Categorized | Diversity, Featured

Red or Yellow, Black, and White… Is Your Team’s Color Just Right?

Picture 5This is a re-post from Carlos Whittaker over at RagamuffinSoul.com. Carlos was formerly the worship director at Buckhead church in Atlanta, and rescently released his debut album, Ragamuffin Soul (now available on Itunes).

Dudley recently connected with him in an airport not too long ago when Dudley over heard a dad say to his family that because they missed church that day, they were going to have church in the car.  Dudley was encouraged by that dad’s comment and had to go up to the gentlemen.  That gentlemen was Carlos.  Here’s his blog post, enjoy:

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I never was a fan of changing those lyrics…
But then again, if I was Losiah, I don’t necessarily think I would want to be labeled as “yellow”.
Alas, if I was writing this song about most church staff in America it would probably sing…

Jesus loves the little staffers
All the staffers in your church.
White White White White White White White
They all dance rea-lly uptight.
Jesus love the little staffers in your church!

Jesus loves the little staffers
All the staffers in your church
Black Black Black Black Black Black Black
I bet none have the name Jack
Jesus love the little staffers in your church!

Jesus loves the little staffers
All the staffers in your church
Brown Brown Brown Brown Brown Brown Brown
We match the color in our town
Jesus love the little staffers in your church!

Jesus loves the little staffers
All the staffers in your church.
Man Man Man Man Man Man Man
She can sing or drive the van
Jesus love the little staffers in your church!

Here’s the deal.
Most of our church staff and leadership are of one race.
Or mostly of one race.
And here are some our excuses…
1. The white church staff – Well, we are simply a reflection of the community we are ministering in. And they are white.
2. The black church staff – If we want to reach young black men, we can’t have old white men trying to reach them.
3. The latino church staff – We don’t need white people coming into our neighborhood to try and save us. We are proud and can help our own.
4. The male church staff – The Bible says we should lead the ladies and they are really good at making necklaces out of dry pasta.

Hear Hear. Take all those with a grain of salt. And pepper if you want to make it a bit more diverse. ;)

Many churches are now sprinkling diversity on stage during worship and in videos during announcements to try and make themselves a bit more appealing to a more diverse crowd. This is a great start. It really is.
But when the engine that is running the ship is still the same old engine that was running the ship, you can paint the ship whatever color you want…it’s still the same ship.

Some will argue that diversity is not necessary in local church leadership.
Some will argue that diversity is overrated and we should all just sing the songs we like to sing with the people we feel most comfortable with.
Some will argue that you can sprinkle and paint diversity on stage and on screen and that will be enough to bridge the divide.
All are valid.
And all are lazy.

So go ahead and sprinkle some salt and pepper and salsa on this conversation.
Should it even be a conversation?

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