This 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?

Multiculturalism is here! It is not coming. It is here. We are living in a day in age where everywhere we look, we see people who look different than we look. They dress slightly different than we dress. Their taste, their customs, their perspectives are all different than yours, and mine. Mine are different than yours, and yours are different than mine!

Today in America, what was once the minority has fast becoming the majority. In fact, by 2050 the sum total of the United States ethnic minority groups will total over 60% of our population.

The question that Efrem Smith proposed in his dynamic talk, yesterday at the NACC convention was, what will be “the church’s” response to multi-culturalism? “The increasing diversity in America does not stress God out,” Efrem exclaimed! “God desires to use us to advance His Kingdom in this multi-ethnic world.”

We live in an increasingly divided world that desperately needs Jesus followers to be “gap fillers,” as Efrem says, “to step out of the comfort zones of our homogeneous church networks, cross racial lines to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Efrem went on to say that, “ we no longer need to be a far missionary. All we need to be is mission motivated right in our own communities.”

I truly believe Efrem is right on point.

What I appreciated most about his message yesterday was the way he demonstrated how the blood of Christ was/ is multi-ethnic blood, and “…in the blood line of Jesus are all the people that God created. Rich people, poor people, men and women, red, yellow, black, and white, sinful people, cursed people; Jesus has that much multi-cultural, multi-racial blood flowing through his vain that it represented all of humanity. When Jesus was on the cross and blood was coming from his hands, and blood was streaming from his head, and blood was coming from his side that was multi-cultural, mutli-racial, multi-ethnic blood from the King of kings and Lord of lords. That means when we say Jesus died for our sins we can take that literally because ALL of US was flowing through all of Him.”

Multiculturalism is here, and now! It has always been here, and Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection was for all of us, now. One for ALL, so that ALL would be ONE!

If you are missing the NACC, you are missing something good!!!

Unity Through Diversity!

BEYOND: A Note from Ben Cachiaras, 2010 NACC President

“Come to the North American… It’s going to be one to remember!
This is no time for business as usual, protecting the status quo in our lives or our ministries. The needs are too great. The call is too urgent. And God is on the move!

We truly follow Jesus, we will be moving, too. So we’ve created a program God can use to shape us and move us BEYOND where we are right now — in so many ways. The Church needs leaders who recognize the need to be confronted with a disturbing urgency, and a need to grow.

Let’s come together because in so many ways, God is calling us to go BEYOND. It’s time for our Movement to go beyond. Your church and our ministries need to go beyond. And I need to go beyond — to the place where Jesus is calling me — and so do you.”

Dream of Destiny is excited about this year’s NACC in Indianapolis Indiana. There is a line up of great speakers and breakout sessions. From Tony Dungy, Rick Warren and Francis Chan, to Efrin Smith and Gene Appel. The call is to go Beyond. Beyond racial lines, beyond comfort zones, and beyond the great omission…

We are called to go and BE the church that challenges and changes the world around us. Are you coming?

Dream of Destiny is hosting a breakfast Thursday, June 8th at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Ball Room CD.

You are invited!

We hope that this will be a time for ministries and bible colleges to network and share best practices, as well as their road blocks, as it relates to fostering unity through diversity.

We hope to see you there.

Unity Through Diversity,
Byron

Dream Of Destiny is proud to be a part of the Mosaix Global Network. Mosaix is a national network of local church pastors and planters, researchers, educators and ministry leaders alike that exists to catalyze the growing movement toward multi-ethnic/economically diverse churches throughout North America and beyond by casting vision, connecting individuals of like-mind, conferencing and coaching.

I had a chance to catch up with Mosaix founder, Mark DeYmaz (the author of Building a Healthy Multi Ethnic Church, featured on DreamOfDestiny.com a few months ago) at the Exponential conference last month (video interview coming soon).  Along with being a best selling author Mark pastors a multi-ethnic church in Arkanas and has a passion for churches to reflect the landscape of heaven here on earth, now!

Click here to view the embedded video.

We are positioned to accomplish something that has never been attempted, let alone, accomplished before. That does not mean it can’t happen. What is so exciting is now more than ever before, we can be a catalyst to something special happening within our movement.

Given our collective resources, and through partnering with our Bible Colleges, the independent Christian church community can, by December 31, 2010, help over 250 students that represent urban, and/ or ethnically diverse backgrounds attend Bible college or seminary in the fall of 2011.

OK… so here’s the plan! It all starts with 12!

12 leaders! 12 “first movers!”

First, we get 12 leaders to pledge that their ministry will scholarship a student through Bible college.   Then those twelve each work with only 2 other leaders in their “inner circle” and gets them to do the same. The deadline for this action is May 31st, 2010.  Then we get those 24 leaders, who each pledged to scholarship a student, to then ask two more ministry leaders to do the same; this deadline would be  June 31st, 2010; do you see what will happen?

By December 31, 2010 alone we’d have 372 Bible college scholarships accounted for.  This means from January to June of 2011 we would be awarding scholarships to deserving students all across this country.

