You are the loved one

Over the weekend, I found myself in a racially-diverse church in San Antonio.  Not racial diversity as in a church of white people with a black family or two; rather it was a church where probably one third of the congregation was white, one third was black and one third was Latino.  In fact, all three races were represented in the pastoral leadership.

When I see racial diversity in a church, I pay attention.  I find it highly commendable.  That is not to say that I would condemn a church that is not racially diverse.  I certainly understand how accomplishing racial diversity is extraordinarily difficult.  But who can deny that a church should ideally look like its community in terms of race?

In Sunday School, I listened to a Latino teacher discussing how to deal with people that are different than you.  One thing he said was profound and I wanted to pass it along.  He was talking about how we like to pigeonhole people based on race, talents, socioeconomic status, and so on.  We tend to see people as the black one, the white one, the rich one or the poor one.  But to God, they are simply the loved ones.

We should all see people as the loved ones.  If we do, we recognize their value and we value what they offer.  That is how a racially-diverse church works.  It works when people love and value each other and the contributions they bring to the table.

By the way, racial diversity is hardly the goal in itself.  Focusing on racial diversity just for the sake of it is ridiculous.  When I used to work in corporate America, I remember discussions with my boss about the people I was hiring.  Once, he complimented me because I hired a large number of women and minorities.  That irritated me, and I remember telling him that I would never hire someone just to fill minority quotas.  I was simply going to hire the best people I could find regardless of what they looked like.  My strategy was to ignore things that didn’t matter and to just focus on the what value the person could bring to the company. 

In a church, things actually get a little more complicated.  We can be suspicious of and slow to value what other cultures bring to the table in terms of worship.  In many cases, we reject things outright or try to conform them to our culture and comfort level.  The result of that attitude may be many things but one of them is not going to be diversity.  Let’s be frank.  If the people of a culture do not feel that you value their unique cultural contributions to your worship, they are not going to stay in your church for long.

No, racial diversity is not the goal.  Love is.  But if a church truly loves its community and values the people in the community, racial diversity is probably going to be a natural byproduct.

Don’t forget: you are the loved one.