CHAPTER 28

God’s Justice and Good News: Looking at the Intertwined Dynamics of Evangelism and Antiracism

Otis Turner

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has set a goal of increasing the percentage of racial ethnic membership to 20 percent by the year 2010. One factor that influenced the church to choose 20 percent as the benchmark is that the percentage of racial ethnic people in the United States is approximately 26 percent and rising, while racial ethnic people comprise about 6 percent of Presbyterian membership. Thus there was a perceived need to place more emphasis on racial ethnic evangelism so that the composition of the church will be more reflective of the population of the nation. Another factor is a strong desire to reverse the membership decline that has plagued the denomination for decades.

In 1965, membership in the PCUSA was estimated to be 4.2 million; in 2001, membership was estimated to be 2.5 million. The emphasis on racial ethnic church growth is part of a broader churchwide emphasis on evangelism that is intended to reverse the membership decline. The 1996 General Assembly recognized that if such an ambitious goal is to be achieved, an intentional strategy must be developed that takes into consideration the distinctive needs of the varied racial ethnic constituencies in light of their historic experiences. A churchwide strategy for racial ethnic church growth was adopted by the 210th General Assembly (1998). Implementation of the strategy has begun. But it faces some formidable challenges.

One of the challenges is awareness. According to the November 2000 Presbyterian Panel, only 7 percent of the membership is aware of the denominational goal for racial ethnic membership, although 66 percent of pastors are aware of it. That is a significant gap in awareness between clergy and laypeople. While such difference in awareness exists around other issues, it is particularly significant here as an indicator of points of resistance that we must overcome. Additionally, approximately three-fourths of the membership do not believe that the goal is likely to be achieved.

Funding is another challenge. The Panel indicates that 46 percent of the membership is opposed to using significantly more funding in an effort to raise racial ethnic membership to 20 percent by 2010. Nevertheless, funding is a critical barrier that we must overcome if the Presbyterian Church is to have a reasonable chance of achieving its racial ethnic membership goals. Funding must be significantly increased, not just for racial ethnic evangelism, but also in racial justice and antiracism work, because the most significant barrier to increasing racial ethnic membership in the denomination is still racism. The 1998 General Assembly affirmed

Chilcote, P. W., & Warner, L. C. (Eds.). (2008). The study of evangelism : Exploring a missional practice of the church. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Created from amridge on 2022-11-17 13:03:50.

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this reality when it adopted the report on racial ethnic church growth. It said:

Given the well-documented racial problems that dominate our culture, it is difficult for us to truly serve the interests of a multicultural society without some form of social intervention. Enhanced efforts to achieve racial ethnic church growth must employ intervention methods such as antiracism training to effect necessary reform of institutional behavior that historically has prevented the church from including people of color. Systematic racism, discrimination, prejudice, disempowerment, and cultural depreciation all serve to inhibit racial ethnic church growth. Racial ethnic church growth is inextricably linked to the struggle for racial justice. Thus, as the church invests resources in racial ethnic church growth strategies, it must also invest in the struggle against racism and other social injustice. To do one without the other is a prescription for failure. Racial justice implies pluralism, cultural diversity, and a more equitable distribution of economic, political, and social power. Justice also leads to the achievement of group dignity and social affirmation. If the church recognizes these crucial connections and strengthens its investment in programs like antiracism training, it is more likely to achieve its racial ethnic church growth goals as it moves into the next century.1

The Assembly recognized that there are crucial connections between evangelism and racism. However, according to the Presbyterian Panel, an awareness of these connections is very low in the denomination. While more than 80 percent of the membership believes that the church should be in the forefront of efforts to fight racism, 46 percent of the membership is opposed to using significantly more resources to achieve racial ethnic membership goals set by the denomination. This is an anomaly that reflects a lack of awareness of the connections between evangelism and racism. As noted by the 1998 General Assembly, a failure to recognize the connection between evangelism and racism and provide adequate funding to deal effectively with both is a prescription for failure.2

Dealing with racism and doing racial ethnic evangelism are complex and challenging matters. One of the complicating factors is rapidly changing demographics. Some predictions suggest that by the middle of this century a majority of the U.S. population will be comprised of people that the PCUSA refers to as racial ethnic. Whether such predictions are accurate is academic. As a practical matter, the racial profile of the United States is changing and a lot of people are having difficulty dealing with it.

