The mission statement at College Hill Presbyterian Church says:

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We exist to honor God by growing a diverse community of Jesus followers.

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Why is our church intentional about pursuing diversity?  Doesn’t the Gospel spread easiest between people who share culture, race, and socioeconomic background?  A central theme of the Bible, introduced in Genesis 12:1-3, is that God wants to reconcile the nations to himself and each other.  In Revelation 7 we see God receiving ultimate glory as people from every tribe, tongue and nation worship Him around the throne.  But why does it honor God to build that diversity in our local body now instead of waiting for Revelation 7 to come at the end of the story?

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I’ll give five reasons.

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The Kingdom of God is at hand

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The Kingdom of God is both now and yet still to come.  God is establishing His sovereignty in our world now and He calls us to join Him in that task.  In Matthew 6:10, Jesus instructs us to pray “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  Jesus calls us to pray that our lives, including our local church body, would reflect the diversity of relationships we see in heaven.

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Without diversity, we miss that God’s mission is the Church

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According to Paul, we are set apart for God’s purpose, which is to create a new multiethnic family that acts as God’s temple on earth and reflects God’s glory (Ephesians 2:19-22).  Sociologist Michael Emerson asserts in his book Divided By Faith that his research establishes that homogeneous local churches reproduce inequality, encourage oppression, strengthen racial division, and heighten political separation.

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Unity in our diversity is a powerful witness to the world

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Rich Villodas (starting at minute 20) reminds us that Jesus’ greatest miracle was bringing diverse people together in unity.  When we build diverse local bodies, it becomes a powerful witness that God is at work in us.  We see this in Acts 11, when the first multiethnic church is established at Antioch.  Three times the author references the great number of people that were coming to Christ.

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Diversity gives us a fuller understanding of God

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Our cultural values and experiences shape our understanding of God and scripture as we all view God and scripture through our own cultural lens.  When worshiping in a white monoethnic body we tend to view scripture through an American individualistic perspective.  We easily skip over Bible passages that don’t speak to our own personal experiences.  It’s not that our understanding of God is wrong, it’s just incomplete.  Worshiping and studying the Word in diverse groups gives us a fuller understanding of God and His word.

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Diversity provides an opportunity for deeper discipleship

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It’s not possible to learn how to play soccer merely by reading books without playing the game, without touching the ball.  We need the context of our experience to fully understand the written instructions.  So it is with discipleship.  Reconciliation is at the heart of Paul’s ministry.  Every letter Paul writes is to a multiethnic church.  We can’t live into Paul’s instructions to become agents of reconciliation, and possibly we can’t fully understand these instructions, unless we are personally “in the game” ourselves.

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But what if my community and church are monoethnic?  We encourage you not to stop there.  First, ask why this is true?  Communities and churches don’t necessarily lack diversity in race, age, culture or socioeconomic status by chance.   Second, pray that God would show you how your relationships can become more diverse.