Does diversity really matter?
/I once heard a church member say, ‘I suppose we’re just a church for middle-class professionals.’
Did she make this comment because she, as a university-educated professional herself, found it hard to make disciples of everyday people?
Was she reacting to her knowledge that her church struggled to keep the everyday people who visited?
Perhaps her concern about this made her wonder whether it was better for her church to focus on what they were doing well and leave the everyday people to another church that could minister to them more effectively.
This kind of thinking raises an important question: Does it really matter if everyday people and university-educated professionals are in different churches?
Is there really a problem?
If lots of other churches – such as charismatic churches and others like the Salvation Army – are reaching everyday people, does it matter if Reformed evangelical churches don’t?
Was it a bad thing that William Booth’s Christian Mission to the poor became the Salvation Army, or that Wilson Carlile formed the Church Army specifically to minister to those in the slums rather than bring them into existing Church of England structures?
Of course these ministries were not, in themselves, bad. But the thing is, diversity is important in the body of Christ.
University-educated Christians can’t say to everyday people, ‘We don’t need you or your spiritual gifts! Go and join another church for everyday Christians.’
Neither can everyday Christians say to university-educated churchgoers, ‘I don’t belong in church with you because I’m not a professional.’ (See 1 Corinthians 12:12–27.)
Yet all too often, this appears to be what’s happening in Reformed evangelical churches.
Are you convinced that a homogeneous strategy for church is okay? Do you consider this to be a biblical model?
God intends diversity
My argument is that homogeneous churches do not reflect the diversity God intends for his church to allow it to flourish and function effectively.
The homogeneous approach does not reflect God’s ultimate purpose to bring unity to all things under Christ (Ephesians 1:8–10), seen in the heavenly church with people from every nation, tribe and tongue (Revelation 7:9).
And while it’s often not possible to fully realise God’s ideals in this world, the New Testament constantly urges the church to pursue God’s ideals – and to pursue unity – so that we might display the ‘manifold wisdom of God’ (Ephesians 3:10).
The more socially and culturally diverse God’s church is, the more magnificent is the display of the manifold wisdom of God through the church’s unity. And the more magnificent the display of the wisdom of God in our churches, the greater will be our witness to Christ in this world (John 17:20–23).
Serious injury
While there can be some short-term gains with a homogeneous strategy, in the long run it severely maims the body and prevents it from accomplishing what God intended.
It seems to me that Reformed evangelical churches have not valued the important contribution of everyday people, maiming our churches so that they are like a body without legs, and in turn making it more difficult for us to find the lost everyday people missing from our churches.
The problem goes deeper than just failing to find the lost everyday people. Because we are missing parts of the body, we are missing their contribution and are consequently stunted and immature in parts of our Christian life.
We are failing in God’s purpose to be united in the faith.
We are failing to show the world the power of the gospel to restore God’s good order and unify all things under Christ.
But what a witness it is when we can show true unity in Christ, and the love for others that comes with that!
Barriers to trust – and a solution
Michael left school wanting to get a good job and make lots of money. He didn’t do well enough at school to go to university, so he hoped a job with the Australian Army might be an alternative way into a good paying job.
In one of his interviews, an officer said to him, ‘You are never going to be anything more than a pizza delivery boy!’
Can you imagine the deep scar a comment like that would leave on someone’s heart?
When everyday people have experienced this sort of prejudice from university-educated people, it can leave them sensitive to criticism, and even bitter and angry towards them.
It makes it hard to achieve the deep trust and interaction required to grow as mature disciples of Jesus within harmonious, unified communities.
But when deep love is shown, everyday people like Michael can come to see that the prejudices, pride and cruelty exhibited by some people in our society are not shared by university-educated people in Christ’s church.
What if we showed deep love to all, just as we value the different parts of our own bodies?
What if we valued everyday Christians, their talents and their spiritual gifts more highly?
The blessings of the unity God intends are great; but unfortunately there are some obstacles in our path as we try to reach our lost everyday people and cultivate unity in the faith. These obstacles involve:
This article is one of a series that I’ve written about making disciples of ‘everyday people’.
It can be read on its own, but if you’d like to gain a greater understanding of how my thoughts around this important topic have developed, you may wish to read the full series of articles in order.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™