The change in immigration patterns is one thing that is driving the demographic shift. In 1940, an estimated 70 percent of immigrants who came to the United States were from Europe. By 1990, immigration from Europe had dropped to an estimated 15 percent, with the remaining 85 percent coming from Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa. This has resulted in some major demographic shifts with which many Americans are still struggling, engendering such phenomena as the English-only initiatives, regressive immigration policies, and resurgent xenophobia. While these reactions are condemned by the social policies of the Presbyterian Church, some disconnects in denominational awareness are problematic. For example, the Presbyterian Panel reveals that the least preferred strategy for racial ethnic church growth is “encouraging white congregations to make greater efforts to reach out to racial ethnic persons.” This includes 27 percent of members, 32 percent of elders, and 51 percent of pastors.

What is the reason for such resistance to reaching out to racial ethnic people? Could it be a fear that such efforts would change the profile of white congregations? Could it be that if white congregations reached out to people of color, they would not come? Could it be that if

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racial ethnic people did join white congregations in significant numbers, it would change the power relationships in the congregations? Is it the result of unresolved racial tension that lurks beneath the surface? I suggest that it is all of these and others. After all, 11 A.M. on Sunday remains the most segregated hour in the nation. That is no accident of history. As a practical matter, it is an indication of where some of the difficult points of resistance are.

Those whose sense of personhood is grounded in the notion that the United States must remain a predominantly white nation, or that white hegemony must remain normative, will have some identity-shaking experiences as diversity in the United States increases. This will not be limited to fringe or reactionary elements associated with hate groups. It will involve people of goodwill as well. Through no fault of their own, a larger segment of the nation’s population will encounter more difficulty making the transition to a racially diverse and inclusive community than we might expect. White flight is not a phenomenon of the political or religious right. It involves liberals, moderates, conservatives — that is, the whole spectrum.

The church will be no exception. This is not because of ill will. People of goodwill have long recognized that eradicating the sin of racism from church and society is a high priority. However, the church is now aware that the phenomenon of racism is far more complex and intertwined with the structures, culture, and values of society than was originally thought. The church also recognizes that eradicating racism will be a long journey that requires discernment, prayer, and worship-based action. These realizations, nudged by changing demographics, have pushed many local communities and congregations to struggle with the growing problem of racism. The 1998 General Assembly said,

Enhanced efforts to achieve racial ethnic church growth must employ intervention methods such as antiracism training to effect necessary reform of institutional behavior that historically has prevented the church from including people of color.3

This is why the connection between evangelism and antiracism is so crucial to the life of the church.

The church is confronted with an unprecedented opportunity — and it also faces an unprecedented pitfall. More people are affirming the value of diversity than ever before. We have created a diversity table4 and can see how valuable diversity is for the mission of the church. Although many people think that the diversity table is the solution to the race problem, it is not. Therein lies the danger. The diversity table is the place where answers can be found. It is a place where we can figure out how to transform institutions, structures, and values that sustain racism. We must be mindful of the fact that we do not have an adequate value infrastructure to sustain a multicultural and multiracial society or church relatively free of social conflict. That is a foundation that we must build.

We have achieved a level of tolerance that will enable us to come together at a multicultural table and engage in dialogue. However, we must remember that we bring to the table that which will destroy it. We bring the self-interest of all competing groups, including a legacy of racism. However, as we engage in dialogue, competing self-interest can be

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transformed into a common self-interest wherein the needs of all are met. Martin Luther King Jr. points out that, in order for a common self-interest to have permanence and loyalty, the multicultural elements must have goals from which they benefit but which are not in fundamental conflict to each other. Although King speaks in terms of the formation of an alliance, his fundamental point is precisely the one I seek to make with regards to multiculturalism. Quoting King:

A true alliance is based upon some self-interest of each component group and a common interest into which they merge. For an alliance to have permanence and loyal commitment from its various elements, each of them must have a goal from which it benefits and none must have an outlook in basic conflict with the others.5

Finding the common denominator is the critical task: it must be the norm of the value infrastructure that will emerge when we are able to deconstruct and transform institutions and structures that are racially biased and oppressive. This is what antiracism is designed to achieve.

An antiracism methodology has been developed for the Presbyterian Church and is in the process of being refined. It is a change process that will help us make the transition from where we are to where we need to be if the goal of racial ethnic church growth is to be achieved.

The Changing Process

The change process has several stages. Deconstruction. It begins with deconstruction, wherein we become aware of and unlearn

the complex array of myths and misinformation that constitute the foundation of prejudice. Oppression begins with misinformation that takes on the appearance of truth and is codified in traditions and policies that structure society, that inform and shape institutional and personal behavior. Misinformation functions to justify a network of institutions that create advantages for some while discriminating against others. Deconstruction addresses the fundamental basis of prejudice and incorrect information that has been passed from generation to generation. As we begin to understand the nature of prejudice and the false premise upon which it is built, we become more aware of the learned behavior that is reinforced and acted out as discrimination.

