{"id":12979,"date":"2017-05-25T18:23:34","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T01:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=12979"},"modified":"2017-05-26T09:43:43","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T16:43:43","slug":"lessons-for-the-segregated-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/lessons-for-the-segregated-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons For The Segregated Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

In The Rise and Fall of Apartheid<\/em>, professor David Welsh describes the social system of racial segregation that the National Party established in South Africa from 1948-1994. Walsh divides the Apartheid in three chronological stages in which several laws were established in order to ensure white supremacy in the midst of a multiethnic society. These regulations had three main goals: (1) to maintain the purity of the white race by eliminating miscegenation between whites and non-whites, (2) to keep the non-white population in separate communities, (3) and to encourage mutual respect among the racial groups.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 This system of segregation led the nation into a down spiral of social unrest and thousands of deaths, which culminated with the fall of Apartheid in 1994. Both, president F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela played a significant role in this transition. They negotiated through difficult times, having to overcome the fears of retribution and embracing forgiveness, which eventually saved the nation from collapse. This transition was unique in modern history, because it was not simply a political reform or a revolution, but it was a unique mix of both, which many call a \u201crefolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

REFLECTION<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

I did not grow up in a racialized society, so reading about the Apartheid and studying the parallels with American history are a foreign concept for me. When I moved to Dallas one of my dreams was to attend an African American church. I started attending the church led by Pastor Tony Evans and sang in the choir. It was a dream come true. I eventually met my wife in seminary. Sara was a Caucasian missionary who had been born and raised in Thailand. Thus, our family life became ethnically and culturally diverse from the beginning. Two years later I became the pastor of Ethnos Bible Church, an English-speaking congregation that was predominantly Caucasian with some ethnic diversity. With time, that diversity increased, which led me to start researching the components of a healthy multiethnic church. Until that point, I thought that segregation was an obsolete mindset that no longer shaped American culture. To my surprise, my doctoral research has opened my eyes to a world of segregation that I did not know existed, in a similar way as to what Debbie Irving recounts in her book Waking Up White<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Reading Walsh was an intriguing experience, because I found several parallels with the ecclesial response to ethnic diversity found in my research. Like Apartheid, many churches are driven by a mindset about race relations that fall under the category of what Martin Percy would call implicit theology<\/em>. They believe in inclusion, but they practice exclusion.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Verwoerd, the mastermind behind Apartheid, described his system as \u201cgradual separation development.\u201d The idea was that we can develop a better society if we remain separated by ethnicity. In church ministry, this mindset is called the HUP principle. Donald McGavran and Peter Wagner argued that we can grow faster if we keep churches homogenous. Thus, today we have Hispanic churches, Korean Churches, Asian-American churches, Black churches, and White churches. For those growing up in a segregated church system, having segregated congregations seems normal\u2014even biblical<\/em>. But for those new to church life, the segregation of the church is disturbing. Former NFL player Derwin Gray was introduced to the church as an adult, and he observes, \u201cIf the government, higher education, and corporations such as Google or Apple were as segregated as the church in America, there would be a huge public outcry.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

After the Apartheid ended, the government established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission<\/em>, a system to help communities heal the wounds of racism. They did not naively say, \u201cJust get over it; the past is in the past.\u201d Rather, people understood that validation<\/em> was the first step to overcome segregation<\/em>. In a similar way, when Dr. Rodney Woo began transitioning a church from being monoethnic to multiethnic, he discovered that a big obstacle in this transformation was the tendency to overlook and minimize the sin of racism. He led his church through a process of theological reflection that culminated in forgiving and being forgiven. After a decade of a sacrificial ministry, he concluded, \u201cThere is no more powerful expression of reconciliation than different races worshiping the same God at the same time in the same place.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

We live in unprecedented times of demographic change in American history with a global economy that is shaping our cities with increasing ethnic diversity. While some may look at these changes with fear and concern, I want to look at them as an opportunity for Kingdom Impact. I want for Ethnos Bible Church to celebrate diversity in the unity of the Spirit, free from fear and from segregation. In this regard, the church has a lot to learn from Apartheid. We do not become stronger when we remain segregated; rather, our faith shines brighter when we embrace diversity. In the words of Derwin Gray, \u201cThe bride of Christ is called to be beautiful. And her beauty, which is the mystery of Christ, is to be displayed in high definition when a mosaic of multicolored, multiclass, multigenerational people learn to love each other as God so loved them. That\u2019s what America and the world need.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0 And that is the lesson that the segregated church needs to learn.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> David Welsh, The Rise and Fall of Apartheid, 21.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Derwin Gray, The HD Leader, 49.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Rodney Woo, The Color of Church, 77.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Gray, 199.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY In The Rise and Fall of Apartheid, professor David Welsh describes the social system of racial segregation that the National Party established in South Africa from 1948-1994. Walsh divides the Apartheid in three chronological stages in which several laws were established in order to ensure white supremacy in the midst of a multiethnic society. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[689,981,688,821,702,974],"class_list":["post-12979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ethnos-bible-church","tag-ethnos360","tag-pablo-morales","tag-pastor-pablo","tag-pastor-pablo-morales","tag-welsh","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12979"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13001,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12979\/revisions\/13001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}