What do you think a Christian looks like? Depending on the part of the world you live in, you may think of a white, middle-class, male that doesn't tip well and has a serious gun fetish. This person might not condone drinking, smoking, nor anything related to sex. If you live in the midwest as I do, you may find that Christianity and conservative ideals have become a package deal. This person most likely would not respond with an educated answer when asked difficult questions such as "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Granted, you find many of these characteristics in many other cultures and religious groups. What makes Christianity stand out in particular as lacking in culture and progressive ideology?
Over the course of the next few weeks, I will hope to look at topics that Christians typically attempt to have a loud voice in and compare them to how the Bible says we ought to react to such events. This includes women's role in the church, Black Lives Matter, the Marriage Equality legislation of 2015, as well as others.
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This week I am going to be discussing what the Christian church actually looks like.
Did you know that it 1910, The United States of America alone held 93 percent of all Christians (PewResearchCenter)? This doesn't seem to be the ideal diverse culture that God John portrays in Revelation 7:9.
"After this, I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands."
It is evident that an ideal Christian community is one that is enriched with the cultures, the languages, the differences of people all across the world! One thing I find beautiful is the fact that over the course of 100 years, Sub-Saharan Africa has gone from having only 1.4 percent of its population claiming Christianity to 23.6 percent! The same is happening in the Asia-Pacific area. They went from only 4.5 percent to having 13.1 percent in the year 2010.
And guess what! These peoples have never had to conform to any western ideology. They did not all of a sudden become Republicans, nor did they all go out and buy guns. Their music is different, their food remains different, their language remains different. This is something you do not see in other worldviews.
From May to June of 2016 I had the opportunity to drive across almost all of the western United States. This took me through some of the most liberal and (what I thought to be) God-hating places in America. "Portland?" I thought, "they'll be able to smell the midwestern-Christian on us." I never thought I would run into another Christian in areas like this. But I was so wrong.
In Los Angeles my friend and I found our way through downtown to New City Church, which we later found out was a church plant of a local Korean church. Upon entering, I immediately noticed the differences it held from my own church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The worship team, which consisted of a two or three young Hispanic men, a middle-aged black woman, and an Asian girl who looked like she was in her mid-twenties. Already revolutionarily more diverse. During the worship session, I looked around the room to see the members of the congregation that I was worshipping with. In front of me stood Andre, a Brazilian USC student who was studying laser engineering. Across the aisle, from me, I saw a Hispanic homeless woman who sat quietly in her chair in meditation. There was nothing special about the songs that were being sung, they were the same ones I heard every Sunday morning at any church I'd been to. But near the end, a black man with this radical African-style shirt on stepped onto the stage and started up the most beautiful gospel-jazz I'd ever heard in my whole life. After he prayed for the congregation, we all took communion and greeted one another with firm handshakes and gentle embraces. Apparently, this is what church is supposed to be like.
I've met Christians that are liberal, conservative, black, white, Asian, African, Hispanic, married, single, old, young, musicians, poets, politicians, protestors, prisoners, and the list continues on to every walk of life. It's not good enough anymore to say that Christian ideals are exclusive to white westerners. When we look at the Bible for the type of people that Jesus spent time around, we see that he separates himself from the self-righteous, oppressive, and wealthy, but instead chooses to identify with the leper, the prostitute, the tax collector.
So we ask ourselves the question, "What does the true church look like?" It seems that the Bible calls for the church to be multiethnic and multicultural (Revelation 7:9), to be concerned with the needs of the poor and impoverished (Isaiah 58:6-7), to have a hankering for social justice (Matthew 25:40), to give graciously (Proverbs 25:14), and to wait with eagerness for the coming Kingdom (Matthew 13:44).
If this seems shocking and new to you, I urge that you would go see it for yourself. The world is teeming with people that love you and are eager to show you the source of the joy they hold so dearly to.
