Multi-ethnic Church in the Suburbs? by Chad Brennan
A brief summary
This is a talk that Chad Brennan, the Director of ReNew Partnerships (renewpartnerships.org), gave as a guest speaker at Vista Community Church located in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. He shares about his background in “the mostly-white suburbs”, the Middle East, and Queens. He presents five types of obstacles that keep Christians divided by ethnicity: cultural differences, sociological, historical, political, and theological. He explains how the early church demonstrates that it is possible to overcome all of these obstacles through the power and leading of the Holy Spirit. He concludes by sharing how churches in the suburbs, like Vista, have a rapidly increasing amount of ethnic diversity within a few miles of their church. How will they respond? He challenges them to follow the example of the early church and build counter-cultural, multi-ethnic churches that reflect the power and love of Christ. Total length of all three parts is 30 minutes.
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I appreciate the fact that it’s a White man addressing these issues. He can use the words racism, oppression, etc, without being accused of being an angry minority or over-sensitive. What is missing from the presentation is the reality of institutionalized racism that exists in American Evangelicism. It’s not just personal interaction but it’s systemic, which is rooted in history.
Thanks anonymous, you make a good point. I only briefly touched on the systemic issues in this talk. I address those in more depth in this article: http://renewpartnerships.org/articles/principles-4-cb/. I also recommend the excellent book Divided By Faith for much more detail on the systemic issues: http://renewpartnerships.org/books/divided-me/