Posts Tagged ‘multiethnic’
Practical steps for racial and cultural reconciliation
An important seminar on race and faith was recently hosted at New Life Fellowship, a multi-ethnic church in Queens, New York City. The seminar video, Next Steps in Racial and Cultural Reconciliation, is now available online.
The seminar was led by Pastor Pete Scazzero & Dr. Soong-Chan Rah, deepening an understanding of the complexity & depth of bridging racial & cultural barriers within our communities. The seminar also provide practical, do-able steps for each person to take to make reconciliation a reality.
About the seminar topic, Pete Scazzero wrote in “Bridging Barriers: Next Steps for New Life Fellowship Church” ::
I soon realized that our evangelical discipleship/spiritual formation model was too superficial to bring about the kind of in-depth transformation we would need to live in authentic community. … Asians, with their rich legacy of love for education, had great difficulty in embracing high-school dropouts who now attended our youth group … We also had to consistently remind immigrants that they were now part of the American church.
And Drew Hyun wrote in “Thoughts on our Reconciliation Seminar“:
1) The Conversation of Reconciliation Needs to Address Personal AND Corporate Injustices/Sins; 2) There’s an Illusion that Building a Diverse Church Family will be Easy (or Formulaic); 3) Understanding (or at Least Trying to Understand) The Black Experience is Fundamental to Making Progress in the Area of Reconciliation; 4) I Have to Take Personal Responsibility; 5) We Need to Talk
Thanks to Drew Hyun for the video link.
Reading about this topic, again, it makes me wonder just how much these racial and cultural barriers stay embedded because some people deny their existence and sincerely believe that we live in a post-racial American society.
Am I a sell-out too?
Danny Yang has now apologied for triggering a firestorm of comments for his provocatively titled blog post, Is Francis Chan a sell-out?
The title obviously struck a nerve, and provoked a good number of mis-readings and reactions, even though it was clearly spelled out in that very blog post that Danny did not think he was a sell-out:
I don’t really think he’s a sell-out; I believe Chan is living faithfully to what GOD has called him to be.
Does that mean the question was mis-stated in the first place? Maybe not. There is a rhetorical device called a hypothetical question where a question may be posed, even though the answer is already known as a definitively absolutely “no.” It’s used in the Bible, you know. Paul posed the question, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” Of course not! Is he a sell-out? Of course not!
READ MORE …
how churches get embedded with values
I’ve just finished reading the new book
by Soong-Chan Rah titled, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity. Rah reviews the biases in American history that have now been institutionalized not just in mainstream culture, but also unknowingly embedded in evangelical churches and evangelical theologies. (cf. here’s a video of me reading the book’s acknowledgements and introduction)
I consider Rah’s effort to be a great companion to a couple of other books I’ve recently read, The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel, and Church (by Shane Hipps, cf. the newer title Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith has very similar content, I’ve heard) and The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity (by Skye Jethani).
The above 3 books make a valiant effort at cultural deconstruction and show just how greatly our mainstream American culture has been influenced by theology, technology, and consumerism. And not only that, the typical American evangelical church has been embedded with values that do not represent the Gospel well. To quote Tim Keller, “Every culture is dominated by idols that is not dominated by the glory of Christ.”
Sadly, in too many contexts, it is not safe to ask questions of our church culture and its embedded values. And even if those questions were to be asked, and discussed, to actually create change and transform an institution like the church is seemingly impossible.
So these (almost) prophetic truths are great to surface, expose, and discuss. Yet, could it be that we in the American church has been too enamoured with pragmatic results in church growth and evangelistic zeal? Could it be that by upholding values of excellence, efficiency, and effectiveness, we have lost sight of the more obviously Bibical values of justice, dignity, and diversity — God’s love of the whole world?
Rah’s The Next Evangelicalism has much more to say, and as others join the online conversation of the blogosphere, I’ll add more of my reactions to the book. [update 5/8 great discussion about Rah's book over at julieclawson.com, including comments from the author; cf. Greg Boyd's review "Only WHITE American Christianity Is Dying"; book review at Theological Grafitti; Soong-Chan Rah's blog is http://scrah.xanga.com]
READ MORE …
can Christmas bring people together?
Christmas celebrates the coming of Christ into the world. Jesus shows us what God is really like, and shows us what He wants for people. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:14)
Jesus shows that being spiritual is being engaged in the real world. A real Christian faith is so much more than prayer, Bible reading, attending worship services. And, the Christmas story ought to bring peace and good will to all kinds of people.
Yet, only 7% of U.S. churches are racially diverse.[*]
Q: Why? What are the reasons for its being so low?
A: There are three things, and it depends on the group that we’re talking about, but there’s history, there’s culture, and then there’s social networks. [emphasis mine]
Social networks. The sociological factors that affect church life often go understated, often rationalized in theological constructs. Watch the entire interview from PBS Religion & Ethics:
[*] Religion and Ethics interview with Michael Emerson, author of People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States; researchers regard a “mixed” congregation as one with at least 20 percent of its members providing racial or ethnic diversity
Aside: for fans of The Office and/or those who can laugh at their own religions, watch the God, Inc. series over at YouTube; note the difference between “really Christian” and “sort of Christian”]
4 questions for Ed Cyzewski on theology
The Coffeehouse Theology blog tour makes its stop here today! Ed Cyzewski, author of Coffeehouse Theology: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life, responds to 4 of my burning questions here. 
I didn’t want to ask the typical junket questions like what is the book about, and he’s already explained why he wrote yet another book on contextual theology.
What would you like to ask Ed Cyzewski? Add a comment below, and since the blog tour is here today, he’ll respond!
Here’s my exclusive interview with Ed Cyzewski –
djchuang >> Having studied theology and thought about it a lot, I’m so glad that you’ve noted other ingredients that shape our theology besides the Bible, namely, tradition, God, and the global church. Some people say they have “no creed but the Bible.” What would you say to them, since I don’t think they’d read your book?
READ MORE …