Maybe you have struggled being a BAME member of a mostly white church or a white member of a mostly BAME church?
Is this God’s desire? Aren’t we supposed to just meet altogether as one and simply be blind to race or nationality or culture or gender or age? A multi-cultural church of both Jews and Greeks together?
Now we may not ourselves be racist but it is still all too easy to feel more comfortable and interact with those people who are just like us. We all carry subconscious bias whether we like it or not. The BLM movement taught us this.
The danger is that in our continuing covid world of small groups and online virtual meetings the social distancing and covid clique bubbles we have all suffered in the last two and a half years can become permanently entrenched in our own social interactions and behaviours.
Communities that do not meet all together will always fracture. The outsiders gradually leave to where people will “at least talk with them” and where they feel accepted. The remaining community becomes more and more homogenous.
How do we stop this all from happening?
Listen to Marlon Francis’s thought-provoking message last Sunday for further insights as he asks if we are prepared to become peacemakers? Marlon shares his own experiences of churches that went from all-white to being all-black over 40 years.
To view accompanying notes click below.
