Race and your church

We have every color imaginable in attendance, so I picked the second option. But we really don't make an issue of race, so I don't know that Id say we are "striving towards being more interracial". We just strive to be welcoming of everyone, no matter what they look like.

 

It still bothers me that the most segregated time in America is Sunday at 11 am.

We too have most every race and ethnic group imaginable in our church -- Anglos, Hispanics, American Blacks, Caribbean Blacks, Asians, etc. This is the only church I've ever attended that is so "blended" and it is wonderful. Here are a few things that we have done to move to a more racially/ethnically mixed church.

We have exchanged pastors with a majority Black Baptist congregation. We had their choir too -- they were great! In fact, their pastor led a missions conference for us. We have been involved in racial reconciliation meetings. And our leadership (elders and deacons) is mixed (not just white folks), as well as our pastoral staff - including two "mixed" marriages among our pastors.

I think this is something that a church must actively work at to be successful -- it doesn't happen naturally. The church has to show a commitment to being diverse in race/ethnicity while still being united in the Gospel.

 

I live in an area of the county that tends to segregate itself. I've been to non-white churches and felt completely at home. But, I think it is because I teach in the inner-city school system. Where I used to live we had a very small minority population in comparision to where I live now. Cultures tend to worship differently.

 

quote:

natters "We only accept ONE race into membership at our church: the human race. "

haha. as if the human race is a race at all...

 

My church has members of every race I can think of.

Name an obsure race and I'll find a current member.

 

we are just a few years past an incident where a church member tried to recruit other church members to block the bridge on our property to keep a group of African-American pastors from using our facility to meet.
I would love to see more racial make-up in our church, but until some of the old school members who still us that disgusting "n" word as just another word...i don't see it happening.

 

We are all a bunch of white people who cannot seem to get a person of another color to grace our doorstep. I'm not sure what it is. I don't know of anyone in the church who is unfriendly to other races. We've even had a few visit every now and then, but I imagine when they show up and are the only black/hispanic/whatever people there they don't come back.

What think ye? If you've got a large congregation of all one ethnic group, how do you reach out to other ethnicities?