7:10 a.m. PT: A reader sent me a link to a story in the Wall Street Journal, “The End of White Flight.” White people left cities in large numbers back in the day and moved to suburbs. They’re moving back. Different demographic, of course.
Blacks, on the other hand, didn’t leave cities in huge numbers during the same time period. The article attributes this to the denial of home loans. Naturally, the implication is that blacks were denied loans because the loan officers were racists and the banks were run by racists.
I don’t want to argue whether it’s true, or what “gentrification” may be doing to the neighborhood, or other racially tense issues. I’ll leave that to you. The article is long, but I’d like to focus on one point.
I remember reading a similar article about this “trend.” Blacks are leaving cities for cleaner pastures, and churches in urban areas are losing members. The solution? Reach out to people in the neighborhood…even if they’re white. A church needs members to survive and thrive, and the pastor, if he’s a true man of God, shouldn’t care what color the congregants are.
An excerpt:
“Some of the remaining black churches are now courting white members. On a recent Sunday, the Rev. John Blanchard, the 64-year-old pastor at Ebenezer United Methodist Church, preached to a thin crowd; several pews were empty. About half his parishioners now live in the suburbs and drive into the city for services. High gasoline prices aren’t helping attendance.
“So Mr. Blanchard says he’s planning to add a white intern to preach with him, in hopes of filling more pews. ‘You’ve got to love the one you’re with,’ he says, ‘but you also need to adjust to the environment you’re in.”
“While his church flounders, the predominantly white Capitol Hill United Methodist Church just down the street is flourishing. There the average attendance on Sundays has doubled to about 120 people the past five years. ‘Demographics are in our favor. We’re attracting the folks that are moving in,’ says the Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli, 38, who headed the church for five years before recently leaving for a position elsewhere.”
I don’t know who said 11 o’clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour, but it’s true. It’s not wrong per se, but it does seems strange that Christians, members of the body of Christ, tend to gather and worship separately based on race.
The most obvious implication of blacks leaving cities and whites moving to cities is that urban black churches could end up being more racially diverse than they’ve ever been. Among the many goals of a local church is to reach out to the surrounding area, evangelize the lost in its midst, invite them to church, and teach and guide them as they grow in grace. I read and hear about white churches trying to engage the “black community.” It’s a welcome change to know that black churches will need to engage the “white community” if they want to remain in business, so to speak.
The reversal is intriguing, the implications huge. It will force people out of their comfort zones to grow their churches. Perhaps this is God’s way of breaking down human-erected racial barriers. Which leads me to spot another implication. Black churches trying to attract white members will have to get rid of pastors like Jeremiah Wright. And that’s a good thing.
What, if anything, has your church done to reach across the racial divide?
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LaShawn,
Churches should focus on preaching the Word of God and being godly, faithful servants to those in the community whatever the race and meet those needs. God said He will build His church. We shouldnt use “business” strategies to build up numbers, but God’s strategies laid out in His Word. Also, the segregration of churches has alot to do with worship preferences. Most black congregants will not give up the black style of worship!
Shannon
What, if anything, has your church done to reach across the racial divide?
My former denomination (the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) set racial quotas for filling its leadership positions. The results were predictable – the leadership may be “diverse” but the ELCA membership is as lily-white as ever. No one wants to be thought of as just a skin color.
I am one of those blacks who left the city of Philadelphia for the nearby suburban borough of Lansdale. My Philly church was a black congregation. In the 20 years that I was a member, we had 3 white members. One of them was a from seniors’ apartment building 2 blocks around the corner.
Most whites moving back into the city are moving into areas that are purposely undergoing gentrification. My former Philly Church is not in such an area. The church does have a neighborhood ministry that includes the seniors’ apartment.
When I lived in Philly, I could walk to my church. When I moved, I decided to seek a church in Lansdale. I did not want a 30 minute car commute to Philly after being able to walk to church all those years.
I joined a small Christ centered bible teaching church that is also in walking distance. This church has a black pastor, but is not black ministry based. We have a black majority, but the membership also includes whites and Asians. There is also diversity among the blacks with members from Caribbean countries and African nations.
My church’s ongoing evangelistic efforts include everyone, but then that is how it is suppose to be. We have done door to door evangelism throughout Lansdale. Our latest evangelistic efforts brought an Asian family to our Vacation Bible School and Sunday morning worship visitors from a variety of races.
I don’t read about white churches trying to reach black communities unless they are doing missionary work in some Third World country.
