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The Case for Diversity in the Local Church

First, let’s get one pretty important thing established. The Bible supports diversity in the body of Christ. And, if the local church is a local expression of the body of Christ, it’s pretty easy to say that the local church should strive to be diverse if it’s able. With that said, not all local churches are able to be as diverse as they may want to be. Some churches are located in areas with predominantly one culture. In those cases, diversity may not be easily achieved or even helpful to the mission of the church in that place. And that’s okay. Diversity, by itself, is not a command on the same level of biblical faithfulness or loving your neighbor. It’s an ideal worthy of our effort and pleasing to our heavenly Father. Most of the traditions and programs in modern western churches are built on biblical principles and precedents, not biblical commands. For example, we have children’s ministries because Jesus valued children and the Bible makes it clear that adults are responsible for their spiritual upbringing, not because the Bible tells us we have to have children’s programs in church. On another point, it seems that convictions about diversity in church don’t exactly match motivation to do anything about it. Honestly, that’s the case with most of life; we feel convicted about something that’s broken enough to talk about it, but not enough motivation to fix it. At least, when it comes to diversity, that’s the what the statistics seem to communicate. Lifeway Research, under Dr. Ed Stetzer’s leadership, published some numbers a few years ago about diversity in the church. Their research found that a large majority of American pastors, almost 90%, felt that churches should be diverse racially and culturally, but only 13% actually have what they would consider to be a diverse church. The numbers among Christians who are not pastors are more depressing; almost 80% think churches should be diverse, but only about half would feel comfortable in a diverse church. Diversity, though, is not the same as racial inclusivity or the representation of multiple cultures in an otherwise homogenous church. Nor is diversity a melting pot where all races and cultures lose their individuality and conform to a new shared cultural identity. No, diversity is the inclusion, appreciation, and valuing of various races and cultures without any single race or culture losing their individuality. Diversity is, therefore, a unique and significant blessing the church that embraces and strives for it. There is no promise of blessing given in the Bible for diverse churches, but the natural outcome of diversity is that blessing. And the effort to become diverse involves principles and promises that do hold blessings in Scripture, like meekness and kindness and purity and putting others first. Jesus made clear that these are the types of people that receive God’s blessing. Of course, moving toward diversity starts with the pulpit. Preach your guts out and call your church to open their hearts. Build programs that are more open and inviting to multiple cultures. But, no amount of programming and preaching will be as loud as leading by example. Hire who you want to reach. If your church has a significant population of black people, you need color on your staff. If you’re a black church in a whiter neighborhood, you need some beige on your staff. If you’re an older congregation in a young community, you need some greenies on your staff. If your church is seeing lots of hispanic or asian or middle eastern immigrants moving in, you need those people on your staff.