Martin Luther King’s Acceptance Speech for  the Nobel Peace Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1964

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleagured and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.

After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time – - the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together inpeace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood, If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

The tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama, to Oslo bears witness to this truth. This is a road over which millions of Negroes are travelling to find a new sense of dignity. This same road has opened for all Americans a new era of progress and hope. It has led to a new Civil Rights Bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and lengthened into a super highway of justice as Negro and white men in increasing numbers create alliances to overcome their common problems.

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the “isness” of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal “oughtness” that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today’s motor bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaimed the rule of the land. “And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.” I still believe that We Shall overcome!

This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.

Today I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed dedication to humanity. I accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace and brotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my hear! I am aware that this prize is much more than an honor to me personally.

Every time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful journey possible – the known pilots and the unknown ground crew.

So you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit. You honor, once again, Chief Lutuli of South Africa, whose struggles with and for his people, are still met with the most brutal expression of man’s inhumanity to man. You honor the ground crew without whose labor and sacrifices the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth. Most of these people will never make the headline and their names will not appear in Who’s Who. Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age in which we live – men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization – because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness sake.

I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners – all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty – and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.

(This is a re-post by John Ortberg from Leadership Journal)

I often do not understand who I am or what I do.

Calvin said that it is impossible to know myself without coming to know God—and impossible to know God without coming to know myself.

Yet I find in some ways the older I grow, the more a mystery I am.

I talked with a man recently who has attended our church for a long time, someone I respect and admire. He said that sometimes he got the feeling that I cared more about trying to get people outside our church to start attending than I care about the people who are actually here. And I found this pricked something tender inside me in ways that other criticisms might not.

Am I a visionary, an innovator, a leader boldly calling people on an adventure of change and mission? Or am I selfishly ambitious? Do I want to be pastor of a large church so I can feel successful and significant? Or am I both? And if I am—what are the percentages?

Paul said once, “I do not understand what I do.” Many of Paul’s teachings elude me, but not that one.

I find myself a tale of three persons, kind of an anti-Trinity.

There’s the public me. I prepare talks, and lead meetings, and say words that I want others to hear. This public me isn’t deliberately false. But I am always aware, when I am in the presence of other people, of how they will hear what I say. This awareness is a kind of filter that I cannot put away. This public me will always be gauging other peoples’ responses and adjusting accordingly. I often do not like this dynamic. But I cannot flip it off as if it were a switch.

There is the private me. This is the me who watches and listens and feels. I sometimes avoid this me, especially in seasons of great busyness. When I slow down, and bring the private me before God, I often become aware of my inadequacies or sense of lack. I sometimes can slow down to a level of deep peace, or of awareness of my longing for God. This private me often seems surprisingly conflicted—moved some times by genuine desires to serve and grow, and other times by reflexive habits of greed or resentment.

There is the real me. This is true person who inhabits my life; the mixture of what is admirable and what is squalid and what is small. This me must exist, and must be fully known if justice is to prevail.

But I do not know this real me. I often do not know what my real motives are. In some ways, the other people in my life see the real me better than I do.

The formation of real souls is the one process going on in the universe that really matters. The sanctification of my own soul is the primary task with which I am charged by God.

One of the ironies of church ministry is it can cause me to neglect what matters most, in the name of doing what matters most.

I have just finished reading Eric Metaxas’ biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer; one of the most challenging books I have read in a long time. I found myself asking myself questions repeatedly as I read it. Am I becoming someone like Bonhoeffer? Would I make the thousands of small and large choices he made that led to his martyrdom at Hitler’s hands? Or would I be like the many pastors who could smoothly rationalize their collaboration with evil rather than risk failure, disgrace and death?

Is our church producing people like Bonhoeffer? Really? Or are we just aiming to have more and more people come to more and more events?

