, in general there’s the collection of similar world views. In the absence of “the other,” there tends to be a gravitational pull towards a specific political party, theological hermeneutic and cultural narrative (among others) that can quickly become arrogantly imperialistic, and oppressive.
An example of this is the wholesale condemnation by our white evangelical friends of what they would call “prosperity theology,” a type of theology that is seen predominately among minorities and the poor. Before I show you the imperialism among my white evangelical friends, permit me to make two disclaimers. One, prosperity theology is a problem. Whenever I minimize God to equation theology: Good over here = Good over here; Bad over here = Bad over here, I have just succumb to the essence of prosperity theology. However, this equation theology is not just seen in the poor, minority people “over there,” but it’s a universal proclivity we all experience. Issues of theodicy points to this. Are we not all thrown by the age old question of, “Why do bad things happen to ‘good’ people”? The equation just doesn’t add up.
The second disclaimer I need to make is that to preach of a God who blesses his people materially is not prosperity theology (when blessings become the motive, then that is). God does bless us with homes, cars, jobs, etc. But what tends to happen is when you get a certain group of people who have historically always had the material blessings, they now are afforded the opportunity to preach a neo-Gnostic gospel that emphasizes the spiritual, with no real thought to the material. At the same time they now rail against any group that tends to preach a more holistic gospel that touches soul and body, deriding them as heretics, and having bad theology. This is theological imperialism that grows in homogenous environments.
Furthermore, this worldview diminishes the cultural worldview of others. African American’s, for example, are an honor culture. While honor can slip over into idolization, honor is a good thing, a biblical thing. Historically, we show honor to our pastor by the giving of such material things as money and/or cars. Over the years I’ve had so many of our white brothers and sisters readily dismiss this, with no real substantive theological footing. At its core, they were able to be so dismissive because they grew up in culturally imperialistic churches, where devoid of the other, they established and clung to cultural defaults as if it was gospel truth.
The way out of this requires a certain humble, courageous civility in which divergent groups are placed together and allowed to dialog about these issues under the banner of the local church. The way to eradicate such theological imperialism is the multiethnic church, comprised of diverse teams who boldly enter into life with one another.
Diagnosing Ethnic Fever
I was in Los Angeles not too long ago, about to step into some meetings when a young brother stopped me. Slightly out of breath, he had taken time off of work in the unscheduled hope of trying to get a word with me. His harried demeanor betrayed a sense of urgency. We didn’t spend too long together, but those few minutes we shared in the hallway gripped my heart. He said nothing new, just a heartfelt rant of how lonely life had become as one of a handful of minorities in a primarily white evangelical environment. His thoughts were both convoluted and clear. This depleted sojourner just needed some encouragement from an older traveler who was many miles ahead. He was tired and worn out.
I guess what grabbed me was this young brother was the latest to make a similar plea to me in the last week. There was the black man who wrote me a note asking that I “talk him off the ledge,” as he was on the precipice of quitting his job at a white non-profit. Another wrote of the resistance he was receiving from members of the church he served over a social media post he wrote concerning Baltimore. Fresh in my own mind was a white woman’s comments that Baltimore was the result of liberal agitation. She felt comfortable making this statement because I was the only African American in a setting in which evangelical had come to mean white, republican and conservative in all of its facets.
Often in situations like these, a line from Marvin Gaye’s classic, Inner City Blues, comes to mind, “makes me want to holler”.
We’ve got to do better.
There’s a low grade fever running among many of our minority brothers and sisters working in white evangelical environments, and their fever is a result of varying factors that have left them vulnerable and exposed. I cal this fever “low grade” because they can still function, yet if left undiagnosed and untreated, this ethnic fever will only escalate into a toxic sickness. If we want to treat their condition, I find it helpful to look at the factors contributing to their ailment.
