Ethnic Majority??? #dmingml
"American Christianity will become nonwhite before the rest of American society."
This quote from page 74 of Soong-Chan Rah's book The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Culture surprised me. He goes on to say "...most denominations are faced with the reality that unless they see growth among the ethnic minority population within their denomination, they will experience steady decline." (p. 74) While this is true, the tendency of the mainline Christian church has not been to reflect American diversity in its general population even though there has been significant emphasis on inclusiveness. Rah identifies some of the challenges of this..."western Christianity diminishes non-western expressions of Christian theology and ecclesiology with the creation of 'otherness'." (p.79)...suggesting that this sense of being "the other" creates a "hostile environment for the marginalized person of color." (p.79)
Though he suggests that "There is, therefore, an equality and a unity that transcends racial barriers which is inherent in the doctrine of the image of God." (p. 82), we do not see that translating into more ethnically diverse expressions of Christianity in the United States. Rah attributes this to expressions of racisim, individualistic theology, and an implied sense of superiority among white American church members and leaders. Rah reports that less than 4% of American congregations are integrated. (p.85). While in my own denomination, which has seen ethnic diversity as a major emphasis over the years, 50% of our congregations report being 100% Euro-American (2009 Statistical Tables), this is still not reflective of the reality of our American cultural makeup. Ninety-one percent of our total denominational membership is Euro-American. Almost six percent is African American though most statistical information would put U.S. population of African Americans at around 12%. Hispanic/Latino population, the ethnic group seeing the most significant rise in population in the U.S. is .89% of our church membership while making up around 16% of the total population according to the 2010 census projections.
As Rah describes the evangelical church in America and the current emergent church as an expression of post-modernity focused on young white leaders (pp.110,111), it is inconceivable to me that this movement will accelerate at a pace that is reflective of the American ethnic make-up, much less exceed that make-up.
Given this challenge, how will the church respond? The answer is reflected in much of the reading from this summer. Young World Rising by Rob Salkowitz may provide important clues. Questions remain as to whether those who have the power in the established church - in all of it's forms - can trust that God has endowed God's children from non-Western parts of the globe with leadership and giftedness to lead the church as a whole into the future. Can we let go of the power and control we have attained through Western ideology and submit to the power of The One who created all of us? Can leadership flow in a new direction while money still flows from the traditional direction? Will that also change as we see the development of entrepeneurship from the ethnic groups currently within the church and our western culture and as our church is forced to recognize the boundary-lessness of a Global Christianity? #dmingml
