What Diversity Really Means

My pastor often tells a story in the pulpit about his friends who have
adopted two boys from South America. He says they didn't tell the
boys when they adopted them, "OK, we're Americans: we like football
and hamburgers and monster trucks. So if you're into those things,
then you can join our family." Instead, rather than mold their sons
around their existing family, they molded their existing family around
their sons. Sure, their sons picked up the hobbies and habits of
their new family. But their new family also picked up hobbies and
habits, like soccer and South American cuisine.

(As a parenthetical note, this story always resonates with me, as
someone is in a biracial marriage and who has adopted from outside the
US. It bodes well for our daughter, who was adopted from China, that
I am also Asian, that we live in a big and diverse city, and that our
church congregation is very multiethnic. But it will take effort to
help her find her identity, her understanding of race and ethnicity
and country of origin. It will take effort, in other words, from my
wife and me, both to welcome her into our worldview and to change our
worldview to accommodate hers. Adopting from Asian countries has
become so trendy that I worry for kids whose ethnicity seems more like
a fashion accessory than a profound facet of their beauty and
uniqueness.)

My pastor shares this story to say that churches ought to be like
this. When we welcome folks, we ought not to explicitly or implicitly
tell them, "This is who we are. We're glad you're here . . . as long
as you start looking like us." Instead, the church ought to stretch
and grow as it welcomes new people. Newcomers might bring new
languages or worship styles or spiritual gifts to the mix. They might
bring new mental health problems or financial difficulties or soapbox
issues to the mix. Whatever they bring, both good and bad, the church
ought to be big enough to welcome in, adapt, and speak truth in love
and power to.

Almost every church would say they want to be diverse. But is every
church willing to stretch and adjust and reorganize in response to its
new diversity? It is easy to dream about diversity, much harder to
live it day by day. But those churches that truly seek to welcome in
and bend to newcomers will experience the true power and unchanging
fundamentals of the gospel message.