Silence. When events like Baltimore, Eric Garner or Ferguson happen, many of our white evangelical friends are slow at best to step into the conversation. Need I remind us of what one of the great white evangelical giants of recent years, Chuck Colson, said, “The duty of the Christian is to read the Bible in one hand, with a newspaper in the other.” This is sound advice. Christians must be able to exegete the Scriptures and society, showing how the Bible comes to bear on the events of our world…all of them. A failure to not preach, discuss and disciple our people in what some have called, “thinking Christianly” on all matters of culture is poor discipleship. Even more devastating, the silence of our white brothers and sisters can be easily interpreted as apathy, making the conditions ripe for an ethnic fever.
Disrespecting President Obama. I was in a meeting once, where I happened to be, yet again, the only African American in the room. The discussion turned to President Barack Obama, and how awful of a job he was doing, and was met by applause and amens. I couldn’t resist. Raising my hand, I announced that while I didn’t agree with all of the president’s policies and decisions, it’s important for my friends in the room to realize I don’t believe what they believe politically.
Along with this, I found their reference to our president as crossing the line from critique to disrespect. The devastating effects of slavery was it’s pillaging of every article of dignity among my people. Since our first days here we’ve been groping for dignity. That’s why some of us will have a hundred dollars to our name and spend it all on a pair of sneakers- we’re on a quest for dignity. The pride black people feel over Obama is rooted in our quest for dignity. What I’m appealing to here is not an evangelical silence on our president. Oh no, he is not above scrutiny. Even our own Cornel West has been deafening in his critique of the president. Instead, he needs to be critiqued with a Christian civility wrapped in the ethic of love. In his almost eight years in office I’m scrambling to try to remember a single occasion when I heard white evangelical’s refer to him sincerely as “our president”.
Third, a liberation of the term evangelical. Evangelical has been etymologically hijacked to mean white, conservative, middle to upper middle class, theologically narrow and Republican. Evangelical, instead, should be taken back to her roots, which comes from the Greek word for gospel, implying adherence to the essentials of the faith. Liberating evangelical from her modern captivity now allows room for democrats and republicans, charismatics and cessationist’s to come to the table (among other groups). When our white brothers and sisters use evangelical as synonymous with Fox News, it dismisses and diminishes other groups, particularly minorities, and contributes once again to the fever.
What this liberation results in is an abdication of silly assumptions, along with the freedom to disagree on important yet unessential matters while still being united by the bond of love for one another. So I can now preach a gospel (an evangelical) that rises above a political party, social class or theological camp, because the kingdom of God cannot be monopolized by republicans or democrats, rich or poor, Fox News or MSNBC, black or white. Broaden evangelical by returning her to her origins and you now leave plenty of room at the table for various groups, and the incarnation of Ephesians 2 in all of its glorious dimensions.
Bricks without straw. A fourth cause of ethnic fever I’ve seen over the years is hiring minorities in the hopes of diversifying a white evangelical institution without giving them the corresponding power and authority. Not letting them lead at the highest levels, preach or have a weighty voice around the decision making table, is all akin to Pharaoh’s edict for the Jews to make bricks without straw. This is both organizationally naive and ethnically deflating.
Anonymity. A fifth, but most certainly not final, cause of the fever is anonymity. What I mean by this is doing little or nothing to acknowledge or show you are concerned about different ethnicity’s through your ministries or programs. In almost everything I’ve written I have appealed to Ralph Ellison’s classic, “Invisible Man,” where the lead character, an African American, has no name. Ellison’s choice to leave the protagonist nameless is a masterful stroke emphasizing the inhumanity of anonymity. Every time minorities take part in an organization that does little to nothing to acknowledge them, we incarnate Ellison’s “Invisible Man,” and the fever spikes.
I’ve seen white evangelicals take significant strides along these lines to say in so many words, “you matter.” These small steps are paradoxically huge and put wind in our sails. I encourage you to join in by stewarding your power well.