Shortly before he was martyred, Bonhoeffer wrote a poem that has haunted people ever since. It gives voice to the struggle of a sensitive soul grappling with the tension between the public and the private and the real self. It is a gift to all of us who aspire to follow in the steps of the One who went before us.

Who am I? They often tell me I would step from my cell’s confinement calmly, cheerfully, firmly, like a squire from his country-house.

Who am I? They often tell me I would talk to my warden freely and friendly and clearly, as though it were mine to command.

Who am I? They also tell me I would bear the days of misfortune equably, smilingly, proudly, like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really all that which other men tell of, or am I only what I know of myself, restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage, struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat, yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds, thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness, trembling with anger at despotisms and petty humiliation, tossing in expectation of great events, powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance, weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making, faint and ready to say farewell to it all.

Who am I? This or the other? Am I one person today, and tomorrow another? Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others, and before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling? Or is something within me still like a beaten army, fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.

Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine.

This is a re-post from Leadership Journal

Ethnic Blends, byr Marl DeyMaz.
“Ethnic Blends describes what effective local churches in the twenty-first century will look like, and shows us how to create them, together as one, beyond race and class distinctions.” –Miles McPherson, Senior Pastor, The Rock Church, San Diego

Ethnic Blends is a prophetic, Christ-centered road map that offers practical, pastoral wisdom on how to form multi-ethnic congregations. Mark DeYmaz and Harry Li are redemptive voices crying out in a wilderness of homogeneity for the church in all its ethnic diversity to be one as God is one. I thank God for their biblical vision and mission and firmly believe that Christ’s church will bear more authentic witness to the world that God has sent his Son the more we heed the authors’ multi-ethnic church claims. –Paul Louis Metzger, PhD, Multnomah Biblical Seminary, author of Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church

The Color Of Church, by Rodney M. Woo
In this thought-provoking book, Rodney Woo establishes a biblical foundation for multiracial ministry, provides a clear picture of the current reality of the relationship amongst the races in our society and churches, and offers practical guidance to help implement multiethnic ministry. Woo takes the reader step-by-step through the multiracial transformation of a congregation.

Divided by Faith by Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith has an ingenious, troubling argument. “[E]vangelicals desire to end racial division and inequality, and attempt to think and act accordingly. But, in the process, they likely do more to perpetuate the racial divide than they do to tear it down.” Emerson and Smith, who conducted 2,000 telephone surveys and 200 face-to-face interviews in preparing this book, argue that evangelicals have a theological world view that makes it difficult for them to perceive systematic injustices in society. In particular, evangelical emphasis of individualism and free will seem to predispose them to believe that most racial problems can be solved if individuals will only repent of their sins. Therefore, many well-meaning strategies for healing racial divisions (such as cross-cultural friendships) carry within them the seeds of their own defeat. Divided by Faith also includes a brilliant, concise history of evangelical thought about race from colonial times to the civil rights movement.

One Body, One Spirit: Princliples Of  Successful Multiracial Churches, byr George Yancey
As society diversifies, local churches find themselves interacting with people from every tribe and tongue. But not every church is equipped to handle the realities of ethnic and racial diversity in their congregational life. Sociologist George Yancey’s pioneering research on multiracial churches offers key principles for church leaders wanting to minister to people from a variety of racial and cultural backgrounds. Insights from real-life congregations provide concrete examples of how churches can welcome people of all heritages, giving them a sense of ownership and partnership in the life of the church.

Building A Healthy Multiracial Church, by Mark DeYmaz
Through personal stories, proven experience and a thorough analysis of the biblical text, Building a Healthy Multi-ethnic Church illustrates both the biblical mandate for the multi-ethnic church as well as the seven core commitments required to bring it about. Mark DeYmaz, pastor of one of the most proven multi-ethnic churches in the country, writes both from his experience and his extensive study of how to plant, grow, and encourage more ethnically diverse churches. He argues that the “homogenous unit principle” will soon become irrelevant and that the most effective way to spread the Gospel in an increasingly diverse world is through strong and vital multi-ethnic churches.

Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ To Engage A Multicultural World, by David A. Livermore
Twenty-first-century society is diverse, and Christians must be able to understand other cultures and communicate effectively between and among them. Following up on the bestselling Hurt: Inside the World of Today’s Teenagers, this new addition to the Youth, Family, and Culture series explores the much-needed skill of Cultural Intelligence (CQ), the ability to work effectively across national, ethnic, and even organizational cultures. While rooted in sound, scholarly research, Cultural Intelligence is highly practical and accessible to general readers. It will benefit students as well as guide ministry leaders interested in increasing their cultural awareness and sensitivity.

In One New People, by Manual Ortiz persuades us of the benefits in fellowship and outreach that we can experience by crossing racial, ethnic and cultural lines. He urges readers not just to put aside their differences but to celebrate them and to embrace them–to use them in a way that draws them closer to each other and closer to God.

What Color Is Your God, by James Breckridge is a dynamic look at multicultural America, this primer shows ministers and others how to honor ethnic differences and avoid pitfalls when presenting the gospel.

United By Faith, by Curtis Paul DeYoung
As America grows ever more ethnically diverse, Christian churches remain racially homogeneous. This state of affairs must end, argues this earnest blend of religious moralizing and social science; indeed, church integration is so central both to the Christian mission and to racial equality at large that “the twenty-first century must be the century of multi-racial congregations.” The authors, professors either of sociology or “reconciliation studies,” base their claims on theology, church history and sociology. They look back to the diversity and cosmopolitanism of the early Church as a model for contemporary Christians, and trace the legacy of racism and segregation in American churches and attempts to overcome them. Drawing on questionnaires, interviews with church members and leaders, and on-site studies of four racially mixed congregations, they probe both the promise and pitfalls of church integration.

People Of The Dream, by Michael Emerson
People of the Dream argues that multiracial congregations are bridge organizations that gather and facilitate cross-racial friendships, disproportionately housing people who have substantially more racially diverse social networks than do other Americans. The book concludes that multiracial congregations and the people in them may be harbingers of racial change to come in the United States.

Bonus:

Crossing The Ethnic Divide, by Kathleen Garces-Foley
While religious communities often stress the universal nature of their beliefs, it remains true that people choose to worship alongside those they identify with most easily. Multiethnic churches are rare in the United States, but as American attitudes toward diversity change, so too does the appeal of a church that offers diversity. Joining such a community, however, is uncomfortable-worshippers must literally cross the barriers of ethnic difference by entering the religious space of the ethnically “other.” Through the story of one multiethnic congregation in Southern California, Kathleen Garces-Foley examines what it means to confront the challenges in forming a religious community across ethnic divisions and attracting a more varied membership.

The Elusive Dream: The Power Of Race In Interracial Churches, by Korie L. Edwards
In The Elusive Dream, Korie L. Edwards presents the surprising results of an in-depth study of interracial churches: they help perpetuate the very racial inequality they aim to abolish. To arrive at this conclusion, she combines a nuanced analysis of national survey data with an in-depth examination of one particular church. She shows that mixed-race churches adhere strongly to white norms. African Americans in multiracial settings adapt their behavior to make white congregants comfortable. Behavior that white worshipers perceive as out of bounds is felt by blacks as too limiting. Yet to make interracial churches work, blacks must adjust their behavior to accommodate the predilections of whites. They conform to white expectations in church just as they do elsewhere.

By Bruce Koblish

I’m a child of the ’60s, and my generation is no stranger to racial tension in our country. So I guess I should not have been surprised that when I became the president of the Gospel Music Association, I faced these same issues within the world of Christian music.

The second day on the job I found myself in a room with 30 African-American members of the gospel music community, from artists to managers to attorneys. I may have been ill prepared to deal with such a setting, but I listened intently and resolved early in my job to do everything I could to bring harmony between all factions within the world of Christian and gospel music.

