Many Colored Kingdom

Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, Steve Kang S

Description

How do ethnic and cultural diversity affect spiritual formation? The authors of A Many Colored Kingdom explore Christian formation and teaching in the church, with a particular focus on intercultural and interethnic relationships. Well-qualified to speak on issues of diversity, the authors describe relevant aspects of their own personal journeys; key issues emerging from their studies and teaching germane to race, culture, and ethnicity; and teaching implications that bring right practice to bear on church ministry. A final chapter contains a conversation among the authors responding to one another's insights and concerns. This book will be required reading for those engaged in as well as those preparing for a life of teaching and ministry in our increasingly multicultural world.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 mars 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781585583577
• Langue: English

Extrait

© 2004 by Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, S. Steve Kang, and Gary A. Parrett
Published by Baker Academic a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means for example, electronic, photocopy, recording without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-5855-8357-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture quotations identified NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission.
Contents
Cover Title Page Copyright Page Introduction: An Exploration and an Experiment Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, S. Steve Kang, and Gary A. Parrett 1. Three Stories Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, S. Steve Kang, and Gary A. Parrett 2. Lord of the Nations Gary A. Parrett and S. Steve Kang 3. The Wondrous Cross and the Broken Wall Gary A. Parrett 4. Salient Theoretical Frameworks for Forming Kingdom Citizens S. Steve Kang 5. Prejudice and Conversion Elizabeth Conde-Frazier 6. Becoming a Culturally Sensitive Minister Gary A. Parrett 7. The Formation Process in a Learning Community S. Steve Kang 8. From Hospitality to Shalom Elizabeth Conde-Frazier Conclusion: Living the Biblical Vision Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, S. Steve Kang, and Gary A. Parrett Index Notes
Introduction
An Exploration and an Experiment