On Residencies
By far the most rewarding thing about my time at Fellowship Memphis was the residency program. By far. The time spent with these young twenty something’s in airports, over meals and in our preaching cohort brought me infinitely times more satisfaction than any sermon I preached. Their continued calls and opening queries like, “Now how would you,” brings me great joy.
I’m also encouraged to see a movement of churches wanting to develop their own residency programs, and invest in the next generation of leaders. Whatever label we put to these programs- residencies, internships, apprenticeships- it’s really the great commission, and Jesus has to be pleased. For all that is wrong with the church today, the growing tide of these minor league farm systems is a ray of sunshine on otherwise cloudy days.
But I’m a little concerned that I, along with a host of other well meaning pastors, maybe serving as accomplices to a crime. I’m having more and more exit conversations with guys in their mid twenties who’ve graduated from our program, and want some coaching on how to look for and land a job. The deeper we get into conversation the more I realize these men are not only looking for the perfect job, but have an overly inflated view of what they bring to the table. As one young man said to me, “If I’m not teaching at least half the time, and serving at the highest levels of the church, I just don’t think that’s the best stewardship of me.” Really? Exactly who are you? Let me get this straight: You’ve spent the last few years coasting off the sweat equity and leadership capital of others. You’re still very green in your preaching gifts, where for the most part every, “That was a good sermon,” by a congregational member should’ve been followed by, “…for a resident.” And your last entry in the notes section in your EverNote app on how to plant or lead a church was dated two weeks ago. And you need to be teaching a lot and leading at the highest levels? Now this young man’s example maybe a bit extreme, but in general I am finding a low grade entitlement simmering among more and more residents.
My passion for a residency program stems from my own experience. I served for three years under Bishop Kenneth Ulmer in Inglewood, California. I did everything from wash his car, pick up his clothes from the cleaners, shuttle visiting preachers back and forth from the airport and serve as his assistant on trips. Working for a bishop was one of the most redemptive things in my development. How can I say this? There’s no egalitarian view of leadership and authority in the traditional African American church, and for a twenty-something emerging leader and preacher, this was priceless.
One of the worst things that could happen to any leader is to give them too much too soon. Every leader I admire has spent a prolonged season in the wilderness of ambiguity. Joseph spent years in obscurity where he was mistreated and neglected. God didn’t just anoint David on a Wednesday and allow him to assume the throne that Thursday. No, David waited fifteen years, hiding out in caves and on the run, fearing at times for his life. Even Paul spent years in obscurity. On and on we can go.
We shouldn’t be thrilled to land a resident in our program as if they are some great commodity who will bring instantaneous value to our church. They need to be ecstatic to serve with us. And in hindsight I’m realizing that one of the most damaging things you can do to a young woman or man’s development is to give them too much exposure. Let them spend a prolonged season setting up and tearing down for service. Have them run copies, hand out worship guides and fill communion cups. A few decades later, after they figure out exactly who they are, they’ll thank you.
This summer I was at the Global Leadership Summit where I heard Patrick Lencioni speak on servant-leadership. Mid message he paused and said, “We need to stop using the phrase ‘servant-leadership’, as if there’s any other kind”. That’s what we’re looking to produce- people who lead from the posture of service, not men and women who think they need to be leading at the highest levels while the ink hadn’t dried on their degree. Let’s be sure to build into our residency programs not only opportunities for emerging leaders to hone their craft, but to serve.
Reflections on our Time in the Middle East
Korie and I had the honor ofspending this past week in the Middle East where I was invited to preachseveral times at a church and then a conference. The church where I shared was the largestevangelical church in the area, a truly multi-ethnic and multi-class churchthat warmed our hearts. In reflecting onmy time of ministry there, several things come to mind:
The sobering effect ofinconvenience. The church where Iserved is not in a region of persecution…yet.However, their nation has sent a resounding message that they considerthe church of Jesus Christ to be a nuisance.It’s almost impossible to purchase land as a church. And right before I got up to preach (whereservices were held at a hotel) I was told that Muslim informers would be in theaudience. These words sobered me in away that I’ve never been before.