How cool would that be?

And it all just started with 12!  Will you be one of the first movers?  Will you be one of the first 12?

Click Here and be one of the first 12 that started it all!
http://new.dreamofdestiny.org/donate-or-pledge/

“…The racial problem has been the unresolved dilemma in America. It has gone on since its inception because its roots have not been addressed by the people who are most qualified to address it: The Church!” (Dr. Tony Evans)

When I saw this video I knew I had to share it with the Dream Of Destiny community.  Many of you know who Dr. Tony Evans is.  Several of you may have even seen this video before. It was produced by a very cool para-church ministry called “I Am Second.”

What I found powerful about this short video was Dr. Evans’ first story of being raised in Baltimore during a time of racial strife and tension.  What resonated with me was how “common” his story is among our African American pastors and leaders in our brotherhood.  Many, if not the majority of them over 50 years of age, still love God, but have lost hope in ever seeing change in the association of Independent churches, and Churches of Christ movement.

Many of them carry, not only the everyday burdens and challenges associated with leading small local churches that fight to keep their doors opens from year to year, but also the hollowing effect of their voices not being heard by fellow brothers that make up the NACC. To compound matters even more, if the truth be told, many of them wrestle with the feelings of inadequacy and insecurities that linger like battle scars from past fights and struggles that have never had the chance to properly heal.

In the spirit of illumination, I share this with you not to foster guilt or feelings of remorse by the wrongs of ancestors.  In like kind, I do not bring this to light for others to use as justification for abdicating any responsibility to continue to push forward. I shed light on this issue to provoke and encourage two regular calls to action:

1. To our Caucasian sisters and brothers in leadership; it is critical that you be intentional and proactive in reaching OUT (NOT back and down) to your fellow “minority” sisters and brothers in leadership at the local level. Even if you’ve tried in the past and found little reciprocated response, Do Not Stop!  Do not be tired in doing [this] good, because in due season your efforts will reap good fruit in time.
2. To our sisters and brothers who make up ethnic minorities in our association; it’s critical that you continue to be intentional about getting and staying involved with the convention (even though you feel that your voice has not been heard -remember, the more voices, the louder the message).  At the local level, continue to do what you can, with what you have, right where you are to connect with other pastors of independent Christian churches.  Again I encourage you, Do Not Stop!  Do not be tired in doing [this] good, because in due season your efforts will reap good fruit in time.

Why are these calls to action important for us to ALWAYS be intentional about?  Because they reflect, in how we engage one another, the very message,  we are all called to share with the rest of the world.  It is a message of new beginnings. It is a message of new identities.  It is a message of renewed hope, and freedom that is found in our new identity in Christ.   In the video above (at the 1:23 minute mark) , Dr. Evans talks about a “repositioning” that occurs when Jesus becomes first in our life.  Please go back to it now and listen, again, to what he says.

Going forward, what would our efforts truly look like if each of us truly embraced this idea that “I Am Second?”

Dream of Destiny 5 Star Initiative from Shepherd Youth on Vimeo.

I have been reading a book called Bus Ride to Justice by Fred Gray, a lawyer for Rosa Parks who was arrested on December 1st, 1955 for sitting where she was NOT supposed to sit. As you know, African Americans were supposed to sit in the back of the bus and save the seats in the front for the “white” people. When the courts finally ruled that segregation on city buses was unconstitutional, it was the one case that truly began the civil rights movement in America.

On page 97 of his book, Fred Gray writes, “A pebble cast in the segregated waters of Montgomery, Alabama, created a human rights tidal wave that changed America and eventually washed up on the shores of such far away places as the Bahamas, China, South Africa, and the Soviet Union. And it all started on a bus.”

But there is ONE GLARING problem. That tidal wave never hit the CHURCH in AMERICA.

It was in 1963, which was almost 50 years ago, that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr said 11:00 a.m. is still the most segregated hour in America.  Here we are some 47 years later and that statement, even is Los Angeles, is still true. An article in the Jan. 11, 2010 issue of Time Magazine states that 93 percent of the churches in America are still primarily segregated. Less that 8 % of churches are diverse. How is this possible?

The 5 Star Initiative is simply to get churches to be more intentional about diversity…getting our churches to ACCEPT the great commission to reach “all nations.” And I know is sounds simplistic, and I am sorry if you do not agree, but if we could just start by diversifying our platform and our stages, we could see immediate change within our churches today. Finding ways to include people of color in our worship teams, in our praise teams and in our choirs—and even in those who make announcements, conduct the baptisms, and lead the congregation in prayer—it would have a HUGE ripple effect on those who are first-time visitors, those who will look to the stage and see that this is a church that accepts people from all walks of life.

I’ve seen the difference in the church I serve, and I think you’d see the difference in your church as well. It is time that the Church of 2k10 reflects the church of Revelation 7:9-10.

Watch the above video. Go to http://www.dreamofdestiny.com/ and sign up to be a part of the 5 star Initiative.