Our Community Conversation (Week 5)

In our conversation about diversity over the last few weeks one of the things that has become clear is that we have many different ideas and definitions of what diversity means for our church. In order to better define what we mean by diversity lets discuss:

1. What form of diversity do you think is the most important for our church to focus on at this time? 
- socio-economic/class
- racial/ethnic/cultural
- sexuality and gender
- generational (age)
- viewpoints/opinions
- religious backgrounds

Here's how the conversation went:

• From the very beginning of our church it has always been filled with affluent members and non-affluent members don't seem to stay around for very long. It seems like that is something that we should work on.
• Like America, we accept people and welcome them from all backgrounds but we don't expect them to change our basic beliefs like believer's baptism, faith, rebirth, etc. We don't want people who come to impose their beliefs on us. We don't have to change just because other people change.
• Do we accept people who have a different personal theology than we do? The question here is, "how diverse should we be?" We came out of the SBC because of inerrancy. How do we deal with people who have different theologies. We know them by their fruits. If the fruits are good then a person is a good Christian regardless of their personal theology.
• When we left the SBC it was for a number of reasons, but especially the interpretation of the Bible. Some believe in inerrancy and some do not. We have both in our church and we accept both views. 
• If people come in with a personal agenda to do something to change the church or take over then that is the only thing that would keep anybody out. If someone tried to make us into something other than a Christian church who was open to all people then that is the only thing that would not make them welcome.
• We should focus on what holds us together and not what tears us apart. 
• The greatest challenge we face is the integration of the older and younger members of the church. The idea of a senior adult SS class serving food to the youth on Sunday nights is a good idea. We need to concentrate on fostering the interplay of different age groups.
• We need to continue working on becoming an intergenerational community together. We need to share our life experiences and wisdom. It would be good if everybody could have the support network, and fellowship, and community that our church provides. 
• There are very few African Americans, very few Hispanics, and very few other minorities in our church. We simply do not have racial and cultural diversity right now. This is the kind of diversity that we need to focus on. 

2. What are some examples of diversity in the Bible? In what ways can these stories help inform our discussion of diversity as a church?

Here's how the conversation went:

• In the early church it was the integration of Gentiles into the Jewish community that was the greatest challenge. The Jewish community had to learn how to accept the Gentiles cultural practices like what they ate and how they lived. Peter's vision of the sheet with clean and unclean animals on it is an example of this. The Jewish community had to learn how to accept people who did not keep the kosher food laws. In Acts 17 Paul address the people of Athens who worshiped the unknown god and invited them to come and worship the God of Israel. Jews accepting Gentiles was the biggest challenge of diversity that the church faced. 
• The entire New Testament is about the inclusion of the Gentiles into the Jewish community. At first the Jews were requiring the Gentiles to be circumcised, to adopt the kosher food regulations, and to obey all their laws to become a part of the community. But Paul and eventually Peter stood against that kind of exclusion and the NT is about how they worked out a new community were all were included together without requirements. Welcoming the Gentiles without requiring circumcision was one of the most inclusive acts of cultural, ethnic, and racial diversity in human history and it was also the foundation of the church.
• There is a diversity of theology among the different writers of the NT. They have different perspectives. The gospel of John and Revelation are different than Peter and Paul.
• The story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8 (as well as Isaiah) is a story about the inclusion of someone who was very different sexually and who was previously excluded because of their sexuality. This story is instructive for us in terms of our approach to sexual and gender diversity in the church.
• Spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 is a form of diversity in the church - all gifts are equal.
• Jesus is the greatest example of inclusiveness and diversity that the world has ever known. He called uneducated fisherman and women to be his disciples. He broke down the barriers of gender, culture, and class. He ate with tax collectors and prostitutes. 
• The story of the friends who brought their paralytic brother to Jesus in Mark 2 and had to take him up on the roof of the house and dig through the ceiling to get to Jesus is an example of our call to diversity and love toward those with disabilities. 
• There is diversity of understanding in the story of Nicodemus. He wondered how he could be born again. He didn't understand and needed Jesus to break it down for him to bite size. Jesus was patient with those who didn't understand. As Paul said, he offered milk for those who weren't yet tolerant of meat - for those who were still learning. 

3. What is the definition of diversity?

Here's how the conversation went:

• Diversity means being different.
• The derivation of the word is being different in talents, abilities, and gifts.
• But there is also positive diversity. Biblical diversity is taking our differences and making them work together for God's purpose in the world. 
• What we are really after is how do you take diverse groups of people and meld them into one unified whole. 
• It starts with being able to listen to each other. If you go to a Muslim country and listen to them talk about their lives you realize that what we hear about Muslims on television is not the reality. They are just like us. If you listen you can develop a conversation where every one is being heard. 
• The problem is that we have divide parts/concepts of the same belief. We all have different understandings of the beliefs that we share. One of the things we should sing as a church when it first begins is, "Whosoever Will May Come". 

4. We've talked a lot about diversity of beliefs as a church. One of the things that Baptists have always held to is the principle of liberty of conscience - every person is free to believe what they want to believe and shouldn't be compelled otherwise. Baptists have traditionally believed that in the church there should be "freedom in non-essentials." Of course, the problem is defining what the essentials are. What do you think are the essentials of faith that we have to share as a community?

Here's how the conversation went:

• From time to time we all question the whole "kit and caboodle" - God, Christ, the Trinity, whatever. We question our entire faith. All that should matter is love and acceptance. The thing that should hold us together is love and acceptance. If someone is being loving then it shouldn't matter if they have doubts or divergent theological beliefs. But if someone is being unloving and hurtful then no matter what they believe we have to challenge their actions. 

That's where we had to stop the conversation this week. The conversation will continue next Wednesday night at 6 pm. Hope to see you there!