A looming persecution. While Christians have not been killed in thisregion, their close proximity to recent acts of violence against believersadded a weight and seriousness to the current events. As the pastor of the church got up to prayfor those twenty-one Christians who went proclaiming Jesus to their deaths, Ifelt an intensity in the room that could only be blamed on our nearness to theatrocity. In the states we are moved bysuch violence, but like reading about American slavery, one is only grieved toa certain point, whose emotions are held at bay by the boundary ofdistance.
A Universal Gospel. God was with me in the preaching moment. Many hands went up in response to the gospel. As I talked with these tear stained individualsat the end of the services I was struck by how universal the gospel actuallyis. I spent time listening to salvationstories from Australians, Iranians, Jordanians, South Africans and many more. Some had been shunned by their familiesbecause of their decision to follow Jesus.Others were still calculating the risk involved, weighing whether or notto yield their lives to Christ and chance everything. My prayers go with them.
Jesus taught us to pray, “Yourkingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” I feel beyond privileged to have played asmall role in the coming of God’s kingdom in this section of his vineyard.
Grateful
Where do I even begin as I attempt to reach for words to explain our departure from our beloved Fellowship Memphis? Maybe I should begin by extending my deepest gratitude to you for allowing me to speak into your lives and lead you these past eleven plus years. Twelve years ago I got a phone call from a white guy with a deep southern drawl asking me to join in on this great adventure of planting a multi-ethnic church. Little did I know how life changing that call from John Bryson would be. It’s been said that some of your proudest moments will be tied to your deepest sacrifices, and I’ve found that to be true. Coming to Memphis was a sacrifice for our whole team. We left established churches with steady paychecks, to stare at twenty something people in a living room, with hardly any money in a bank account. And now three locations, five services and several thousand diverse people later I am completely awed by God. We haven’t just made history here, we’ve made eternity.
So why leave what God is clearly breathing on? When Paul left Ephesus he made a remarkable statement to the elders of the church he had planted, “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). In tears, Paul says that the reason he was leaving this church that he founded was to “finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus”. God had made it clear to this church planter that Ephesus was not all that he had planned for Paul, there was more.
Our family feels the same way. Sitting in the back of a meeting room this past June in Northern California the Holy Spirit spoke to me very clearly, that this was to be our families last year at Fellowship Memphis, and I also sensed He was saying that I needed to be open to any job opportunities that came our way. These words shocked me. I left thinking that if this was truly the voice of God then it will come to pass. Sure enough, several ministry opportunities came our way in rapid fire succession, and we felt strongly that the Lord was calling us to go and serve the team at Trinity Grace Church in New York City. I will serve as their Pastor for Preaching and Mission, helping this already beautiful and flourishing church by preaching regularly, along with leading the charge in taking this church in a multi-ethnic trajectory. These two things- preaching and multi-ethnic ministry- are the two things that comprise the specific ministry that God has called me to. For over eleven years we have done that here in Memphis, and now God is calling us to do the same things in New York City.
Paul’s words in Acts 20:24 are very interesting, especially when you compare them with what he tells Timothy at the very end of his life, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). Paul went a lot of places and did a lot of things between Acts 20 and 2 Timothy 4, enough for him to exhale to Timothy that, “I have finished the race”. His ministry was complete. What satisfaction.
I long for this same satisfaction for you. For some, finishing the race is staying put- serving in the same community, living in the same neighborhood and working the same job for decades. This is your course. For others, finishing the race is doing what Korie and I are doing, picking up and moving on after realizing that we have done all that God wanted us to do in a given location. Where the body of Christ tends to get in trouble is when we seek to legislate for all what God has assigned for a few.
