Touch feely title, I know.
But Cru has done some work to flesh out why ethnic/minority ministries matter and what sentiments there are behind the missiological approach. And that’s the Great Commission at the top of the directives and that’s how our sociology and anthropology bends, not the other way around. That nuance is important for those of you who think that sociology and anthropology is not in the same scope as missiology, the two are servants of the latter.
And by the way, this is not a minority versus majority thing to put us at odds with one another. This is a thing to help us build together.
Check out this snippet from the following post:
When we consider the mission of the church, we must recognize that there is always a power gap in any multi-ethnic community between the majority and the minority groups. Some people have more power to enact change than others. Given this power disparity, can we truly be agents of hope to the marginalized without purposely seeking to empower them? Advocacy in the context of partnering means putting those privileges we have been given by God’s grace to work on behalf of those whose stories are consistently silenced or ignored.
Partnering with or serving in ethnic ministry requires identifying with and seeing the world more through the lens of their culture and story. It leads us to change the way we perceive the world as we encounter and learn from other perspectives.
The challenge for us majority culture leaders is our willingness to experience change – both on a heart level, in how we like to relate to others, and in how we like to work. Incarnating the gospel amidst diverse communities means that we need to be willing to die to former attitudes, postures, and even insufficient ministry paradigms and methodologies.
So here’s the first article: Five Majority Culture Postures Towards Ethnic Minority Ministries.
Fun, huh? And now a view from the other side: Six Postures of Ethnic Minority Culture towards Majority Culture.
I know that in my encounters of trying to build bridges between minority and majority cultures, that there is the feeling that this whole race dialogue is “unfair” to the majority, but it’s really not. It’s hard on both sides to work towards having a relationship, especially a relationship that is part of our witness of a common savior. It takes work, and it is fair. So jump in and assume the right posture. We are in it for the long haul.
brianschan
David Park
Alvin Sanders
November 27th, 2011 at 7:04 pm
When I read this as a woman in the male led church, I can then understand and relate better to how it must feel like to be a minority in the white church world. I could totally relate to your list, six postures, as a woman.
November 28th, 2011 at 12:15 am
Melody, thanks for the comments and reading our stuff regularly. Tell me more about what postures you gravitate towards in your context. I want to understand this better. As a man, I think that I presume too much even when I don’t want to. Thanks for your help.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:54 am
[...] also read and resonated loudly with this article by David Park another great advocate for justice, in the EFCA church. He talks of Six [...]
January 20th, 2012 at 5:20 pm
Thanks for posting these David! Indeed – everyone is called to servanthood and partnership even though it sometimes looks different depending on what our stories are.