To THEBIGDODDY,
Downtown Philly street corners on weekends have seen its share of evangelism groups from white churches sharing the Gospel and giving invitations to come to their churches.
My church isn’t actively doing anything to reach any particular group, but we have a good cross-section of our community’s race/ethnicity balance. We’re mostly white, with blacks, Philippinos, hispanics, and Asians, and plenty of Marine families (we’re near Camp Pendleton). The only group we may be underrepresenting is Samoans, which has a large community in our town.
When a church openly welcomes everybody, then anybody can feel at home there. Or, maybe I’m naive, and my church just attracts nice people better than other churches do…
TheBigDoddy,
The key words in your statement are, “I don’t read….” The news media select their stories based on what they think will sell or is “news,” or what reinforces their beliefs about the world around them.
White churches reaching out to non-whites is either 1) a challenge to their stereotype of white-racist Christians, or 2) too common to be worth mentioning. Just because the media doesn’t report it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.
It will be interesting to see how churches accomplish this (of both races). Chris Rock once said that when 2 people get married there is no real compromise, one persons life is chosen as the one the couple will follow. I say this to say that culturally speaking white churches and many of the things that they do are about appearance and seeming elegant and royal. So there services and gatherings are often very conservative. We on the other hand have taken the verse everything that hath breath praise the lord to a whole new level. We not only want to be taught but inspired and entertained as well.
I am one of those blacks who left the city of Philadelphia for the nearby suburban borough of Lansdale. My Philly church was a black congregation. In the 20 years that I was a member, we had 3 white members. One of them was a from a seniors’ apartment building 2 blocks around the corner.
Most whites moving back into the city are moving into areas that are purposely undergoing gentrification. My former Philly Church is not in such an area. The church does have a neighborhood ministry that includes the seniors’ apartment.
When I lived in Philly, I could walk to my church. When I moved, I decided to seek a church in Lansdale. I did not want a 30 minute car commute to Philly after being able to walk to church all those years.
I joined a small Christ centered bible teaching church that is also in walking distance. This church has a black pastor, but is not black ministry based. We have a black majority, but the membership also includes whites and Asians. There is also diversity among the blacks with members from Caribbean countries and African nations.
My church’s ongoing evangelistic efforts include everyone, but then that is how it is suppose to be. We have done door to door evangelism throughout Lansdale. Our latest evangelistic efforts brought an Asian family to our Vacation Bible School and Sunday morning worship visitors from a different ethnic backgrounds.
My church has a Spanish Congregation of about 50-75 with a Spanish speaking Pastor on staff. They hold their services the same time as the main service just in a different part of the church. Once every 3 months they join in the main service. They are very much a part of the main church and even some of their kids come to the main sunday school classes. The Spanish Speaking pastor speaks to everyone every few months or so.
I’ve got to give it to them – when they are door greeters they are the best! Plain ole white people never hug, kiss & love on me as much as those Mexicans do! It also softens my heart.
Good point Skye about the media. Over the years, the Christian churches I’ve worked with were not “mission” oriented.
They were more word-of-mouth, basically because their teaching was very progressive and out of the box, which tended to naturally draw all persuasions of younger, urban and suburban professionals and students who wanted more TEACHING as opposed to PREACHING.
I love working with Messianic fellowships because their teaching is great, but a brotha can’t stand their music. Seriously. It does NOTHING for me, as on point scripturally as it is..
So when I back to the Hebraic synagogues and fellowships that were formerly “black” Baptist and non-denominational, it’s refreshing. LOL.
But at the end of the day, if the Word and worship works for you, and the people aren’t shady (which is vital) then it matters little the ethnic makeup.
We want people to attend our meetings because the message is on point, not because of your persuasion.
My home church was, despite being in a largely black populated area of Pittsburgh, completely white in attendance. When our current senior pastor got there he said he knew God was calling our church to fix this glaring problem.
So, he brought in staff he knew could be more aware of how behavior impacts people in terms of perception, started mixing in more variety in the praise songs without losing the classic hymns, started walking the streets to invite the neighbors in, actually moved into the area (totally shocking many of his white pastoral colleagues from other churches because our senior pastor is white himself) and focused on preaching the truth from Genesis to Revelation.
The church rapidly changed. We first lost (he has relayed this because I wasn’t there) 400 plus members because they wanted nothing to do with actually loving their neighbors, but since then we’ve blossomed into an actual cross-section of society. Every gathering is black, white, red, yellow, brown and a few in-betweens all worshiping together.