And so the Loritts family prepares to leave, and how are hearts are hurting to depart from our dear church. Our small group of Mclean and Libby Wilson, Wilson and Katie Moore, Sam and Brannon Schroerlucke, Will and Jennifer Godwin and Michael and Jill Stockburger have been so life-giving to us through this whole process. And John Bryson. There are no words to express to this great, godly, humble leader how indebted I am to him for these years spent together serving God’s people. To our Fellowship Memphis family, please know that we love you, and have counted our time here as one of the richest blessings of our lives.
With fondest affection,
Bryan Loritts, on behalf of Korie, Quentin, Myles and Jaden
A Word to Minority Leaders in Majority Contexts
I often tell people that I walked into multi-ethnic ministry the way Jonah walked into Memphis, and that’s not a good thing. After a few sleepless nights in less than five star accommodations, Jonah made his entrance into Nineveh angry. His unrighteous indignation is understandable. As a Jew he’s a part of a people who were being oppressed, and in a gracious twist of irony, God uses Jonah to usher in revival among his oppressors. Seething over their salvation, the book of Jonah crash-lands, as the prophets anger has metastasized into bitterness.
Yep, it’s hard for minorities to minister in majority culture contexts, especially when that majority represents their historical oppressors
In my recent book, Right Color/Wrong Culture, I argue that at the highest levels of any organization that is aspiring to trend towards diversity, there must be what I call C2 leadership. A C2 leader is one who is able to relate to various cultures without losing their identity. But there’s more. Redemptive C2 leadership refuses to lead out of anger or bitterness, choosing instead to lead out of our most precious relational resource- love.
If I could go back in time and give my 20 something year old self a good talking to, I would say that it’s impossible to lead people you are suspicious of, angry towards or bitter with. Jonah might have seen results as a prophet, but he would have made a horrible pastor.
Maybe this is why God pulled the plug on Moses’ ministry. Moses’ striking of the rock was the expression of unrighteous anger, and it’s impossible to lead God’s people well while being angry or bitter towards those very same people. So God said, “Time’s up Moses”.
As an African American man who has spent most of his ministry years leading in majority white contexts, I’ve learned the hard way that an angry, suspicious, guilty-until-proven-innocent disposition is a recipe for failed leadership. Not only is it not inspiring, but it’s cancerous to the team, dishonoring to God, manipulative and outright sinful. If these bitter waters are not addressed in a minority leaders soul he or she will find themselves headed for burnout, and tearing up their ministry context in the process. So how do we move towards loving, redemptive C2 leadership?
1. You must answer the question, Am I called to multi-ethnic ministry? If you are then it’s time to stop striking the rock. No more grumbling or complaining. If you are called to multi-ethnic ministry then there’s no room for using race in manipulative ways to play into the white guilt of our brothers and sisters we are called to serve alongside of.
2. Are you experiencing genuine, life-giving community with the majority group you are called to serve? I’m the only black man in my Monday morning men’s group. Immersing myself in the lives of these men has helped to soften the hardened edges that I once had towards my white brothers and sisters. I love these men.
3. Are you loving the majority group in tangible ways that they can feel? For me this starts with prayer. I remember some years ago writing up a prayer card that said, “Lord help me to love white people in ways they can feel,” and then I wrote out John 13:34-35. Here’s what I discovered: It’s next to impossible to be harsh or condemning with people you are constantly praying for.
Let’s not end like Jonah, in bitterness. I want to grow softer and sweeter in my leadership the older I get. I want to be more loving and kind. I hope you do too.
Praise God for Liberals
The fundamentalist-modernist controversy of the early 20th century sent shockwaves through the ecclesiological and cultural landscape of America for decades to come. In fact, a strong case can be made that we are just now beginning to get over our theological disequilibrium that had left us previously divided and unsettled. At it’s essence, the schism had to do with what was core to Christianity, with the conservatives siding with the authority of the Scriptures, and the modernist’s (aka progressives and liberals in other circles) venturing down the trail of what many have pejoratively labeled the social gospel.
