Cultural Diversity and the Church

We live in a society where racial and economic diversity is promoted and encouraged like never before. Communities strive for their citizens to be people of differing ethnicities, the government stimulates communities to have distinct people groups and, and businesses delight in having employees of all different cultures. But what about in our churches? Many churches are taking after the society and trying to cultivate a diverse culture within their bodies. But is that something a body of believers needs to worry about? Should churches concern themselves with being racially and economically diverse?

The Bible is not racist. That should be pretty obvious. If you don’t believe me you can look up Revelation 7:9-10 where it says that all people, from every tribe, tongue, and nation will worship before the Lamb in heaven. Also, in the great commission (Matt. 28:16-20) Jesus commands his disciples to proclaim the gospel to all nations, or as the literal Greek translation says, to proclaim the gospel to all “ethnos” (people groups). Christians are people of all races, colors, and languages. “For there is no distinction,” as Paul says in Romans 10:12, “between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.” And again Paul writes in Romans 3:22, “-the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:”

There is no racial discrimination in the Christian faith and we as Christians must reach and welcome people of all ethnic and financial backgrounds, but the church should never emphasize having a diverse worship service. A pastor should never push his congregation to invite people of a certain race to church because his church needs more diversity. Diversity in a church is a wonderful thing, but it shouldn’t be a goal. The church is a body, a people, whoever they might be and wherever they might have come from, striving to praise, worship, and make known the glory of God throughout their body and their community. A racially or economically diverse church is no greater than a church where all people have the same color skin and are of the same class. It saddens me when congregations are praised because of who’s in them. In the body of Christ, we are all equal and alike. We are all of the same family, the family of God. There is no upper class, middle class, or low-income class. There is no black, white, Hispanic, or Asian. There is no distinction. There is no diversity. We are all one. “We are all,” as the Christian band, Tenth Avenue North puts it, “the same.”