“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Gen 1:1) And after God had created the earth, He “created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”(1:27) He commanded Adam and Eve to multiply and fill the earth therefore creating all of humankind in His image. Even after the fall of man, God affirms humanity as His image-bearers. He also tells Noah and his family to be fruitful and multiply, and again that “God made man in his own image.” (9:6)
If all of humankind is created in the image of God, then all of humankind has the same intrinsic value to Him. Abraham was promised that “in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” (Gen 22:18) When Christ came, He did not come for only one type of people. “For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son…” (Jn 3:16) In Matthew 28, Jesus commands His disciples to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” (v 16)
While diversity and inclusion in the church is a hot issue right now, it is not new. Paul wrote in Galatians 3:28 that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” And in Colossians 3:11 “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” So as believers, we are united in Christ. Our identity is in him above all else, and whatever differences we have are second to the unity that brings us together.
How do we flesh out this reality in our local churches? First of all, we must not show preference to one group over another. There should be no discrimination for reasons of race, gender, age, or socioeconomic status. Rather, we should be intentional about diversity on our platform and in our leadership. In Christ, we are all members of one body, and we should reflect the greater body of believers as much as our demographics realistically allow.
Practically, this means that we have to be willing to step outside of our comfort zone and engage with people who are not like us. How do the platforms of our corporate gatherings reflect the diversity within our congregations? And how does our congregation reflect the diversity of our community?
The first step is to build relationships with the diversity of people within our congregations. We should actively seek to understand the backgrounds and preferences of those who are not like us. As we seek to understand generations and cultures that we are less familiar with, we are building trust. Then, we can identify those who may have skills that can contribute to diversity on the platform and allow them to be part of our leadership and decision making. As our platform reflects our diversity, we will become more comfortable with it. It will be apparent to the community that surrounds us, thus allowing the church to begin to better reflect the diversity around us.
It is also important to be able to recognize the hurt that a particular people group is feeling and be able to empathize with those who are hurting. We are too quick to dismiss the concerns of people that we do not directly understand. We need to actively listen and engage with those hurts. When our nation faces a tragedy such as the killing of George Floyd, how do we respond? Do we ignore the tension because we’re uncomfortable with it? Or do we invite our black leaders to have a real conversation with the church about how it affects them. When central American migration becomes a political issue, we should pursue conversation with some of our Latino brothers and sisters, so that we can all have a better understanding of the issues that that face. Or, when #metoo is trending in social media due to abuse and marginalization of women — especially within the church — we can allow our women that have faced sexual abuse share their stories with our congregations. Again, so we can listen, understand, and have empathy.
We are the body of Christ. We are to “Rejoice with those who rejoice” and “weep with those who weep.” (Rom. 12:15). We are to “Bear one another’s burdens” (Gal 6:2), “encourage one another and build one another up” (I Thes. 5:11), “live in harmony with one another,” (Rom. 12:16) and “count others more significant than yourselves.” (Phil 2:3) And James even encourages us to “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” (James 5:16)
In the end, we will all worship together, as John writes in Revelation 7, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ’Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (vv 9–10) Let us not wait until then to pursue unity in diversity within the body of Christ as we worship together!