As the race question began to percolate and ultimately boil in the mid twentieth century, the fundamentalist-modernist lines began to thicken. In her award winning book, Mississippi Praying, author Carolyn Renee Dupont argues that it was the fundamentalist’s who aggressively worked to maintain the southern way of life that was deeply entrenched in institutionalized segregation, while at the same time arguing that they were passionate about the authority of the Scriptures. On the other side of the battlefield stood the modernist’s who fought for their African American brothers and sisters, providing a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name. It is no secret, if it was not for what some have labeled has the liberal (modernist) the Civil Right’s Movement would not have moved as swiftly as it did.
It’s at this moment in history that help came from an unlikely place- the Southern Baptist’s, the very group who had splintered off from the General Baptist’s over the issue of slavery a century before. Much has been made historically of the SBC’s decline into liberalism, but let us be quick to mention that this so called decline had wonderful sociological implications for the plight of African American’s. Southern Baptist schools like Southwestern in Fort Worth, and Southern in Louisville, Kentucky were lead by progressive professors who encouraged their students to think differently on matters of race than their “biblically literalist” cousin’s. Dr. Jesse Buford Weatherspoon taught a course on “Christianity and Race Relations” at Southern. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached at Southern in 1962, something that would not have happened among the more conservative wing. On and on I could go in providing examples of liberal institutions who labored to dismantle the racist thinking and actions of our fundamentalist friends. And while this was going on, conservative schools, for the most part, would not allow people of color to enroll. I know of an African American man who was so desperate to learn the word during this period that when he discover he could not get into a conservative seminary because of the color of his skin, he petitioned to audit their classes. He was thus allowed on the condition that he sat literally outside the class. He talks of taking notes in the rain while straining to hear the professors lecture.
But somehow in the annals of modern church history the modernist’s have been demonized while the fundamentalist’s were turned into heroes. Just a few years after the Civil Right’s Movement ended, the SBC would be purged of the “leaven” within her, and make a return to what some would call fundamentalism with its emphasis on the authority of the Scriptures, and yet it’s here that I find a deep seated problem.
Without a doubt the core issue that divided the fundamentalist’s from the modernist’s was this point of the authority of the Word of God. But what exactly was meant by authority? Here I’m not getting at such things as the inspiration of the Scriptures and its tributary of inerrancy, but what’s missing from the whole point is that authority is not something to just give intellectual assent to, it’s what we must govern our behavior by. If I will for my children to love one another because they come from the same womb and are related to one another, yet they hate each other can they say they have genuinely submitted to my authority?
Let’s be clear, it was the epitome of hypocrisy to say one believed in the authority of the Scriptures and work tirelessly to maintain a system that treated their fellow siblings as if they were not created in the Imago Dei. Come on, can our fundamentalist friends of the early to mid twentieth century really say they believed in the authority of the Scriptures, while laboring to maintain systems of segregation? As Harvey Cox questions, can creeds and deeds not go together?
Please don’t misunderstand me, liberalism is fraught with problems. Their low view of Scripture has left them biblically impotent when it comes to matters of cultural engagement. The main line church is thus devoid of power. But let’s not be quick to glorify the fundamentalist’s. As Carl Henry once said, it was the fundamentalist’s who became the modern day Priest and Levite passing by their distraught neighbor lying in the gutter as they made their way to the temple. It was the African American who had found themselves beaten up and left bloodied on the side of the road. I’m just glad that the modernist stopped, cared for us and played a part in getting us back on our feet.
Since When Did Pride Not Become Immoral?
The elders of Mars Hill, the church that Pastor Mark Driscoll founded and recently resigned from, had this to say about his departure:
- We concluded that Pastor Mark has, at times, been guilty of arrogance, responding to conflict with a quick temper and harsh speech, and leading the staff and elders in a domineering manner. While we believe Mark needs to continue to address these areas in his life, we do not believe him to be disqualified from pastoral ministry.
- Pastor Mark has never been charged with any immorality, illegality or heresy. Most of the charges involved attitudes and behaviors reflected by a domineering style of leadership.