Good progress was made from 1991 to 1995, but I was not fully prepared for an encounter in 1995 that began very badly, but ended in reconciliation and even friendship.

Past Sins

My wife and I are loyal Green Bay Packer fans, so you can imagine how thrilled I was when right before our annual convention I received a call from Reggie White saying he wanted to meet with me. I was thrilled because the “Minister of Defense” was now a Packer and was going to take us to the promised land! And he wanted to meet with me!

When he and his wife, Sara, came to my temporary office during GMA Week, I could tell from the beginning, although they were very cordial, there was more to this meeting. He asked in that gravelly voice, “Bruce, is there a place we can go to talk?”

“Sure,” I said, and quickly arranged to meet in one of the hotel suites we had for the week.

After we arrived at the suite, a few other prominent members of the gospel music community eventually joined us and Reggie began talking. He spoke of the injustice that had been done to the gospel music community, the lack of opportunity for blacks in the industry, and the feeling of being held back.

At one point he asked if I would consider going before the national media and apologizing for the past sins of the Christian music industry against the black gospel community. He reminded me that with his position in the NFL, he could have all of the major networks there on very short notice.

At that moment, as I was rapidly thinking of how I was going to respond, I felt very disappointed. Being confronted by the NFL’s quarterback sacks leader was rather intimidating, to say the least! I had worked so hard to build bridges and to correct wrongs. But now Reggie White, the man I loved as a football player as well as what he stood for, was saying it was still all wrong! How could that be? Though the words were hard to hear, there was no anger, but rather a passionate cry for change.

I got tears in my eyes and had to speak from the heart. I said I personally could not apologize for things I did not do or know about. I said I didn’t even think that would be scriptural since I personally was not the offender. I went on to offer a possible course of action, while in my mind clinging to the verse that says God will give us the words to speak when we need them the most. And boy did I need them!

Some Progress

You see, I believe trust is the key to any relationship. If trust is the glue that holds relationships together, then a broken trust is what causes separation. I told Reggie I was willing to work with him to try to rebuild this trust. I would agree to do something and then actually do it, and he would do the same. Maybe, just maybe, if we did this with integrity, vulnerability, and complete transparency, some progress could be made.

That was my commitment to him. Not in front of reporters and television cameras, but brother to brother. I asked him the first thing he wanted me to do, and he said he wanted to meet with the CEOs of the Christian record labels. “Done,” I said.

When the convention ended and I went back to my office the next week, a flood of relief and fulfillment came over me as I walked into my office, and there on my desk was an NFL football signed “Reggie White #92,” with 1 Corinthians 13 under his autograph. “Love is patient, love is kind . . . ”

And as I had promised, Reggie and I, plus Sara and several record executives, soon sat down to a lunch in Nashville. We talked about how to be reconciled one to another and how to create opportunities for the kids Reggie and Sara loved so much—kids growing up in underprivileged neighborhoods who needed love, respect, and eventually a career. It was powerful.

Change Chosen

Sometimes changing is just a matter of choice. I invited Reggie to be a presenter at the Dove Awards the next two years, stayed in his home, went to Packer games (even the Super Bowl!), and had numerous other encounters that would make most football fans drool, but this really was all about something much deeper. Two men, two races, and two hearts wanting desperately to achieve one goal: that all men and women would love and respect each other.

(OK, the fact that my family and I may have the only picture in the world of us with Brett Favre outside the Packer locker room at Lambeau Field—taken by Reggie—helped to build our trust a little bit!)

Reggie is gone now, very prematurely, but I will always love that man for who he was more than what he did, and what he did was pretty spectacular on and off the field. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes not using the words the media wanted to hear, sometimes accused for using his platform to talk about his faith, but always a passionate, loving, caring person who wanted to see change. And he proved it on that day when we committed to rebuilding relationships one trusting step at a time.

