Glocal Christianity

What if California ruled America?

I've been having an interesting conversation with an American reader over Deer Hunting with Jesus, that has really got me thinking about the differences between Australian and American religion and politics. In the process I said this:

I've been to America once, when I was 14, but it was only to California, and then mainly the cities. I understand Sydney and San Franscisco are reasonably similar - similar size, near the sea, warm weather, large Asian and gay population, culturally liberal. It felt reasonably similar when I was there myself, except for the hills and the accents and the tipping expectations. Hopefully that gives you an idea. A major difference between Australia and America is that Australia is far, far more urbanized. Imagine how your politics would be different if 80% of Americans were Californians, if your most influential pastors were all San Franciscan?

Of course these are just generalizations, but I am interested in how that impacts my other American readers.

Embrace Diversity, Hear the Shadow

I was reading about the "ironic, and unfortunate, paradox" case of a public high school "celebrating 'diversity' by refusing to permit the presentation to students of an 'unwelcomed' viewpoint on the topic of homosexuality and religion, while actively promoting the competing view." You can read about it more at Christianity Today but it makes me wonder, where else is one-way diversity practiced? Do we refuse fundamentalists a voice? Just because we find them abnoxious? Does a commitment to free speach act against censoring hate speach?

Diversity and Denominationalism

Last year the NY Times noted, "the looming question for many Christian churches and denominations is no longer whether doctrinal boundaries are too absolute and exclusive but whether these groups can define and maintain any clear-cut identity at all." Is denominationalism necessery to preserve Christian diversity?

Diversity in the New Testament

If the church was supposed to be monolythic why is their so much diversity in the New Testament? Why are there four gospels? Why are there different genres? Letters? Stories? Poetic visions? Why multiple authors?

Multicultural Church

What does a healthy multicultural church look like? Following is an except from the book, The Vision of a Multicultural Church, published in 1998. I was impressed that, for a document originating out of the Uniting Church, it had a clear focus on evangelism along with the expected social justice focus. There are many good principles here I think.  

We believe that a multicultural church is one where the following concepts are embraced and put into practice.

1. A Common Faith

The multicultural church is united by a common faith in the triune God and the desire to serve and witness to the compassion, love and justice of God. The image of the church as the body of Christ means that we who are in Christ have a variety of gifts, functions and cultures and yet we can be connected to each other without doing everything the same way. We have our cultural differences and yet we can work together within the framework of what the Uniting Church in Australia is. This framework is set out in The Basis of Union and Constitution which establishes the foundations of our commitment to Christian unity.

2. Affirming One Another’s Culture

A multicultural church is one with an inclusive understanding and acceptance of all cultures. It is a church where one can sustain one’s own cultural identity while affirming others. It is a church where every culture is embraced but where the barriers are broken down. It is open, accepting and joyful. It respects and nurtures mutuality of ministry. It acknowledges a variety of cultural expressions of the one faith.

3. Sharing of All Resources

A multicultural church is able to share everything, including cultural richness as well as property and resources (power). It shares each other’s language, values and customs. When we share property and resources well, feelings of racial discrimination or nationalistic superiority will be overcome.

4. Equal Participation in Decision Making

A multicultural church is like a table, a round table. At a round table, people can participate as equals. No new migrant member should have to feel like a guest in such a church. It is a place where we are welcomed as we are. There is cultural sensitivity in decision making where the minority groups are consulted and decisions are not solely made according to western value systems. People whose mother tongue is not English are often diffident about contributing to a debate in synod or presbytery meetings, but this should not prevent their experiences and views being sought more extensively in the whole life of the church. Equal participation also means sharing of responsibilities as a congregation and individual members. Each group needs to endeavour to fulfil their tasks according to their capacity and capability, regardless of when they joined or the cultures from which they came.

5. Inclusiveness

A multicultural church is inclusive of all peoples and cultures, women and men, young and old. It affirms different cultural groups worshipping in their own language or operating in their own way. But all congregations also need contact with the wider church, striving to work together as one body in Christ. It sometimes involves distinguishing between what is cultural and what is faith. It holds an ecumenical perspective that seeks the unity of all those who bear the name Christian.

6. Being a Sign of Hope and Reconciliation

A multicultural church is a sign of hope within the community and particularly to those who are pushed to its fringes. It actively works for the reconciliation or restoration of different individuals or groups who are otherwise alienated from each other. It binds all people together in the name of love. It is a church that works for justice and peace for all. In this area a multicultural church takes its prophetic task seriously.

7. Growing in Mission and Evangelism

A multicultural church reaches out to people of different cultures with the clear message of the gospel of Jesus, proclaiming it joyfully, sharing its life with them and serving them. While maintaining the need to take a strong role in global mission, it also sees the need for an effective evangelism in Australia, which is becoming racially, religiously and culturally a microcosm of the world. Many people such as Asian students, refugees from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe and others are arriving here to reside. These people are in need of jobs, housing, language training, social links, community integration and spiritual nurture.

8. Accepting and Preparing for Changes

A multicultural church is not static. It is a church which is able to adjust to the changes of our time and life. A multicultural church is serious about the meaning of changes to prepare for the future. The implications of these changes are enormous. They directly affect structure, mission strategy, administration, and Christian education. As the community surrounding us is rapidly changing, changes in the church will be inevitable, because the church is an agent to serve the community.

Affirming Christian Diversity

From Rowland Croucher:

"What binds us together is not the 'purity' of our doctrinal viewpoint, nor the way we worship and serve the Lord ('orthodoxy' and 'orthopraxis'), but our common allegiance to Jesus as Lord, and our being children of the same Father, united by the same Spirit. The church ought never to be a universal 'sausage-machine', turning out clones of one sort or another."