While I was relieved to hear that Pastor Mark had not “disqualified” himself from pastoral ministry, I did find it more than curious that in the same letter he “has never been charged with any immorality,” but has been “guilty of arrogance”.
It was C.S. Lewis who once said that the fountainhead to all vice is pride. Every other sin is a mere expression, a symptom of pride. The reason why I’ve lied is because I want to keep a good image, make a great showing, which is pride. The reason why we gossip is because we want you to know that we know…pride. Sexual sin is the failure to wait on God’s provision for your bodily yearnings, and instead to decide fulfillment on your terms, and in your timing. Pride. Sin was introduced into the world when Adam and Eve acted independently of God, believing that they could become like him. Score another one for pride. The Scriptures, C.S. Lewis, and my experience shows me that pride is the reason behind every sin. We are all incurable narcissists, in desperate need of a Savior.
If that be the case then pride is the epitome of immorality. It was Pastor John Ortberg who wondered when did pride get put in a different category other than immorality, as if pride is not immoral? The elders of Mars Hill need to know that Immoral pride was the root of Pastor Mark’s domineering leadership style.
I’m not here to rip on Pastor Mark, I’m really not. I’ve prayed for him. I’m rooting for him to pastor again. As one of the most gifted and engaging preachers of the Word of God I want to see him back exercising his gift to the glory of God and building up His people. But I think we need to take a moment here to ponder the interesting dichotomy between pride and immorality, and weigh carefully its potential implications for how we handle God’s leaders, and view our own sin.
Our historic dichotomy between pride and immorality has allowed us to move swiftly on the sexual face of immorality, yet cowardly shy away from our duty to humbly confront the domineering. Jesus had way more to say to his disciples about their manner of leadership, than their loins. Jesus exhorted his disciples to stop trying to be the first, but instead be the last. They were to not lead like the Gentiles- in a domineering fashion- but instead in a new paradigm- servanthood. To cement his point, Jesus took out a bowl and a towel and washed the feet of his disciples. A few days later he would die on a cross, in an act that some theologians have come to call the humiliation of Christ. Humble leadership was a point that Jesus tirelessly drilled into his disciples.
Jesus didn’t give any documented lessons on the wisdom of having a window pane inserted in your office door, not doing meals with the opposite sex or staying out of compromising positions with women. As wise as these things are, what Jesus talked most about, under the category of leadership with his followers was humility.
These words pierce my own heart. Like Pastor Mark I am the co-founder of a church. As a founder I am well aware that I am given much more latitude than my future successors will ever experience. It’s a sacred trust, a trust that at times I’ve fumbled. I’ve said harsh things, harbored arrogant attitudes, and daily battle to not be like Nebuchadnezzar who surveyed his kingdom and said to himself, “Look at all that I have done”.
Pride is nothing to be played with. Not only does God hate pride, but there is a swifter, more aggressive gear that God goes to, when it comes to dealing with the domineering. What I mean by this, is that if you look at the Scriptures, God evicts the proud:
- Satan gets kicked out of heaven for pride
- Adam and Eve are evicted from the Garden over pride
- Nebuchadnezzar is thrown out of Babylon for his pride
If one of God’s primary tools in dealing with the proud is eviction, then there is biblical precedence for my elders removing me from Fellowship Memphis for unrepentant pride, or a domineering manner of leadership. As a leader may I say about my own prideful inclinations what God does, and that is it’s an abomination. May our pride cause us to gag. And let us graciously and humbly go to war with pride in each other’s lives.
Why I Wrote, Right Color/Wrong Culture
Bryan Loritts sits down with Cormac Parker, the Executive Director of The Kainos Movement, to talk about his new book, Right Color, Wrong Culture.
CP:
Pastor Loritts, you’ve come out with two books this year- Letters to a Birmingham Jail, and your latest which is to be released September 2nd, Right Color/Wrong Culture. Why did you write RC/WC?
