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The more I dive into the need for diversity in our church, the more I learn and the more I realized that for it to be successful…things are going to need to change. As I typed that sentence, I am reminded that the only people in church that like change are the babies in the nursery. Change is often a dirty word for so many people, but change is needed for any church to continue to be a beacon of light in their community.

For many years, I was involved with Upward Sports in some fashion at my previous church. Their tag line is something that I believe to be very biblical and needed for us to think through change. “Ever changing ways to share a never changing message.” I recently heard that the average life span of a church is 75 years, and the number one reason that churches do not last beyond that life span is because they do not or refuse to change. Growing a church through diversity will require change but change that thinks about the people we are trying to reach more than our personal preferences. If we are not able to get past our own personal preferences, change will be much harder.

Dr. Randal Lyle wrote a book about his church’s journey to reach its community and there are so many nuggets that need to be considered as we begin to grow our church through diversity. One of the nuggets is that we need to think about accommodating cultural differences instead of trying to make them like us through assimilation. To be a diverse church, we will need to put our cultural preferences aside for the sake of unity. All throughout scripture, we are called to strive for unity. That unity is first and foremost because we all are saved by the same blood that Jesus shed for us on the cross. We are all equal at the foot of the cross, so we need to embrace that equality instead of struggle with it. Unity must be the goal when we gather as a church. Our services, our way of doing things, our publications, even our food needs to be viewed through the lens of unity in diversity. This unity is not just an ideal or aspirational goal, but something that is put in place week in and week out. At the center of striving for unity is a need for each individual to commit to unity despite differences. I know that we can do this, because at any sporting event or theater, our cheering and applause is not based on our diversity but our focus on what is happening. Philippians 2 challenges us to strive for unity and consider others more important than ourselves. It is sad that church can be a place where embracing diversity is so difficult. When your team scores a touchdown, differences do not matter. When we stand before the throne of God, every nation, tribe, and tongue will gather to worship God and differences will not matter.

Our church needs to push against the words of Martin Luther King when he said, “the most segregated hour of the week is eleven o’clock on a Sunday morning.” Lord help us to focus on accommodation more than our personal preferences!