Despite a few forays into social causes that I believe took us too far from staying with just bringing the Truth, I know that I have a LOT to be thankful for in that God chose this church body into which to put me when I was first saved.
I was one of only a handful of black people then, not you don’t bother noting how many of any ethnic group because this stew has been stirred.
Just blocks away we still have churches of nearly all one color, but hopefully that will end. I can’t imagine staying at a church that is ethnically segregated. I’d feel like I was losing out on so much. Many pastors/members of other churches tell me that they look the way they do because of their geographical location, but that excuse only goes so far unless you are in a location where people can’t afford to travel AND you’re off the public transportation lines.
A church that used to air services on the radio station where I work started a program with another church which became a permanent part of their worship. Church “A” is in a predominantly white area, church “B” is in a predominantly black area.
One Sunday of each month half of each church travels to the other church for worship. They also share special events together. The assistant to the pastor told me that over the years they’ve had plenty of bumps, but that they learned more about each other than they ever dreamed and many deep relationships were formed.
THEBIGDODDY –
Read on …
My church’s pastoral staff felt convicted about this issue over three years ago, and made up their minds to do something about it. They contacted a large black church on the east side of town, which was flabbergasted because their pastoral staff had been praying for a way for them to reach into the white community. Doesn’t God do marvelous work?
We held our first combined service, an open forum on racism and the church, on Jan. 22, 2006. You can read about it here:
http://mikesnoise.typepad.com/noisepage/2006/01/oklahoma_city_r.html
We have worshiped together with Fairview Baptist on many occasions since then, and we marched together in this year’s MLK parade through downtown Oklahoma City:
http://mikesnoise.typepad.com/noisepage/2008/02/fulfilling-the.html
Our last combined service was in February, but we will be getting together again soon:
http://mikesnoise.typepad.com/noisepage/2008/02/worshiping-with.html
I can honestly say that this has been one of the most exciting experiences for me as a Christian, and the personal spiritual growth that it has spurred has been nothing less than amazing.
The same thing is true for my church (and Fairview Baptist) at large.
I neglected to mention that my church has spent a tremendous amount of time working in neighborhoods near the church that house a large number of poor residents and ethic minorities. We have a very active bus ministry that includes children from these neighborhoods as well as the DHS shelter and the City Rescue Mission downtown. While the number of blacks who regularly attend our church is small (less than 20 teens and adults) we have every intention of continuing to work with the poor and with minorities in our part of town.
Mark, as with your church, our church lost 300 – 400 regular attenders when it went “missional,” but in the last two years we have been blessed with a steady influx of new people, many of whom have been helped by our church. We are now running around 600 – 700 on Sundays, not including all the “non-traditional” outreach type stuff that we do. The transition can be frustrating and painful, but the benefits, especially spiritual growth and a much more intimate understanding of the Gospel, are just amazing.
La Shawn,
I am a white American ex-pat pastoring two city churches in Wales, Cardiff and Newport (Seventh-day Adventist). They are not large, 93 members in Cardiff and 64 in Newport. We are diverse, largely African but with many Jamaicans, Asians, and White Europeans, both Western and Eastern. And we live in the midst of large Muslim communities.
Our diversity is challenging, yet we relish the flavour of the mix. We are growing across the lines. I only know of one or two members, white, who are quietly and faithfully making some needed adjustments in their attitudes.
Personally, I wouldn’t want it any other way. We are living examples of the work you rightly long for.
Having said all of this, the challenge I see is on a more personal level of fellowship. Though our public worship is open and warm in it’s diversity, I would like to see members crossing racial lines more often in causal, day to day things. Many of us certainly do, but still, the birds of a feather tend to flock with their own. This is true even among Africans, not only from different countries, but from different tribes.
For my part, I keep communicating, listening, learning, and sharing. I do my best to receive the love of Christ that enables me to love and respect others. I believe it is the gospel of Christ, Christ himself, who, when truly received in faith, breaks down every wall of racial, national, and gender separation. We are one body in Christ, having unity in diversity.
Still, I’m looking forward to something better, to the new heaven and new earth where the lion will lie down with the lamb.
These are great comments!
We live 45 minutes from downtown KC, and attend church in an affluent, mostly-white suburb. Our church has a sister church in the city center, which has an almost-entirely black congregation. While it’s been hard to have regular fellowship, we do several planned events per year with our sister church. The men go to Chiefs games, the ladies have a retreat, etc. Plus, each summer we built a Habitat house together. Our pastor regularly exchange pulpits.