Christ showed us how to love one another. Rebuilding trust, one act at a time, can be powerful. As one person builds trust with another, others can see it is possible. I thank God for showing me how he wants to make this happen in all of our lives.

Bruce Koblish is president and CEO of The Worship Network in Franklin, Tennessee. This is a reprint from
Christian Standard.

By Darrel Rowland (guest post)

Some 50 years ago Martin Luther King Jr. pierced the church’s soul by pointing out that the most segregated hour in America was 11:00 Sunday morning.

Things sure have changed in the five decades since, haven’t they? I mean, we gather at all sorts of hours other than 11 am Sunday these days.

But about that other part . . .

Let’s just ask ourselves a brutally honest question: Why are Christian churches and churches of Christ among the last bastions of society to remain predominantly white?

Once we answer that one, we must tackle an even tougher question: Is God OK with that?

Keeping Up with Culture

Of course no one keeps official statistics on the racial or culture breakdown of Restoration Movement congregations. But if you look at our major gatherings or talk to those who have visited many of our local churches, the generalization that we’re a substantially white fellowship rings true—with some notable exceptions.

“America’s culture is more open to diversity and multiculturalism than ever before. Blacks, whites, Asians, and Latinos can be found together side by side with one another in our society,” said Daryl Reed, lead minister of DC Regional Church of Christ near Washington. “Churches and various church families for the most part haven’t kept up with our culture.”

Mike Bowling, pastor of Englewood Christian Church just east of downtown Indianapolis, said, “We’re a suburban and rural movement. And because we’re a suburban and rural movement, we just don’t relate well to urban and ethnic people . . . and it’s sad because our movement has something to say to other churches.”

Still, even the most ardent critics readily concede that Restoration Movement churches are not filled with blatant racists or segregationists. So what’s causing the problem?

Ben Cachiaras, senior minister with Mountain Christian church near Baltimore said some leaders fear taking an active role because they think the issue is political or have grown weary of talk about tolerance, playing the race card, affirmative action, immigration policies, or sensitivity training.

But the real problem is more basic: Many of us are failing to intentionally reach out to people of other races and cultures.

“Leaders have to go beyond saying, ‘I would welcome a church that had African-Americans in it if it would happen,’” said Cachiaras, who has begun an exchange program with Reed and DC Regional.

“This is an issue that’s near to the heart of God. And I’m not sure we’ve been convinced of that . . . a unity movement really ought to be a racially diverse movement. You can’t pretend you’re a unity movement if everybody’s the same skin color or nationality or gender.”

Not Prejudiced, Not Intentional

A passionate advocate for multiculturalism in our churches, Dudley Rutherford, senior pastor of Shepherd of the Hills Church north of Los Angeles and president of next year’s NACC, said he knows most of the leaders in the Christian church.

“I don’t think there’s a prejudiced bone in their bodies. But they’re not intentional. . . . If week after week after week after week, everyone on your stage is white, you’re not being intentional,” he said.

“So you can be someone who’s not prejudiced, but your church will never be diverse. Having no prejudices is not enough. It takes being not prejudiced, plus intentionality for your church to begin to take on a different color.”

At Shepherd, an insistence on multicultural greeters, worship team members, prayer leaders, and publication covers has paid off. “Now what happens is a snowball effect.

“I’ve got people leaving all-African-American churches and coming here because they like the diversity,” Rutherford said. “There comes a point when you’re intentional long enough it just takes over and it becomes a part of your identity.”

‘Not Like Us’

Even children notice.

By the time Ron and Terri Foltz returned home after nearly five years working in a Philippine orphanage, they had grown accustomed to the feeling of being a minority. So when the two elementary-school-age Filipino children they adopted remarked about how few people in their Ohio church looked like them, they could understand.

“When you are a multiracial family, it changes how you perceive things,” said Terri, an attorney who is now superintendent of a Christian school.

Ron noted that even though he was the principal of another Christian school and a deacon, on several occasions they found out about birthday parties that their sons had not been invited to—after the fact.

