I too quickly forget that following Jesus is hard--really hard. The sermon at church on Sunday (given by Chip Ingram, not Pastor Paul who is quoted in the article below) was about learning how to suffer well. What a completely counter cultural idea to the American "pursuit of happiness".
The church in the U.S. is quick to forget that the life Jesus has called us to is one that will include suffering, and maybe that connects to our reluctance to build multiethnic church communities. Just as discussed in the article, it's hard to learn to live life--to really intertwine our lives-- with people from different cultural backgrounds. It's easier to stay cute and smile and say hi on Sunday morning, then get into the messy business of loving and being loved across cultural boundaries. But what would it look like if we really took that step?
Recently, I've been asking God to deepen my journey of crossing cultures (this is probably against my better judgement as I know that God gives me what I ask for!). I talk a lot about valuing people of other cultures, and I like to think I've already "arrived" when it comes to entering different cultural spaces, but the truth is I still have further to go in understanding that even if it's hard to learn to live life together, I need my brothers and sisters in Christ that are different from me.
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Recently CNN featured a special called, "Black in America." I didn't have a chance to check it out, but it turns out that the pastor of my church was featured in an article written in connection to the special feature.
Don't have time to dig into it right now, but the article discusses why multiethnic churches are so uncommon in the U.S.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/08/04/segregated.sundays/index.html
1 comment:
Wow! I had no idea this article was out there, much less that Pastor Paul was featured. Thanks for sharing the link! - JC
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