April really has to be action month for me.
I’ve allowed myself the winter months for hibernation and contemplation, but I appreciate that April – where the spring kicks in – truly has to be a time of action.
One of those areas for action is the practical aspect of getting out a bit more. A friend of mine challenged me to take my fitness a little seriously so he challenged me to go walking with him recently. When he said going for a walk, I didn’t know he had 13 miles worth of walking in mind. Oh, but I sure found out all about it when the walk was over. #PrayForMyFeet.
On the walk we talked and among other topics that came up with the issue of race, culture and church. We attend a church that is not from the same culture as the one we come from. My friend comes from a different church culture to my own. So it’s three different church cultures under one roof – that’s not even taking into account others who share fellowship with us that come from a myriad of ethnic origins as well as church backgrounds. In as much as we come from different backgrounds, there is a majority church culture and ethnic culture.
As my friend and I are not a part of that majority culture, it’s interesting working out how to adjust to the culture and find a church home there. For me in particular it’s fascinating because I’ve often struggled to find a home anywhere outside of my actual home – by which I mean the confines that featured my parents and my siblings. There was the church gathering in which I grew up with familiar characters, but that never felt like truly being at home. Then there were the national settings which came across as all the more alien to me. I felt like an alien and a misfit in most of the settings I came across in life whether studying, working or in church circles.
This year will see the celebration of 15 years of married life and it’s only been in the last few years that the household that now features my wife and three children has felt like home. It’s a true story. I’m … like that.
Conversing about the issue of race, culture and church with my friend was a really good talk on a really long walk. It is understandable that people prefer to be among like-minded people. It’s not easy being with strange people at the best of times, it can be a bit much when the strange goes into styles of worship, approaches to scripture, the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the way you talk, how you treat children and what you do to socialise and relax.
I understand why it’s easier to just stick with your own kind and make nominal gestures to be ‘multi-cultural’ and ‘inclusive’. It’s tough truly looking to reflect the diversity that the gospel brings. It’s not straightforward acknowledging Christ being all and in all, breaking down all barriers and can enable us to practice together the harmony of differences together in Christ.
It’s not the greatest witness to the power of the gospel that there are still Black Majority and White Majority congregations, but I can understand the pull towards keeping to what you’re comfortable with. It goes beyond ethnicity as the consumer culture now means if you’re not happy with what you have you can shop around for a church or come up with your own gathering that best reflects your tastes and views.
Among all of that, it’s intriguing to note that the theme in Scripture is about a people who are making do with the home they have while they wait a return to home. So we have the image of believers being pilgrims, strangers and aliens in the world. That concept is in itself strange when we are still so wedded to all those features that we find common ground with others. For the sake of the Kingdom finding a new identity in Christ is a truly challenging thing when we continue to put our differences up as barriers rather than seeing ourselves differently in Christ.
There are enough glimpses that I see, however, in relationships, partnerships and initiatives among Kingdom-minded people. I see folks that truly loves to see others as brother and sister with whom they can share life and exchange an understanding about the all those differences. They look at this while fundamentally celebrating Christ as the ultimate commonality even as strangers and pilgrims in this world.
They get the picture that really our home is in Jesus and we long to be with Him and share that with all those other beautiful saints of the wide variety of backgrounds.
Until we get there, it’s like we’ll have to take a walk together in Christ that might be a bit longer than the 13 miles my friend and I walked.
At least we know that on the way home, we will never walk alone.
(Photo by Mel Elías on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 