Tony Jones is the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Rich Hill, MO. Editor’s note: Rich Hill is on the southern end of the same county of my church (northern end). Rich Hill’s population is 95% white, and Bates County clocks in around 96% white. (Mike Bergman)
I am, at this moment, sitting in the main lobby of Children’s Mercy Medical Center in downtown Kansas City. I live in Rich Hill, Missouri, a town of approximately 1500 residents which, until approximately 35 years ago had a sign that warned black people not to be caught in town after dark.
I hope the title of this post shocked you, because as I sit here, I am shocked. Rich Hill is a nice place to live. I enjoy the slow pace of life, but I am afraid that I am so far removed from the mainstream of everyday American life that I am missing something. I can’t put my finger on it as I sit here, but I’m missing something. Maybe I should revise that last sentence to say, our churches are missing something.
Revelation 21:26 reads, “And they shall bring the glory of the nations into it” (The New Jerusalem), and a couple of chapters before in chapter 19, John writes, “I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, ‘Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God.’”
I have been sitting here for an hour. During that hour, I have heard four languages, not including English. I have been seated next to a young lady who is probably from an African country, though I am only guessing by her clothing. I have smiled and talked with Mexican parents. I have heard a man with a Caribbean accent, and I have spoken briefly with an Irish Catholic priest. I have seen and heard what the gathering around the throne of my God will look like, and what scares me? I have no idea how to interact with this world. I have no idea how to interact with what will eventually be my permanent home.
I can’t be the only one who has no idea how to interact with the nations. I believe many of our churches do not know how to interact with our society. I believe many of our churches are dying and the cause of Christ suffers because we cannot interact with the nations.
How is that so? Allow me to be very practical. A young couple wants to move from the city to the suburbs. They want to raise their children out of the fast paced environment of big city life. They also want to raise their children in church. The church they came from is multi-ethnic. It really resembles their former community. This couple expects that same attitude from their new church. They don’t expect their new church to be multi-ethnic in a community that is not, but they do expect the church to have a heart for the nations and at least know how to interact with the nations. I believe, more often than not, that this young couple would be sorely disappointed.
We have cloistered ourselves, and we are dying as a result. What can we do? I know what we can’t do. We cannot continue to fool ourselves into thinking that our lily white churches will survive more than another decade. America is changing for the better and those churches that embrace that change will be the churches that carry on the cause of Christ into the next generations.
What can I do? Maybe I should come and sit in the lobby of Children’s hospital more often. I’m starting to enjoy it. Oh, there goes a Chinese American woman. I believe that’s the only nationality I haven’t seen around here. Then again, we’ll have all of eternity to figure out who’s who, and who’s from where when we’re worshipping around the throne. That is, when we get finished worshipping with all nations.
This post first appeared at: http://thespiritualwoodshed.com/2015/05/29/help-i-still-live-in-white-america/
The first three churches I served in fit the profile you’ve offered. Then, out of the blue, I was called to an inner city church with what seems like every tribe, tongue and nation at our doorstep. I thought I was prepared for that but found myself woefully ignorant at building relationships with other cultures. But we’ve learned and are still learning daily. Many times concerning discussions concerning race and different cultures here we’ve seen many use the phrase intentionalality. It’s precisely what it takes. If we simply sit back and accept the status quo, it isn’t going to change. Some areas will be more challenging than others in accomplishing this, but it will not change until we intentionally set out to change it
Great topic! I do not live in a suburb, I live in an established Small city of 12,000 people (the county seat of a 32,000 person county in Indiana). Our demographics are very similar to what you describe. Our church reflects this. We have a few non-white children who attend (either through adoption, or family friends.) Over the past 8 years, We have had on occasion a few non-white adults attend, mostly just visiting…a few stayed for a short time, but none stayed permanently.
To be clear, I have never heard a racial slur, or negative word about a person’s ethnicity in the time I’ve been hear, and truly believe us to be welcoming to all types of people, and has a desire to impact the nations. We have an ESL ministry for hispanic people, and an on-going partnership in Haiti, as well as supporting missionaries individually and though the IMB.
