Laying the Foundation of Diverse Leadership (part 1)

Please welcome guest writer Ramon Mayo, a speaker, author, and former pastor of multiethnic church. Here, he shares his thoughts in a two-part series on the foundations of diverse leadership:

Many have advocated for churches to have diverse leadership and how this leadership must look like the community it serves. This is definitely a good idea but in order for the pursuit of ethnically diverse leadership to endure trials and bear good fruit there must be a strong foundation.

"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." (Matthew 7:24-27 ESV)

In my experience there have been 3 main foundations and only one of them has proven to be strong and robust enough to be effective in handling the tests and trials that come with being an ethnically diverse leadership team and reflecting God's heart.

The Pragmatic Foundation: This foundation basically says "We need more diverse leadership in order to reach more people and make our church more diverse." The truth is diverse leadership will not necessarily make your church more diverse. Here are three reasons why:

1. Sometimes having different ethnicities on your leadership team may be viewed as tokenism. This is especially the case when the leader behaves and leads more in line with the majority culture. The message communicated to those of another ethnicity is "In order to be accepted here you must behave like us and the only thing valuable to us is your physical features which meet our quota."

2. Related to the above is the church's context. Even if you put a leader of a certain ethnicity up front if the church is geographically or culturally distant then people from that ethnic group will not feel connected to the church. No one wants to drive (or in many cases catch the bus) all the way to the suburbs to hear music and preaching that doesn't connect with their real life context.

3. Most non white ethnicities are communal. We do things in groups. To hire or raise up one leader isolates them from the group and they are looked at as a maverick doing their own thing and even looked at with suspicion. Instead of white culture's perception of them as a pioneer they are looked at primarily as a loner who thinks they are superior.

The Political Foundation: The next foundation is the political one. This foundation basically says "We must have a diverse leadership because everyone deserves an equal opportunity and we do not want to be seen as racist." The truth is, diverse leadership is not a matter of political correctness. There are three problems with this foundation:

1. It cannot be separated from the motivations of corporations or academia. There is nothing distinct about this foundation than why corporations and academic institutions hire non white employees and it screams Tokenism! (see above).

2. Political correctness is based on the majority. What is politically correct in the United States is based on what the majority of the culture thinks. What happens when the majority of the culture has different thoughts about diverse leadership or diversity in general?

3. Political correctness will not be able to take you through the rough patches. The motivation to be politically correct and treat everyone as an equal will not help with the difficulties of leading and being a part of a diverse leadership team. It is not a strong enough motivation to submit and learn from others who are different than you. It is not effective at reconciling those who have been hostile towards each other. It only serves as a thin veneer to mask our estrangement.


Continue to part 2 where we will discover the strong foundation for diverse leadership...

Friday Fruit (07/27/12)

Abuse from border patrol

On Fridays, BTSF posts links to some of the week's happenings.  

It's an opportunity for you to read about racial justice & Christianity from other folks, and for me to give props to the shoulders on which I stand...

Weekly Round Up:

• The Straight Truth About Multiracial Worship

• Media Coverage of Mass Murders

• Notes on how NOT to write about Native Americans
• Also this week from Abagond: Native Europeans

• Does familiarity breed unity?: Implications for multicultural worship

• Representation of primitive 'other' and modernized selves

• Selective First Amendment Rights: It doesn't just apply to Christians

• Abusive Border Patrol: How Do You Call the Cops on the Cops?

These are some of BTSF's links of interest this week. What are yours?

Feel free to contribute your own links in the comments section, or submit items you feel should be included during the week. Self-promotion is encouraged. 

See Also:
Slow down…put on your Biblical Lens
Carrying Your Brother

The Friends Jesus Invited

Carrying Your Brother

Please welcome guest blogger, Jan Paron, one of the founders of the All Nations Leadership Institute, director of PerSpectives 12 Ministries, and assistant pastor at Lighthouse Church of All Nations. The following article is part of her 'Living in Brotherhood' series. 

Henri Nouwen’s words remind me of the importance of carrying your brother with compassion. The word compassion’s Latin derivatives mean to suffer with. Nouwen points out that “Compassion asks us to go where it hurts to enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears…” (1982, p. 3-4). I had to soul search whether I hold a deep compassion for others that would propel me to carry my brother.

Recently, I came across a Facebook video post of The Hollies performing He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother. The song’s content strikes as relevant a chord today, as it did when Americans Bobby Scott and Bobby Russell wrote it in the sixties inspired by Boy’s Town and the film of that same name. It presents a powerful trajectory about brotherhood: carrying one another, bearing someone’s burdens and sharing another’s load. Perhaps most important, it highlights the feeling of sadness over the absence of love for one another.

The song hit the top twenty United Kingdom charts in 1969 and United States twice during the following year, covered by The Hollies and Neil Diamond. This was a tumultuous period in Unites States history characterized by clashes over racial integration, female equality, farm workers rights, emerging generation and Vietnam Conflict. I was seventeen when The Hollies released He Ain’t’ Heavy, He’s My Brother in 1969. 

Every day I watched current events showing the latest news across the world. I still recall vivid television photos and film showing wounded Vietnam soldiers and embattled civil rights workers from that era. – One important piece was missing from the humanity of these events. I lacked a connection between television images and real people. 

