Something has to give!

In churches, something has to give for diversity to be successful. I do believe it is possible and must be possible. But, it's an uphill battle like the Cavaliers beating the Spurs in the finals. (Go Cleveland!)

Here's the issue, new churches that attempt to seek those who hate going to church are often "niche" churches. This means that one church seeks those over 40 men who ride motorcycles. Another caters to the upper- to middle-class white working man who hates church. (Actually most probably lean in this direction) Another caters to the artist or musician. We have niche churches. There is often a base assumption in these churches that flies in the face of diversity.

Churches that cater to those who don't know Jesus want to draw in their target audience. So one big way they do this is by giving the impression, "You'll fit right in, you'll be comfortable here." We want to make you feel comfortable and loosen you up to hear the truth. But, that first assumption, "You'll be comfortable here," is going to be very difficult for diversity. To be around someone who is different than you will cause some discomfort. So, it puts to values at odds with each other. If you want to have a church where diversity is a high priority then there will be some discomfort. But, if you also want to have a church where those who don't know Jesus will come then you promise that they'll feel "comfortable" here. How do those two work together.

Now, you could be good on the diversity side, and say on paper that you are catering to those who don't know God, and then think that you're doing a great job with the two. But, in reality, you could be catering to churched people who are comfortable with that culture. I"m a part of a church for people who hate going to church. We are very serious about that. I see other churches who say that they're serious about that, but on their website they use words like, "Contemporary" and "relevant preaching," and advertise on our local Christian radio station. There are many things wrong with that. Is "Mr. Non-Christian" who hates church and listens to the local top 40 radio station going to have any idea what in the heck "contemporary music" is? No! that's a Christian Culture paradigm- you'll only get that if you're already immersed in the culture. So, I think there are numerous churches who might say they're walking this line well, but their actions might speak differently.

How do you do this successfully?

There's a term called cognitive dissonance. It says that when your beliefs are in opposition to your actions you will be uncomfortable and so will either have to change your beliefs or actions to get back into equilibrium again. So, it might be that one side must give. Maybe this newest generation of churches needs to give up on reaching the "niche" population. Maybe they have to change the way they look at church in order to make room with diversity.

Two Worlds

You are sitting across from two people, one African-American, on White. Both don't really go to church. Both don't like church and think it is not applicable to their daily life? Here's the question: If you were to create a church that they would both go to together, what would that church look like?
I want to be honest. I get what the white version of this church would look like. I've seen the development of this kind of church. First was traditional church. Organs with hymns. Then pianos made their way into traditional church and maybe some newer hymns were added to the books. Then white Christian culture reacted to this and created the term "contemporary". This meant you could come to church in casual clothing (more like business casual), the music would include a band, and these churches will often highlight their, "relevant preaching." Then came churches for those who hate going to church. These added skits, multi-media, shorter sermons, harder rock songs, songs sung by non-Christian artists, and sermons that have titles or themes directly from pop-culture. There is a newer offshoot called the "emerging church" that I"m not sure where they fit in. But, I do believe that all of these developments have been primarily in the "White church." What has been developing the the African-American church during this same time.
I could say that it's the same and that you shouldn't call what I just listed as "white", but if you've ever read any magazine, book, article, or tried to google churches that believe the things I just mentioned- the churches of color are very very very sparse. They do exist, but not by much.
O African-American, middle-class man who wants to know God but hates church, what do you look for in a church? What church would you go to?