The point is, for whatever reason, our church remains white. I don’t really feel bad about that because it reflects our culture around us. For the majority of the people in our church, the real “cross-cultural” ministry they need to get more comfortable with is with the low-income/no-income whites in our area…THAT is the great divide…THAT is where we DO NOT reflect our area’s demographics…Nearly all of the people in my church either have a decent job, or are retired from having a job. Really poor people don’t come here for very long. But that’s not a demographic issue…we have lots of poor people in our town.
Andy, the economic divide is an excellent point
A multi-ethnic church in a monolithic place like I live in is a challenge. We are in the neighborhood of 5% black population here. The Hispanic population is higher, but harder to measure (not to be indelicate, but quite a few are undocumented), and most attend Spanish-speaking churches. We have quite a few Native Americans in the area and a few attend our church.
Southern Hills would accept pretty much anyone who came, I think, but we are such a monolithic bunch in Sioux City – SO predominantly white – that multi-ethnic churches are less a reality, more a challenge.
I’m told that racial prejudice has been a problem here in days gone by. I honestly believe my church would accept anyone (racially – if they wear hats in church or bring coffee in the sanctuary, that’s a different issue!) but if Southern Hills “looks like our community” we will be what we are – lily white!
For what it’s worth, to borrow a phrase from Greg Koukl, we need to bloom where we’re planted. That is to say that if your town is lily white, then you need to understand how to minister to your lily white neighbors. In Venezuela, the Venezuelan church we work with down there ministers primarily to Venezuelans, although they do have a missionary in Africa. In India, the churches we have gone to there generally only minister to Indians. The biggest challenge for them in reaching across social boundaries is connecting with people outside of their caste. So it’s not just our brothers and sisters in flyover country who have ethnically monolithic towns.
In larger metropolitan areas, you will see a rich diversity of people. If that’s where you are, you better learn to connect with them, and I imagine that many of our brothers and sister there do.
In my area:
I know that there are people here from other countries. It’s been a task just trying to find out where they live. We are pretty well in touch with our neighbors of African descent if it’s been slow going integrating our churches. The biggest challenge there is seeing our brothers and sisters there as fellow workers in the Kingdom rather than as a mission field. We have ministries to predominantly black neighborhoods, but only because we have a lot more money than they do and it’s had a negative affect on the people in those neighborhoods. But it’s been our brothers and sisters who have been the most help in teaching us how to minister more effectively when we’ve taken the time to include them and be humble enough to follow their lead.
Hispanics aren’t very far behind. The biggest challenge there is language. I look for interaction with my neighbors who are from Mexico, Colombia, and other places in Central and South America because it helps me keep sharp for going to Venezuela. And so, going to Venezuela keeps me interested in stopping and talking to my Hispanic neighbors. Most satisfying is being able to identify where people grew up based on their accent. I can usually tell the difference between someone who came here from L.A. and someone who moved here from Mexico City. It’s as important a distinction as telling whether someone has Mexican roots or is from Colombia.
There are Indians in the area, but very few. They integrate surprisingly well, probably because of their professional caste level, so we can look for them inhabiting the same spaces with our white neighbors.
More challenging are our Arabic neighbors. I don’t have a clue where they live, but I see them at Walmart. Given my church’s ministry to Arabs overseas, I’m sure someone has a bead on where they are settling in our town. I wish I were in touch with them more.
I guess the point is that if you have international neighbors, you need to have a global Christian mindset in order to reach out to them, first as neighbors, but ultimately so that they can hear the gospel from you.
And, by the way, don’t be afraid to ask stupid questions of non-white people as long as you are humble about it. You may see these videos on YouTube where people are upset about stupid white people asking stupid questions about ethnicity. If you find out a person mostly grew up in the US, you can pretty much treat them as any other American. Those are the people who will be the most offended – stupid Americans. Otherwise, people usually don’t mind telling you about themselves if you are willing to listen to what they have to say. So ask questions and learn.
We likely will never be a 50-50 church as long as the racial makeup of Siouxland remains what it is. But I do think that Tony is right to be concerned about it and we need to be concerned about it.