BL:
There were a lot of things swirling around in my soul that served as the impetus to me writing RC/WC. One was that I wanted to help bring clarity to the difference between ethnicity and culture. I think the diversity conversation has brought a heightened awareness to issues of diversity, which is a great thing. But the conversation needs to be pushed deeper to culture.
What I mean by that is there is a difference between ethnicity and culture, a difference that many of us are not aware of. All African American’s are not the same, neither are Whites, Hispanics, and any other ethnic group. To state it bluntly- Carlton Banks (from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) and hip hop artist Lil Wayne are both ethnically African American, but culturally as different as different can be.
CP:
Why is this important for me to understand as an individual, or a leader of a church or organization?
BL:
In my years in helping churches and organizations pursue their dream of becoming multi-ethnic I’ve seen well intentioned leaders (many of them white), say we need to get diverse, so let me hire a person of a certain minority, only to realize some months later that the person they hired isn’t really connecting.
Maybe two examples will help. I once consulted with a white church that wanted to reach the growing Hispanic community around them. In their zeal to engage, they had hired an Argentinian pastor. That sounds cool, until you realize that almost 100% of the Hispanics were Mexican. Our well intentioned white brothers didn’t discover until after the fact that there is a huge difference between these two cultures, and I was called in to help them clean up their mess.
Another example is a college was looking to hire an executive director whose job it was to expand the reach of the institution into the urban community- recruit people in what many would call the hood. The college was white, so they said let’s hire an African American. Well the African American they hired had never lived in the hood, was used to the finer things in life, and attended all upper middle class white churches. The result was, that as he tried to make connections among the poor and urban sections of the city there was a severe disconnect. He had no street cred. It was like Carlton Banks trying to engage Lil Wayne- it just wasn’t going to happen.
CP:
This is a really good concept, this whole ethnicity and culture distinction. But Pastor Loritts, do we see this in the Bible?
BL:
Oh sure! The Bible has plenty to say about the difference between ethnicity and culture. Take Acts 6, you know the controversy between the Hellenistic and Hebraic Jews. The fact that Luke calls them Jews points to their ethnicity. Hellenistic and Hebraic are adjectives that point to their culture. So the conflict between these two groups was cultural, not ethnic.
I also think the running conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees was at the deepest levels spiritual, but it was also cultural. The Pharisees just refused to ease the grip on their cultural preferences.
Or look at Philippians 3, when Paul said that he was born of the nation of Israel (ethnicity) yet was a Hebrew of Hebrews (culture). I mean it’s all over the place.
CP:
Is this book for a person who is not a pastor or leader?
BL:
Yes. I really believe that RC/WC will enhance your personal relationships. You will discover that within every ethnicity are three types of cultures, what I call C1’s, C2’s and C3’s. C1’s (Carlton Banks from the Fresh Prince) are those who have assimilated from one culture into another. C3’s (Ice Cube) are culturally inflexible, they refuse to adapt or adjust. What I push for is becoming C2’s, like Denzel Washington. C2’s have the unique ability to become culturally flexible without losing who they are. So as an individual you will find yourself assessing who you are as you read the book, and learning what you need to do to get there. You will also think of your friends, and it will give you a new paradigm for how to engage them in a healthy way.
The ideal, I argue, is to become a Denzel Washington, C2. That’s right, I believe that C2’s are made and not born, and I unpack that concept in the book. If we are going to see more and more multi-ethnic churches and organizations, at the highest levels they must be lead by C2’s.
CP:
Last question, I know that it’s written in a different form from most leadership books, can you explain that, and why?
BL:
It’s a Leadership Fable. I’ve gotten a little burned out on the traditional leadership book that can be preachy, and give a whole bunch of principles in a didactic form. RC/WC is a leadership fable, it’s a story that I hope will draw you in, and within that narrative you will see and learn the principles. Already the feedback has been through the roof from those we’ve sent advanced copies to. I know it will serve you well personally, and your ministry or organization as well.