Kainos: Seeking the Multiethnic Church with Dr. Bryan Loritts The Summit Church, Durham, NC

Dr Loritts did an excellent interview with Dr Edwards. Dr Edwards articulates the issue regarding ethnicity and race. There is such clarity on these current matters. Thank you.

This podcast does a great job of mapping out a way to approach the dynamics of race in America through the gospel. I have loved every second of this!

Whether or not you like this podcast will probably depend on whether you agree with its fundamental claims, namely: 1)Pursuing a certain proportionality of skin color (25% minority) in the church reflects God’s church and design. “Our Sanctuary should look like our mission field.” 2)It is valuable to recognize certain skin colors as uniquely valuable for the sake of diversity. 3)White evangelicals and predominantly white churches present obstacles (unintentional or otherwise) for People of Color (POCs) that we should try to remove. 4)Caring more about race makes you more mature in Christ (Introduction episode) 5)Fighting for multiethnic congregations is fighting for the integrity and beauty of the church. These claims aren’t made in direct ways, instead you will have to dig through a nice-sounding word salad designed to emotionally nudge you into agreement with the premises – “All we want to do is steward and steer the sheep toward biblical reconciliation and unity” Who could disagree with that right?! I am a layperson in the church, I don’t have my PHD, and didn’t go to seminary. But I would challenge people to see if they can find anywhere in the Bible where skin color is said to be even remotely important, explicitly or implicitly. Culture, and some pastors, are putting a lot of qualifiers in front of terms these days: “ethnic unity, multiethnic church, predominantly white church, social justice.” These qualifiers change the definitions of Biblical terms to mean something entirely different, viewing everything through a racial lens. Loritts does this with terms and goes further, categorizing people along racial lines and ascribing to them certain characteristics: White evangelicals – somewhat unaware of racial nuance, lacking in lived experience of discrimination and often short on empathy. Reluctant and sometimes resistant to change. POC’s – frustrated by a lack of understanding in their white counterparts, hindered from joining predominately white churches, unheard. I have a white family, but I wouldn’t consider my house a “white space,” or identify as a “white evangelical.” Why? Because my identity and family’s identity isn’t inseparable or rooted in my race as the terms would imply. Identities along the lines of race, sex, tribe, political party, etc., have all been swallowed up by our identity in Christ (Gal 3:26-28). Let us regard no one according to the flesh (2 Cor 5:16). This isn’t to say that I’m not a male, or white. But those aren’t our primary identities; they are so far below our identity in Christ, becoming less important as we mature.
Another issue: Loritts says outright in “An Encouragement to Pastors” that it is okay to lose 20% of the congregation who can’t get onboard with the multiethnic goals. It’s not a problem if these people feel uncomfortable with the direction. Feel free to leave. But if a POC has or feels any obstacles to coming into our church, we should do everything possible to alleviate them. Furthermore, a worship leader is great, but a POC worship leader is even better because it makes a statement of who we want to become. This seems like partiality based on pigment, and partiality is something the Bible speaks out against (Deut 10:17, Rom 2:11, James 2). The biggest obstacle to attending church and growing closer to God is our own heart. A church that’s teaching the truth should be convicting and often uncomfortable, because we are rebels at heart, steeped in our transgression and sin, and constantly fighting repentance. So if you are rating a church based on how it makes you feel, or if you are reluctant to attend a church because of the skin color of the people around you, I’d encourage you to look inward first. This idea that time and resources should be dedicated to our local church physically looking more like our local demographic is a strange one. It’s justification is based on Revelation 7:9 where we see every tribe tongue and nation praising God together. The thinking goes that that’s God’s church, so we need to look like it and be racially proportional. But this is conflating congregation and Church. God’s church is worldwide, transcending nations borders and the present time. Of course it has every tribe, tongue and nation, because it includes 1421 Uganda just like it does 2021 Raleigh. If we pursue this goal, are we also willing to tell the Ugandan church that we believe it would be a good goal to have more white people? Maybe, but I doubt it. Why is that? How is fighting for a multiethnic congregation “fighting for the integrity and beauty of the church?” As if the beauty/integrity of God’s church was dependent on us. When a congregation attaches a percentage goal to its congregants based on pigment, when it dedicates time and resources to attracting certain minorities over others, when it wants to look like the local demographic, it will probably succeed. But it feels more reactive to the cultural priorities of our time, and less in line with the biblical injunctions to be a place that is extremely distinctive but not focused on external, immutable characteristics. This podcast tries to sneak things by you with emotional language. But Black/White distinctions are not the same as Jew/Gentile ones, the Church is not the same as a Congregation, and Ephesians 2 is not about us needing to pursue more “racial reconciliation.” By the way, in what way are we not reconciled already? Can we be precise? Please look at what Scriptures say (or don’t say) about skin color, diversity, justice, and unity. These are some of the big issues of our time, and they shape our theology, philosophies, politics, and daily decisions. If you are looking for a good podcast that explores these issues with direct, honest, and humble biblical exegesis, I’d recommend the “Just Thinking Podcast” with Virgil Walker and Darrell Harrison. They do a good job of building the arguments from the ground up and depend less on the self-obviousness of their premises.