The Foltzes’ older son was a teenager at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks. While he and Terri were standing in line at a grocery store on 9/11, a woman in line in front of them called him a “raghead” and wanted to know how he felt about what “his people” did.

That’s when a key shortcoming of a mostly white church hit home.

“There’s no one he could relate that experience to,” Terri said. “It’s not that anybody at church did anything wrong, it’s just that your kid is saying no one looks like us.”

Nobody looked like John M. Fuller when he entered St. Louis Christian College. Fuller, now 56, became the school’s first black full-time student.

He later served at Westlane Christian Church in Indianapolis, which had a blend of races, and in 1992 founded New Paradigm Christian Church on the city’s north side as a more deliberate attempt to reach a multicultural audience.

New Paradigm used billboards with the theme “this is not the church you grew up in” with pictures of a black male and white female. Leaders discovered that when they went door to door with a racially mixed team it piqued people’s interest in the church, which eventually grew to about 250.

But Fuller has found the push for racial reconciliation a lonely, often frustrating path, and he readily admits to becoming “tired of grinding the same ax.”

“Many people are surprised I’m with the Christian church because they don’t know any black Christian church preachers,” he said.

Yet Fuller grew up in the Christian church and has a brother and two sons in full-time ministry. His heart burns with Jesus’ prayer in John 17 that believers become one so the world will know God sent his Son.

“One of the reasons we don’t have a more convincing witness is because of the racism and the separation,” Fuller said.

“Our church has shown historically a choice to do the easy pickin’s when it comes to the harvest. If I want to grow a church to 1,000, the fastest way to do it is through a homogeneous church, black or white. That’s been one of the church growth principles, and it’s really a principle of the unredeemed nature of man. It should never have been a principle and a practice of church growth.”

Ironically, Fuller now serves Washington Shores Church of Christ in Orlando—an almost-all-black church that is loving but reluctant to reach out to whites.

“If this movement survives, it will survive like our church buildings have ‘survived’ in the city: Our people have moved out and other people have moved in,” he said.

“I don’t have a problem with a church out in the boonies that represents their community. But I do have a problem with a movement that intentionally targets going to the boonies and leaving the city. (People say), ‘Well I don’t have any people of color in our area.’ Yeah, but why are you in that area?”

Uncomfortable Words

These are uncomfortable words for many of us. A workshop on racial relations at this year’s NACC went even further, talking about the need for white Christians to come to grips with such concepts as institutional racism and white privilege.

Marque Jensen, founding pastor of North Minnesota Christian Fellowship who is now with Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis, said if he acknowledges the inherent benefits he’s enjoyed by being white, he gets “a lot of grace” from black believers. Whites need to take time to listen to the stories of blacks’ struggles; otherwise, it’s akin to telling a rape victim to just get over it.

Jensen said that growing up in a safe neighborhood, he was always taught the police were his friends. But when he began working with people from predominantly black neighborhoods, he quickly realized that is far from a universal perception.

The coleader of the workshop, former Sanctuary senior pastor Efrem Smith, said even those trying to be a New Testament church must “understand how socially conditioned we are about race and class.”

But he added that he also has to help his fellow African-Americans work through displaced anger and tell them they “can’t force white people to walk on eggshells.”

After Smith spoke to a main session of the NACC, dozens stood to accept his invitation to lead on racial reconciliation.

Developing Leaders

But how can church leaders commit to diversifying their staffs when it’s so hard to find minority graduates of our Bible colleges? And how can Bible colleges diversify their student body when few churches send them minority students?

Thankfully, this cycle is being broken. During an NACC breakfast for Dream of Destiny—a multipronged effort to bring multiculturalism to New Testament churches—several college leaders reported not only record enrollment but record numbers of minority students studying to become ministers.

D. Clay Perkins, president of Mid-Atlantic Christian University in North Carolina, has decided to worship with a black congregation, Rehoboth Victory Christian Church.

