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?
