Laying the Foundation of Diverse Leadership (part 2)

Ramon Mayo, brings us the second part of his series on the foundations of diverse leadership:

So what kind of foundation is needed for a diverse team leading the local body? Is it just something we came up with as a politically correct leftover from the civil rights era? Is it just a shrewd marketing strategy to attract different groups to the church? More than this it is a pattern established by King Jesus himself. A natural outgrowth of the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom Foundation:  Diverse leadership is a mandate and reality of the Kingdom of God. This can be seen from an examination of New Testament examples in their sociocultural context. Here are three key passages that highlight God's intent in regards to ethnically diverse leadership:

Jesus and the disciples. Although not ethnically diverse Jesus draws a diverse group of Jewish men to be his apprentices. A tax collector, a revolutionary zealot, a group of fishermen, and a few of these good Hebrew boys had Greek names. Was it a preview of what was to come?

Hmmmm....

The deacons in Acts 6. In Acts chapter 6 the early church is faced with a dilemma: How do we take care of the needs of the Hellenistic Jewish widows? The solution: Appoint Hellenistic leaders to administrate the charity to Hellenistic widows. Not only were all these leaders Hellenistic Jews who had been influenced by Gentile culture but one of them was a Greek proselyte. Uh oh it's getting more diverse....

The apostolic team of Acts 13:1-3. Finally we have the group of prophets and teachers in Acts 13. These leaders hailed from a variety of places and were of different ethnic origin. One was from Cyrene. Another was called Niger which is a Latin loan word for dark complexioned. Still another added a component of socioeconomic diversity as Manaen was brought up in the household of the ruler Herod Antipas. The team that assembled at Antioch for fasting and prayer were a model for diverse leadership.

So the foundation for diverse leadership is the kingdom of God, and anything other than this foundation will ultimately prove to be unstable ground. Diverse leadership needs to be pursued not to make the church more marketable or to gain a good reputation in the wider political culture. Diverse leadership is mandated by the scripture. It is the way the Kingdom of God is supposed to function where:

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28 ESV)