“There is a shortage of preachers, especially African-American preachers,” he said. “So if I can nudge one or two young men into ministry by attending an African-American church, then so be it.”

Byron Davis, who leads Dream of Destiny, said building multicultural church staffs will become even more important in coming decades as whites become a minority in the United States.

“We no longer have the excuse of saying we can’t find students of color,” he said.

But as this first new wave of multicultural students nears graduation, college leaders wonder if Christian churches or churches of Christ will hire them.

“How do we recruit any of these students with any kind of promise they’ll get a job?” asked David Faust, president of Cincinnati (Ohio) Christian University and executive editor of The Lookout.

He and other presidents say they don’t think our churches know what’s coming.

Changing Neighborhoods

But churches in rapidly changing areas had better realize what’s coming; their neighborhoods’ demographics are shifting. Should the church move on, wait to die, or take the more difficult route—change?

Steven C. Chapman, senior minister of First Christian Church of Chicago, has watched his neighborhood transform. Because of Chicago’s residency requirement, municipal workers must live within the city limits, so they often wind up in First Christian’s neighborhood in the southwestern corner of the city.

“As communities transitioned, we found ourselves behind the eight ball,” he said. The church already had moved once, in the 1950s. But this time, the elders declared that “white flight” would be a sin.

“We were forced to become a multiracial church,” Chapman said.

From a virtually all-white congregation in the early 1990s, First Christian is now about 50 percent African-American, 30 percent white, and 20 percent Latino.

“The church in the city is a good case in point for what will happen to the church (as a whole) if we don’t reach across racial barriers for the sake of the kingdom,” he said. “As whites fled the cities in the ’50s, the churches soon followed. That exodus left the city in the hands of declining churches or ill-equipped storefront pastors.”

At one of our movement’s early megachurches, Bowling’s 115-year-old Englewood church in Indianapolis, attendance dropped from more than 1,000 in the early 1970s to less than 200 in the next 20 years. For a time the area around Englewood was among the national leaders in home foreclosures and state leaders for abandoned housing.

But the church, located in what was once a Ku Klux Klan stronghold, decided to stay put and transform itself even as the neighborhood around it was radically changing.

“They never moved, never even had a discussion about moving when a lot of churches did,” Bowling said. “They just looked each other in eye and said this is where we need to be.”

Currently, the congregation of about 200 collects an offering of about $200,000 annually, but its nonprofit community development corporation’s budget is $1.4 million. The church is completing a $6.5 million conversion of an adjacent school building into 32 units of housing—including many designed for people with serious mental illness, low income, or those who need social services. The church, which is about 30 percent minority, also operates a large day-care center, preschool, and kindergarten.

“When it comes to racial reconciliation, we’ve just always said we are reconciled in Christ, and if there’s a problem, it’s a problem that brothers and sisters have,” Bowling said.

Reed of DC Regional said church leaders must be proactive in a rapidly changing world. “Local congregations and assemblies should prepare in advance for different types of people moving into their community, and not wait until their community changes its complexion.”

“Leaders must develop awareness first. If a church’s leadership is apathetic to this concern, it will not happen.

“Leaders must change the way they think about this issue. If it’s important to God, it should be important to them.”

So, bottom line, what’s the way forward?

“It’s easy and difficult at the same time. All we have to do is start practicing New Testament Christianity,” said Fuller of the Washington Shores church in Orlando. “God will take care of the rest.”

Darrel Rowland is an adult Bible fellowship teacher at Worthington (Ohio) Christian Church and public affairs editor of The Columbus Dispatch. (This article is a re-print of Christian Standard)

A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.  ~John Henry Newman

The idea that something has to be perfect before it can be introduced to the world is one of the most debilitating ideas around.

I’m convinced that “perfection” just may be one of the causes for why so many great ideas and projects never see the light of day. People get this idea in their heads that “it” what ever “it” is, has to be just PERFECT!