E LIZABETH C ONDE -F RAZIER , S. S TEVE K ANG , AND G ARY A. P ARRETT
Probing Critical Issues
This book is both an exploration and an experiment. In terms of its subject matter, this book is an exploration of how ethnic and cultural diversity, and our interactions with such diversity, affect the dynamics of Christian spiritual formation. The conviction set forth in these pages is that when authentic relationships are built that embrace diverse backgrounds, tremendously positive growth in Christlikeness can occur. In terms of its format, this book is an experiment within that very exploration, for it is the work of three persons who, writing from diverse ethnic, cultural, and personal backgrounds, have been seeking to build such relationships. Further, each of us is actively engaged in facilitating such spiritual formation and relationships in both academic and church contexts.
Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, a Puerto Rican-American, teaches courses in religious education at Claremont School of Theology. S. Steve Kang is a Korean-American who teaches in the department of Christian formation and ministry at Wheaton College. Gary A. Parrett, a white American, teaches in the area of educational ministries at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. The unique perspective each of us brings involves not only different cultural and ethnic experiences but other differences as well. For example, each of us is from a different denominational tradition and teaches in an academic setting with its own unique cultural realities. We have been cultivating personal and professional relationships with one another since 1996. This book represents some of the fruit of our friendships, as well as our common passion for the ministry of Christian formation and an appreciation of the ethnic diversity of the church, which, we believe, is a critical part of God’s design for the health and wholeness of the body of Christ.
It is our intention to stimulate the understanding, conversation, and practices of the local church in light of the wondrous realities of the global church of Jesus Christ. It is our hope that the local church can rediscover its unique responsibility as a subculture of the global kingdom culture, that is, the kingdom of God. It is hoped, further, that the ideas in this book will provide resources for Christian educators in academic settings and will encourage each reader toward personal growth in kingdom consciousness and obedience. Indeed, we desire to come alongside each reader through the medium of this book to seek an encounter together with the truth, taking aim to perceive it more clearly, consider it more critically, embrace it more passionately, obey it more faithfully, and embody it with greater integrity. [1] Specifically, this book examines the implications of the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations ( panta ta ethnē ; Matt. 28:19) and the great commandment’s requirement of each of us: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31).
There is much to suggest that evangelical churches in America are often out of alignment with God’s heart and purposes regarding ethnic diversity. In their challenging book, Divided by Faith , [2] Michael Emerson and Christian Smith investigate the attitudes of contemporary American evangelicals toward issues of race and ethnicity. The picture sketched through their significant research and analysis is not a pretty one. The United States, the authors charge, continues to be a “racialized society.” By this they mean “a society wherein race matters profoundly for differences in life experiences, life opportunities, and social relationships.” [3] The evangelical church community, far from being exempt from such things, is, according to their findings, even more prone to divisions based on race. Citing a 1998 study, they note that “more than 90% of American congregations are made up of at least 90% of people of the same race.” [4]
Factors that contribute to this partition along racial lines, in the view of Emerson and Smith, are many and varied. They point out that blacks and whites view the sources of racial tensions very differently, with whites tending to look at the problems as individualistic and blacks tending to see structural issues as the primary source. [5] In the interviews they conducted, the authors found that whites were particularly irritated when suggestions were made that anything other than individual responsibility was to blame for the plight of poor blacks. In fact, whites seemed more irritated by the thought that inequities between whites and blacks might be due to structural issues than they were by the inequities themselves. [6] The white evangelicals that Emerson and Smith studied also tended to dismiss the notion that historical factors were significant in shaping present understandings of and responses to contemporary racial issues. Further, white evangelicals denied that they had any connection to the sins of injustice committed by whites against blacks during the history of the country. [7] Emerson and Smith paid special attention to the role that “marketing religion” plays in keeping the church in America divided. As churches heed the “wisdom” of church growth leaders, they carve out a “market niche” for their church planting and evangelistic efforts. Typically, the niche that is sought is intentionally homogeneous. It is often by design, then, that America’s evangelical churches are largely mono-ethnic.
Certainly, arguments can be made, especially those with an evangelistic thrust, for targeting particular audiences. But what happens if such methods are successful in bringing large numbers into the church? What kind of church will that be? What kind of Christians will such a church form? If a homogeneous church is planted in a community that is truly heterogeneous, how will members defend its shape in light of the biblical teaching that the cross destroyed the barriers that separated us not only from God but also from one another? What will members say to the watching world, who, according to Jesus, will believe that God sent his Son when they behold the unity of Christ’s followers (John 17:23)? Is such a church simply a way station for people until they are ready to move on to more mature experiences of biblical koinōnia? The reality is that such questions raise complex issues. The reality is, further, that there are no easy solutions to these issues. Tragically, however, many Christians seem uninterested in seriously engaging the questions at all. It should be expected that believers would disagree on how to answer such questions (after all, we manage to disagree on just about everything else); to simply ignore these matters, on the other hand, is indefensible.
Some may suggest that there is an easy answer: do away with all the “hyphenated American” congregations (such as African-American, Cuban-American, Taiwanese-American). Then we can all just be Americans and worship together. Often, when people set forth such a plan, however, they do not offer to leave their churches to join those hyphenated Americans in worship. They simply suppose that “they can join us. After all, we’re ‘just American.’” The further supposition may be that when they join us, they can simply check their “hyphenatedness” at the front door, and we will all get along just fine.
Miroslav Volf, reflecting on Paul’s teachings about the church, argues that the Bible points us in another direction: “Baptism into Christ creates a people as the differentiated body of Christ. Bodily inscribed differences are brought together, not removed. . . . The Pauline move is not from the particularity of the body to the universality of the spirit, but from separated bodies to the community of interrelated bodies the one body in the Spirit with many discrete members .” [8] For Volf, it is imperative that all of us “ give ourselves to others and ‘welcome’ them, to readjust our identities to make space for them .” [9]
The reality in far too many cases is that “churches, the presumed agent