Behavior analysis. The second stage is behavior analysis, which addresses the constellation of social forces that shape the social behavior of oppressors and the oppressed. It is well known that the behavior of oppressors must be a target of change. Much of the work on breaking down oppression has focused on the privilege of oppressors. However, such writers as Paulo Freire and Franz Fanon point out that we have seriously underestimated the degree to which the adaptive behavior that the oppressed is forced to learn and internalize in order to survive is a contributing factor.6 When change takes place, the learned behavior of the oppressors and oppressed must be taken into consideration.

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Power analysis. The third stage in the change process is power analysis. Here we come to understand the role of social power in establishing and maintaining systems of oppression. It is social power — the capacity to control and manipulate resources to achieve a desired end — that transforms prejudice into racism. Societies structure their common life, create and perpetuate institutions and the values that undergird them, distribute goods and services, and determine their goals and aspirations by the exercise of power. If we are going to dismantle racism, we must first understand the power arrangements that perpetuate and sustain it. Only then will we get a sense of how it can be dismantled. We must also know what sources of power can be used to bring about change. It is important to note that racial oppression results from an abuse of power. A right use of power results in justice.

Visioning. The fourth step is visioning. This begins with imagining what the church or society would be like if it were not affected by racism. That seems easy enough. However, the problem with visioning has to do with the degree to which our imagination is tied to current reality. Imagining specific realities that are different are often difficult, because the most common image that we have of change in race relations is a mere reversal of present power relationships. This is particularly true for those who have histories of power and privilege. The inability to imagine a positive alternative engenders fear and resistance to change.

Visioning is not about trading places; it is about imagining a church and a society free of the barriers that keep us from appreciating and living into the diversity of God’s creation and realizing our oneness in Jesus Christ. It is about creating a community where all can realize the full extent of their God-given talents.

Reconstruction. The fifth and final stage in the change process is reconstruction, implementing a new vision in concrete terms. This is the point at which we are able to take the learnings derived from social analysis and theological reflection and build strategic bridges to positive social change. We change policies and procedures; we share power; we cultivate new values; we reshape and remake institutions and systems where racial justice and equality are normative. The racial justice policies of the PCUSA have addressed dismantling racism for decades. What has been missing for decades is a methodology that will enable us to do that and the will to implement it.

Racism is a social construction; as such, it can be deconstructed and unlearned. If we have the courage to do it, we can build the beloved community. This is what antiracism is about. It is designed to change individuals and the interaction of individuals within the context of community. Personal transformation alone is not the answer. Personal transformation must result in changed behavior and changed institutions.

The ultimate goal of antiracism is to create a community that is fair, just, and sustainable. We now know that such a goal is attainable. Antiracism can empower the Presbyterian Church (and other faith communities that engage in similar processes) to be a vital part of a growing movement that seeks to build a racially just society. It is a long journey from where we are to the beloved community. But with courage, determination, and faith-based action, we can get there.

Chilcote, P. W., & Warner, L. C. (Eds.). (2008). The study of evangelism : Exploring a missional practice of the church. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Created from amridge on 2022-11-17 13:03:50.

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Racial ethnic evangelism and antiracism are inextricably linked. If the church does not recognize this connection, its efforts at racial ethnic church growth will fail.

1. Minutes, Part 1, 1998, p. 414. 2. Minutes, Part 1, 1998, p. 414. 3. Minutes, Part 1, 1998, p. 414. 4. “Diversity Table,” as used here, refers to those places in church and society where people of different racial and cultural

backgrounds can share a common space with a sufficient degree of civility to permit dialog to take place. Multicultural churches, workplaces, and educational institutions are examples.

5. Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community (Boston: Beacon, 1967), p. 151. 6. Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Continuum, 1999); Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New

York: Grove Press, 1963).

Chilcote, P. W., & Warner, L. C. (Eds.). (2008). The study of evangelism : Exploring a missional practice of the church. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Created from amridge on 2022-11-17 13:03:50.

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CHAPTER 30

Centripetal Mission, or Evangelization by Hospitality

Mortimer Arias

One day last summer I visited an English-speaking church in Vienna where the American pastor preached on Titus 1:5-16. His reference to the importance of hospitality for Christian leaders and their witness (1:8) was seed sown for later reflections on what I thought might be called “evangelization by hospitality.”

The fact that I am living the experience of a privileged guest in the United States, enjoying the wonderful hospitality of the American church, made the subject of hospitality especially meaningful to me. I think hospitality should be seen as an important part of the ongoing mission of the church.

The Scriptural Emphasis on Hospitality

Hospitality is becoming an almost forgotten Christian virtue in our style of life today, particularly in big cities with their rampant crime on the streets, their locked-in apartments, and all their affluent, urban, and bourgeois devices which attempt to create privacy in our homes and our lives.

