I’m tired of seeing articles about what the church is doing wrong, how the church needs to respond to this or that issue, that all fail to address a critical need in our current society.
So … for all the white Christian authors, bloggers and/or thought leaders:
If you expect to reach people in “the church” with your content, it would behoove you to first acknowledge your whiteness.
If you fail to do that, you will fail to reach me in a meaningful way. It’s as simple as that.
The quickest way for any Christian author to lose credibility with me is to make any kind of pronouncement about churches or Christians or Christianity without acknowledging either the racial divides that exist in north America or the existence of other cultures or racial groups besides the dominant white culture. By doing so, you’re implicitly affirming whiteness as the default standard of being, and unintentionally excluding me, and multitudes of other people of color, from the conversation.
Now, it doesn’t mean that anything you say without doing this will be wrong. On the contrary, you could be saying all kinds of things that are good and true, but they will be hard for me to receive because the privilege behind your words will be odious and off-putting.
Just think of it this way… if you write an article, a blog post or a book, and the title would be more accurate if it included the phrase “For White People,” then either call it what it is, or admit that you have more work to do.
Do the “Six Ways to Reach Millennials in the Church” mostly or exclusively apply to white people? Then call it “Six Ways to Reach Millennial White People.” Does the plan to “Turbo Boost Your Worship Ministry” address people of different cultures or ethnicities? Then call it, “Turbo Boost Your Worship Ministry for White People.”
If you don’t want to use those labels, then don’t publish your piece until you have sought the input of, criticism from, or collaboration with people of color.
Then, and only then, will you be even close to being qualified to speak to, or on behalf of, “the church.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BtfRVRmFngu/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1dxvfkkx8rfbl
1 Cor 2:2
You might wanna read the rest of the chapter.