That said, our church has planted a number of congregations around KC, and is now discussing the possibility of starting a church in the city to serve the growing population of formerly-suburban empty nesters and young professionals. The planners have identified all the viable churches (mostly Catholic, but not all) within a certain area (the redeveloped area with lofts, shopping and entertainment districts, etc.), and feel there is a need for another church.
I went to one of the planning meetings and I don’t believe there was discussion about whether some of these suburban transplants might be better off assimilated into a mostly-black congregation. Plus, the black churches in KC don’t generally fall quite within the boundaries of the revitalized downtown area.
I’ve always gone to a mixed church. As a child it was predominantly white. The church I’ve gone to since my teenage years is predominantly black, but not in the Wright mode. We have white teachers here as well, and a mixed congregation. I’ve even noticed a few women wearing their sari dresses (they’re Indian).
We haven’t gone out of our way to appeal to different races, at least not that I’ve noticed. When you come to our church and we’ve established you’re a visitor or a newcomer, we sing a song to welcome you. “We don’t care what church you belong to, just as long as for Jesus you stand…you’re my brother, you’re my sister…”
Speaking of “flight,” my church moved out of the city and into a suburb, but it had to do with growth reasons. We’ve followed them, even though the commute is longer.
I’m drawn to my church because of the teachings; it’s Christ-centered, not race-centered. Our pastor is the first to treat race with withering scorn. Christ-centered is at it should be. Let the church burnish their credentials that way, and if there are Christians and potential Christians around, let the church gather them to their bosom.
La Shawn, your question has me really thinking about my church I currently belong to. The pastor who is black doesn’t have a “black church” ministry. It’s actually predominantly white with a huge mix of ethnicities.
The pastor is a very non-traditional slack and shirt type preacher instead of the suit or robe that’s typical of black churches. Instead of the all black choir typical of a church with a black pastor, he has Pop/Rock bands, R&B bands and a little bit of Hip Hop. Consequently, his audience is mostly 18-40 on the average with a bunch of us oldies there as well.
It’s still a pretty young church, oh, about eight years old or so. I started with the church four years ago when it met at San Diego State’s Campus. Now it has grown to be a Mega Church with its own building we just moved into last year.
The pastor is Miles McPherson, a former Charger football player. He is a strong community Christian activist and evangelist as well. He teaches pretty sound doctrine and has an excellent ministry for the youth – his strength (a former youth pastor).
This church has never done anything to really attract a mixture of people except probably in the type of music it plays. Also, because it’s so laid back, folks can wear their shorts and flip flops and the kids wear the same clothes they wear to school, which for me was one of the reasons I left the black church to begin with. It was too stuffy and I really couldn’t afford to dress the kids in “Sunday clothes.” The black church I left also taught the word very well, but it was its black oriented ministry that turned me off. I wanted to be a part of a church where I was comfortable bringing my non-black friends to as well.
I haven’t been to my old church in a while. I may visit it to see if there are any changes going on within its doors, or if its still catering to the black community.
Good thought provoking question!
I’m one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I’ve lived in many different parts of the country. Some of the congregations have been mostly black, some mostly white, some half/half (depending on the neighborhood/community they are serving). Nothing is done to reach out to any specific color or nationality. Everybody gets evangelized. Period. The only specific outreach is to different language groups.
I can’t help but notice in that excerpt that they make it sound like church is a business.
If you’ve ever had to run one, you’d realize that it IS a business. The difference is the focus. The ultimate goal of a secular business is to make money. In order to do so, they must meet a prior goal of providing a worthwhile product or service. A church’s ultimate goal is to save souls. Prior goals emerge from it that all hinge on attendance/participation and money. And the latter is directly related to the former.
This has often lead to church leadership losing sight of the ultimate goal while pursuing those prior goals.
Carlotta,
Your comment reminded me of an assignment I had when I was getting my Bachelor’s in Psychology. For our Cultural Psychology class (Christian college), we had to go to a church or area (eg, Chinatown) of another culture. I picked a church I knew nothing about that was in a heavy-hispanic neighborhood, and I wore a dress that wasn’t too fancy, so I’d have a chance of fitting in if they dressed up or dressed down.
It was a black church (one other white woman, who was the girlfriend of the man in front of me), and you could have held a wedding on a moment’s notice with the way they were dressed. I tried chatting with the people around me before the service started but didn’t get too far (”Cute baby.” “Oh, he’s not mine. I’m just holding him.”)