In the New Testament, however, hospitality was a distinctive mark of Christians and Christian communities. “Open your homes to strangers,” says Paul, in describing the Christian lifestyle (Rom. 12:13). “Welcome one another,” he continues, “as Christ welcomed you” (15:17). A few lines later when introducing the deaconess Phoebe to the Romans, Paul again suggests hospitality, “Please, give her a Christian welcome” (16:2). But the apostle has not finished with the subject. He again reminds the Christians of the Empire’s capital about “Gaius, my host and the host of the whole congregation” (16:23). A remarkable number of hospitality instructions in a single letter!

Bishops, elders, and widows are summoned to hospitality in the Pastoral Letters (1 Tim. 3:2; 5:9; Titus 1:8). The apostle Peter considered hospitality the right and normal thing for Christians to do: “Open your homes to each other, without complaining” (1 Peter 4:9). And the Letter to the Hebrews elaborates further the potential meaning of hospitality, raising it to a very privileged duty for the rank-and-file Christians: “Remember to welcome the strangers in your homes. There are some who did it and welcomed angels without knowing it” (Heb. 13:2).

Where did such a high esteem for hospitality come from? Of course there was a long- honored tradition of hospitality both among the Orientals and the Greeks. The Old

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Testament recounts the memorable experience of Abraham and Sarah in hosting the messengers of the Lord (Gen. 18:1-8; cf. 19:1-3). And hospitality was essential in the beginning of the Christian mission and the expansion of the emergent church in the New Testament through homes of Christians and well-disposed friends (Acts 1:13; 2:46; 5:42; 9:43; 12:12-17; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15). It has been suggested that the transmission of the materials that became incorporated in our present Gospels first circulated through Christian travelers and in the atmosphere of hospitality.1 The house church model continued beyond the second century, in times when Christians had no temples or public buildings available.2 Gradually an effective network of communication spread all over the Roman Empire through the modest means of hospitality.

The instructions of the New Testament on hospitality go beyond mere necessity and strategy. There were deep spiritual and theological foundations, as Paul suggests with his exhortation: “Receive one another as Christ received you.” I dare to believe that hospitality was rooted finally in Jesus’ own teaching and command:

I was a stranger and you received me in your homes … Indeed, whenever you did this for one of the least of these, … you did it for me: Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes you, welcomes the one who sent me. (Matt. 25:35, 40, 43; Mark 9:37, Luke 9:48)

For the temporary mission of the Twelve, hospitality was an indispensable component:

When you come to a town or village, go in and look for someone who is willing to welcome you, and stay with him until you leave the place. (Matt. 10:11ff.)

But it is not only a provisional missionary device. In the Gospel of John it becomes a solemn affirmation, a sort of universal principle:

I tell you the truth; whoever receives anyone I send, receives me also; and whoever receives me, receives him who sent me. (John 13:20)

Can we see, then, how the matter of hospitality is intimately related to Christian life and mission? It seems obvious that here hospitality is quite inclusive: it has to do with brothers and sisters in the faith, with Christian leaders and congregations, with children, with missionaries, with the “least one of these,” the needy neighbor, whoever this may be, and specifically when it is a foreigner, a stranger.

For centuries Christians have discussed the sacraments — as mediators of God’s presence, as “the real presence” of the Lord in the elements of the Eucharist. Perhaps we need to discuss the sacrament of welcoming the neighbor! God comes to us in the disciples, the missionaries, children, and the “least one of these” — especially the needy neighbors.

Hospitality Evangelization

In hospitality there is much more than Christian politeness and civilized behavior. It may not

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be out of order to think in terms of hospitality evangelization! I would venture the hypothesis that hospitality was an effective evangelistic instrument during the Middle Ages, considering the historical role of convents, hostels, and places of refuge for travelers, pilgrims, or runaways. “Hospital” is a word and an institution born precisely out of Christian hospitality.

Any missionary or seminary teacher worth their salt could tell us the decisive role hospitality played in their ministry. It is in the atmosphere of a real home where Christians can be better known and where both hosts and guests can share their needs, their pains, their hopes, their faith. Is it surprising that today, despite our big buildings and our sophisticated means of communication, we come once again to house churches, neighborhood cells, and base Christian communities as vital instruments for the renewal of the church, for evangelization and for church growth?

As there are hospitable homes there are hospitable churches. In recent years Christians concerned with the division between confessions at the Lord’s table have suggested the need for “Eucharistic hospitality” — offering an open table to Christians of other denominations or confessions. But a hospitable church is much more than an eventual open table to other Christians — it is an open church, a welcoming church.

How hospitable are our churches? Thi

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