Despite seeing the med evacuation of a dying soldier, I never comprehended the loss of grieving family over their son or daughter. Even though people faced intense opposition to gain equal rights, I did not encounter closed doors having been born into privilege. That my parents vowed their children would never go through what they did during the Great Depression, I did not work long hours under duressful conditions.

Compassion, Jan Paron, 2012

The wounded, hurt, oppressed and poor. These were my brothers and sisters, my neighbors, yet I did not know them. Like many seventeen year olds, I focused on the now of daily social affairs. Although I was a Christian, the world revolved around my needs and desires. So, I only recollect the song’s soulful sound, rather its message of carrying another person.

Images from the Vietnam War still form a fresh picture. Etched in my memory, I see a soldier carrying a wounded soldier, a single child or even a Viet Cong fighter. The U.S. Army Soldier’s Creed makes purpose clear. It stresses a soldier’s mission, identity, commitment, perseverance and community and responsibility to others:

I am an American Soldier.
I am a warrior and member of a team. I served the people of the United States and live the Army values.
I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade. (Army Soldier’s Creed)

Keep in mind that a creed is a statement of beliefs. Now, reframe as the Lord’s Army Soldier’s Creed:

I am a soldier of the army of the Lord.
I am a Christian warrior and member of the household of God. I serve Christ’s flock and live out Christian values with others.
I will always place God’s mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen brother or neighbor.

Do I consistently live out this creed for the cause of the Gospel? Moreover, do I have the compassion that allows me to say I will never leave a fallen brother or neighbor? These are questions I always must pose to myself.

“So on we go. His welfare is of my concern. No burden is he to bear. We’ll get there. For I know. He would not encumber me. He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother” (Scott & Russell).

To ponder: Do you carry your brother or neighbor?

See Also:

Church for All People

The Friends Jesus Invited

Sharing our Stories: Living on the Southside

Slow down…put on your Biblical Lens

Please welcome guest author Peter Kihyun Park, co-laborer of the Multicultural Worship Leaders Network, who serves in Minneapolis, MN.

“Why” is more important than “how”
Whenever I have the opportunity to teach about multicultural worship I always try to caution, those attending, against focusing too much on the outward changes, whether you’re just starting out or been in it for a while. The reason is that, at least in my church experience, we quickly focus on “how” to do something versus “why” we’re doing something.

This may be the reason why we see so many different trends go through the church.

My Journey at Aldrich Presbyterian Church 

Back in 2010 I was searching for a worship leader position. I wasn’t bringing in an income at the time and I needed a job. Aldrich Presbyterian Church was the first church, at least that I’ve seen in Minnesota, that was specifically looking for a multicultural worship leader.

The interview process was fairly quick. I think I met with the search committee, lead worship one Sunday, and got a call back within a week and a half.  And it was in that interview process that I said I’d be coming to train the worship, not just lead songs that were “multicultural.” We needed to know why multicultural worship was resonating with this church, otherwise we’d soon be looking for another project to work on in a few years.

So, when I officially came on board the worship team started doing devotionals together. I remember studying Jonah and digging into the reasons why Jonah seemed so resistant to God’s direction, which in part was racial. I remember studying Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5 where we see a specific call to sing in different styles…maybe even different languages, as we read about Jewish and Gentile believers worshiping together.

And I believe it’s because all the work we’ve spent studying Scripture that the congregation has responded so positively to what we’re doing. I can only give credit to God in this matter. Why?

Because when I first came to Aldrich I heard about specific people that were resistant to singing songs in different languages and people who wouldn’t raise their hands in worship unless they were told to.

But the exact opposite has happened. People in the congregation surprise me by dancing, lifting their hands, and giving me an encouraging word about the music on Sunday mornings.

And guess what? There’s a good possibility that the prayer team will be joining the worship team during our devotional time because they have a hunger to understand the Holy Spirit from a Biblical standpoint. Praise God.

My Advice

As you’re making outward changes to your worship and casting the vision for multicultural worship…be sure to slow down and put on your Biblical lens. Make sure your team and the people in the congregation know why multicultural worship is so important. Remind them that this is one of the benefits that we received when Christ paid for our sins, which is unity in a diverse Body.

I’ll leave you with some words from a good friend of mine who said, “Our worship flows from our understanding of who God is.” I can’t echo that enough.

Friday Fruit (07/20/12)

On Fridays, BTSF posts links to some of the week's happenings. 

It's an opportunity for you to read about racial justice & Christianity from other folks, and for me to give props to the shoulders on which I stand...

Weekly Round Up:

• Stop pretending racism is over: Kenny Wiley shares his perspective

• Judge Terminates Detained Mom’s Rights, Allows Missouri Couple to Adopt

• ‘10 Frisk Commandments’ from Jasiri X

• Olympic 'Slums': Housing for Migrant Workers in London

• Young Fan Recreates Beyoncé’s ‘Countdown’ Shot for Shot

• Physical Churches: Do They Matter Anymore?
• Also appeared on Sojourners

These are some of BTSF's links of interest this week. What are yours?

Feel free to contribute your own links in the comments section, or submit items you feel should be included during the week. Self-promotion is encouraged. 

See Also:
Sharing our Stories: Living on the Southside
Break In

The Friends Jesus Invited