Believe me I get it: we all want to produce our very best work. I agree with that statement. “Producing our very best work” (in that moment in time) is actually a more realistic pursuit, than perfection. We want to produce our very best work. The reality is, our very best work will never ever be perfect!

But the good news is, it does not have to be.

Our best work just has to be…

Valuable!

It just has to be good enough to actually help the end user solve their problem.

People don’t want to wait for perfection, they want their problem solved… Period!

My objective, and so should your objective be, is to solve relevant problems as often as we can. It is far better to be prolific than to be perfect!

Enough said! Now go back to work!

Live Generously, Finish Well!
Byron Davis is director of Dream Of Destiny, and an associate pastor at Shepherd Of The Hills Church in Porter Ranch California.

Happy New Year!

I thought I’d kick off the New Year work week with a little encouragement. For many of us 2011 is already booked full of deadlines, events, special engagements,  books to write, projects to launch; wow I am exhausted just thinking about!

So with that said, I want to share this with you:

Here’s a little factoid for you:  Back in the day, before modern harbors and engine powered speed boats, ships had to wait for the “flood tide” to carry them into port from the ocean. The Latin phrase “ob portu” referred to that single moment in time when the ‘flood tide” would reveal itself and the ships could catch it into shore.  This is where we get our English word “opportunity!”

Call me simple minded, but I think there are basically two ways to go about life: survival mode or prayer mode.

Survival mode is simply reacting to the circumstances around you, being tossed by every wave of life. It’s getting caught in the swell, and allowing the circumstance to pretty much dictate your response.  Prayer mode, on the other hand, is pro-active not reactive.  It puts you in the position to see the opportunities in the circumstances of life, and respond appropriately.  This applies to even the extremely hard circumstances of life.  Think about how Ester responded when she found out that King Xerxes was allowing the mass genocide of the Jews (her peeps) to take place (Read Ester 4:13-16 for the play by play).  Mind you, historians are in consensus that Xerxes was impulsive and unpredictable.  During his reign, Xerxes commissioned a bridge to be built, but during construction a huge storm came and destroyed everything.  Xerxes ordered for the water to receive 300 lashes, and for ALL of the builders to be beheaded.

This guy was, I think the official phrase is,  a “nut case.” Ester had to go to King Xerxes (something you just didn’t do, punishable by death) and convince him to not allow this genocide to take place.  So what did she do before she went to see the King?  What gave her the courage, and even the words to say?  Prayer!

People who are in perpetual prayer mode simply see the world and the circumstances of life differently.  They can even see the opportunities in their adversity!

In prayer mode, prayer is a part of your daily life; your spiritual antenna is up and your radar is on.  This gives new meaning to the phrase “prayer LIFE.”  Do you go through the day in constant contact with God?  Prayer does that.  Do you desire to take advantage of more opportunities in your life?  Prayer mode puts you in the position.  Do you desire for God to show up and move in your life so that you can even see the OPPORTUNITY in even the hardest of circumstances like Ester did?  A lifestyle of prayer is the answer.  And let me encourage you, if your prayer life has been a little on the light side, or even none existent:  Then start N.O.W (No Opportunity Wasted)!

“Ob Portu!”

Byron Davis is the Director of Dream Of Destiny,
and an associate pastor at Shepherd of The Hills Church in Porter Ranch California

On this video Mark DeYmaz, pastor of Mosaic Church in Little Rock Arkansas, and author of Ethnic Blends, lays out a very clear and compelling biblical mandate for why the body of Christ represented in our churches must embrace and reflect diversity.

Enjoy!

Watch This! If This Does Not Inspire You… check You Pulse! LOL

There are Next Generation Leaders ready to go to Bible college and Seminary! They are out there. They just need to know there’s opportunity at our bible colleges and seminaries, and bible college scholarships with their names on it.

Let’s continue to do all that we can, with all that we have, right where we are to provide opportunities to Next Generation Leaders Now!

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!