I agree, there is no normative form of Christianity, what binds us together is Christ.

New Calvinism ... sooo Sexy?

I just finished commenting on Alan Hirsch's thread on sexy New Calvinism and, being the visual guy I am, could not help associating this with a famous brand of underwear.

Yes, yes, I know this is a serious subject and I am sure it offends the sensibilities of some of you, but I've been very stressed the last few days and that tends to bring out the worst in me. So take this with a large grain of salt and feel free to retaliate in kind with a photoshopped picture of a sexy New Anabaptist. Slippery when wet theme? The mind boggles.

Global Interaction on Local Mission

I participated in a very interesting forum on Friday evening. Global Interaction, an organisation that you’d normally associate with overseas mission, hosted an evening on multicultural mission in Australia. Interested, I went along for a look see.

Well, I am glad I did. I think I have just found Sydney’s mosaics.

The forum was held at Bankstown Sports Club. Many of the participants, like myself, seemed to come from multicultural areas in Sydney’s south and west and many that I talked to seemed familiar with the Emerging-Missional conversation, including the writings of Hirsch and Frost. But like myself, they had some qualms and were keen to explore what it means to be missional in much more explicitly multi-religious and multi-cultural settings than what normally gets talked about.

At one point in the evening I raised the issue that I have raised here on a number of occasions, that I think the homogenous unit principle of cross cultural mission collapses in the face of utter pluralism (though I phrased it more in terms of how do you do incarnational mission when you’ve got more cultures than Christians). That seemed to stump a few of the mishos, which is unsurprising because it stumps me sometimes too, but simply the fact that they took the question very seriously was encouraging. The best response coming from the floor was the suggestion that maybe we have to start off incarnational but shift to multicultural church in the discipleship process. This was not dissimilar to Steve Hayes’ comments here at Glocal Christianity some weeks back. All I would add to that is the need for networking and pooling expertise, which this evening was a good first step towards. I hope there are more of these evenings in the future.

Thanks to the Global Interaction team for taking the initiative.

Is Christianity Inclusive?

Tell me what you think of this article, "Diversity, Inclusion, and Tolerance. Where do they fit in Christianity?"

I think it makes a number of valid points. For instance, I agree that the intolerance shown towards Christianity by self appointed champions of tolerance is a wee bit ironic and hypocritical. But I think the author overplays his hand, and fails to adequately acknowledge the limits of Christian diversity, inclusion and tolerance. Every paths has its limits after all. That is, if it can be called a path.

On White Privilege

what would it mean for black Christians and white Christians to place their loyalty to Christ above their loyalty to their colour? What would it really mean?

Ed Stetzer on mission and multicultural church

Ed Stetzer on culture and the challenge of building a multicultural church. Appreciated his recognition that most "multicultural" churches aren't multicultural, they're multiracial, that multicultural church is something more.

Globalized Christianity and World Christianity: Understanding the Difference

I wonder how many Americans understand the difference between Globalized Christianity and World Christianity?

If my experience with American Christian, American Atheist and American Pagan blogs is anything to go by, I would have to conclude ... only a minority. For example, in a recent conversation about Rob Bell, some Emergents said,

"...there are two completely different conversations taking place in Christianity today. One version is concerned with defending the religious assumptions rooted in the all important “either/or” duality that blankets American Christianity. The other conversation has already mourned the death of the previous conversation and has turned to page to a completely different set of questions."

Only two conversations? One exclusively American and the other emerging out of the old American one? Give me a break! These champions of holism and bigger perspectives all seemed oblivious to how dualistic and colonial these comments actually were.

Not that Pagans or Atheists fair any better. "You mean Christianity is different in different countries? You mean even evangelicalism is different in different countries?" After hours of explaining just that. Slaps head against brick wall. Ah, the privileges of empire.

So, to hopefully enlighten at least some folks in America, here is the difference. 

Globalized Christianity is that which you export to everyone else. It's synonymous with global Americanization and cultural colonization. Think Rick Warren. Think Brian McLaren.

World Christianity is the Jesus movement in all its diversity, where you are just one of many voices, and hopefully amongst the many listeners.

The two mutually interact but they are definitely distinct.

Now here is the red pill. When you confuse Christianity, unqualified, with national conversations, you're talking Globalized Christianity, not World Christianity. When you identify Christianity, unqualified, with national voices, national conferences, and  national networks, you're talking Globalized Christianity, not World Christianity. And I don't care whether you're Megachurch or Emergent.

Think I am being harsh? Test youself. How many non-American bloggers do you listen to? How many do you link to? Proportionately? If less than thirty percent come from a country other than your own let me suggest you think seriously before considering your conversation as being informed by World Christianity.

Here endeth the rant. For those of you who do get the difference between Globalized Christianity and World Christianity already, you are precious, you are gems.

Multicultural Impact

A video from Urban Mosaic on missional enagement of multicultural cities.

Is your church as diverse as the city you're in?

No Christian Believes Just These Things

I was reading an interview with Tim Keller where he was talking about Christian diversity and the ancient creeds and said, “All Christians believe all these things, but no Christian believes just these things.” What a wonderful summary of Christian diversity I though, emphasizing both those words. None of us affirm just the essentials.

Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church - Mark DeYmaz

Mark DeYmaz on "Buiding a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church"

I have been reading this book over the last week and thoroughly recommend it if you're interested in missional living in contexts of high cultural diversity.