During the service, despite a bulletin that said when to stand and sit, there were so many unwritten rules that I broke and stood out like a sore thumb, and there was nobody who took pity on me to give me some help with the rules. At the end of the service, the man in front of me asked me in a snarky voice how I liked the church, but he didn’t wait for my reply.
It was the most horrible church experience I’ve ever had, and it made me extra aware of newcomers to our church and how important it is to help them feel welcome and comfortable. I even take that awareness to other settings where I see someone sitting alone.
I’m not saying all black churches are like that. Just that one. But please, no matter what color (or blend) your church is, don’t let it be someone’s horrible experience. How will anyone find Christ, if we don’t love the stranger?
SkyePuppy – Being sensitive to newcomers or people sitting/standing alone is so important, esp. in church.
SkypPuppy, MOST black churches I have ever visited are like the one you and I went to, at least when it comes to the clothes. Some do offer a friendlier hospitality then the one you visited, but most don’t (my opinion only). I don’t know if black churches get it or not these days, but to reach everyone, they need to be relaxed, especially in the clothing department! Otherwise, Sundays are just one big fashion show!
I was a divorcee with five kids and couldn’t afford the clothing to keep up with those folks. I know it’s not about “keeping up with the Jones” but for your children’s sake, you don’t want them to be the butt of other children’s jokes, so you try to dress them accordingly.
The black church is stooped in traditionalism so you can imagine his reaction to me when I suggested to the pastor that they change the attire to casual so that everyone can fit in. Which was “you got to be kidding me” type of stare.
Well, I left and found a church that I’m quite comfortable at. And unsurprisingly, I’ve ran into several ex-members from that same church!
And I agree with La Shawn completely that churches need to be especially sensitive to the newcomers. That first impression may make the difference in someone’s life!
@Gabe…‘If you’ve ever had to run one, you’d realize that it IS a business.’
If the pastor ‘runs’ the church, who’s ‘business’ is it?
#25 and 27, your comments reminded me of a similar experience in college. it was my senior year and i was doing an internship about 1 hr 1/2 from home. new neighborhood, new people, etc. i looked in the phone book to find a church to go to (one similar in beliefs to my home church) and went that following sunday. i was the only one of my ethnicity in that church on sunday (represent!!=). anyway, at the end of the service, the pastor (? it’s been 13 years=) asks me if i’m new to the area, where i’m from, etc, and says: maybe you should find another church where there are more people like you (paraphrase).” i’m a laid back kind of guy so i just took it in stride and didn’t say anything, but sure enough, the following sunday i was in another church (probably still the only one of my ethnicity=) and stayed there until my internship was completed. shoot, they even let me help out with VBS=)
Interesting. Similar things happened to city churches when whites moved to the suburbs.
Jan,
Everyone in a leadership role in the church is a middle manager. The ‘business’ is God’s.
“If you’ve ever had to run one, you’d realize that it IS a business. The difference is the focus. The ultimate goal of a secular business is to make money. In order to do so, they must meet a prior goal of providing a worthwhile product or service. A church’s ultimate goal is to save souls. Prior goals emerge from it that all hinge on attendance/participation and money. And the latter is directly related to the former.
This has often lead to church leadership losing sight of the ultimate goal while pursuing those prior goals.”
~I think that’s one of the misunderstandings which pastors make these days, a movement spearheaded by “church as a business” guru Rick Warren. If the church looks like a secular business, it’s gone off track. There are lots of little ways, but the gist of the issue can be summed up as follows: the goal of secular business is to “bring in” the thing it values most. The goal of the church is to “send out” the thing it values most.
Hence, if the two operate the same way, one or the other is failing.
God has only one family and He doesn’t care where we live
My church is in Plano, Texas — a well-off Dallas suburb often thought of as predominantly white. However, the church is about 60% “minority,” including many marriages of mixed race, including mine. Their are several “minority” pastors on the staff.
We’re a conservative, evangelical, semi-charismatic church. I don’t think that anyone ever decided to reach out to people of different races — it just happened.
You gotta figure that the Church is the Body of Christ. For sure, my body doesn’t have a white hand and a black leg, it’s all Chinese
In all seriousness, though, we as Christians should realise that the Church is about reaching out, building up, and sending out. In that, I agree with Mark. It is insufficient to do the first two but not the third, which is what the Mega Churches should remember also.
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