Home › Features › Scott Williams: "Future Faces of the Church"

Scott Williams: "Future Faces of the Church"

By Scott Williams • 06/20/2012

Email this Print version

“You can’t lead your church to embrace a culture of diversity if you don’t believe in the importance of developing that culture in your own life.”

Recent Stories

Beyond the First Church of the Consumer
Bobby Gruenewald: "Every step we take to further their consumer mentality is a disservice to them and to the church at large."
Dealing with Church Betrayal
If you are in leadership long enough, betrayal will happen. The real question is: what do you do next?
10 Dangerous Church Paradigms
Ron Edmondson offers ten unhealthy perspectives that could alter the shape of your ministry--both today and tomorrow.

What comes to mind when you think about the words “future faces of the church”? For some, the phrase may inspire thoughts of church visionaries. Maybe you’re envisioning the next generation of world changers in your student ministry.

But think a little differently with me. What do the people and leaders in your congregation look like? In 93 percent of American churches today, a majority of the faces are of one race.

What do you believe or hope these faces will look like five to 10 years from now? Do you care? Or are you one of the many leaders I encounter that laugh about or downplay the fact that the vast majority of U.S. churches are racially segregated?

Nearly 50 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. had the courage to address and challenge what he saw, calling 11 o’clock on Sunday morning “the most segregated hour in America.” Unfortunately, his observation still rings true today.

Rewind 2,000 years, and you find another leader even more passionate about a united kingdom. Jesus called for His disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:16-20). The words “all nations” indicate that Jesus’ ministry in Israel was to be the starting point of what would later become the proclamation and sharing of the Gospel to everyone regardless of race, gender, socioeconomics or geography. Clearly, diversity is important to God.

So why aren’t our local churches following this mandate? In my work with churches and organizations, I continue to see cultural taboos as primary culprits—the idea that we’re not supposed to talk about three volatile subjects: religion, politics and race. But recent U.S. Census statistics reveal dramatic demographic shifts that cannot be ignored. Minorities make up nearly half the children born here, and minorities are expected to become the country’s majority over the next 40 years. Clearly, “making disciples of all nations” requires that we start the conversation and be bold enough to ask the tough questions—of ourselves and of our churches.

When I meet with leaders, I always start with what I call the ABC’s of Church Diversity: Assess, Believe and Change.

1 2