Why We Pursue Multi-Ethnicity (for White People) Part 2

We also believe that the original church and the picture that we have in Acts 2 is one of the earliest places in western cultural thought where an intentionally multi-ethnic community was forged.

These were people who for centuries could not agree on anything but they found a new place to come together under the name of Jesus Christ.We believe that there’s a truer, deeper Biblical Christian pluralism that goes back to the earliest intention of the church that is far greater than the secular pluralism of the campus and in fact has a power behind it to actually make happen what the campus without Christ cannot do.

Now we know that we’re obviously a primarily white organization, and we’re fine and glad in what God is doing here in our midst. But we refuse to miss out on the beauty and the fullness of God’s kingdom just because of that.

So what that means is that we’ll bring in speakers from various ethnicities. And we’ll sing songs in different languages on a regular basis.

For some of you, you think that’s stupid and for some of you, honestly, you’ll decide you don’t like IV because of this. And that’s fine, there’s lots of places where you can go on campus and sing all English, all the time.

But as a community, we’re committed to this as a core value and for just a moment I want to challenge, implore, ask you to consider joining us on this journey as we try to figure out what it means for a mostly white organization to enter into the fullness of God’s global kingdom that includes people from every nation, race and tongue.

Because the point is that Jesus didn’t speak English and the point is that worship in the kingdom of God is bigger than Chris Tomlin and David Crowder all the time. And I love those guys, they’re on my Ipod, but they’re just a small part of God’s bigger, global kingdom

And there are ways that a sweet Latin beat helps me to celebrate or the haunting power of a Hebrew worship song allows me to mourn or the power of gospel music carries me into worship that expresses worship that’s too good and too glorious for us to miss out on!

This will be uncomfortable for some of you, it was for me initially. And it took me a couple of years honestly of walking through this, of looking at Scripture and of talking to people that I loved and respected about all of this before I started to get that God’s work was global and that I was missing out if I didn’t experience some tastes of what that was about.

And I want to implore you and invite you to come along with us as we explore the fullness of worshipping God in various ways.

And as we hear from men and women speakers who love Jesus and who express that in ways that are rooted in their cultural experiences and contexts, just like my experience and context as a white, suburban, male is shaping the ways that I talk with you right now.