Tag Archives: multi-cultural

Kobe and Laying Down Power in the Church

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My wife and I life in Pasadena, CA, which is the first city you come to as you travel east out of north Los Angeles.  We love it here!  And here’s one small reason: if you planned well and had decent traffic, then in the winter in LA you could ski in the morning, go to the beach in the afternoon, and watch a world-class stage production in the evening.  Amazing!

Besides how expensive it is to live here, one of the other things that I don’t like about LA is the constant chatter about the Lakers (the local basketball team, in case you didn’t know).  I love basketball, but I don’t really have a team that I root for.  Over the last few years I’ve grown to love the Clippers (LA’s other team) because they seem like they need a few more fans.  However, I’ve always, more or less, rooted against the Lakers, even before moving here.

Why?  Because I like to see new teams win sometimes!  And the Lakers have won sixteen championships!  In other words, I’m kind of tired of the same ol’, same ol’ when it comes to basketball.

It has been brought to my attention today, thanks to local news on the TV and sports-talk radio, that Kobe Bryant, the Lakers’ longtime star, has re-signed with the team for two years at a reported rate of 48.5 million US dollars.  That’s a ton of cash, especially when you take into consideration the fact that Kobe hasn’t played at all this season yet due to an achilles heel injury.

The Lakers are really betting it all on Kobe with this deal.  Because they re-signed him at such a large salary, the Lakers will have less money to sign other star players.  In other words, Kobe requires such a large investment, that the Lakers will have less wiggle room under the salary cap to lure any other players to LA.

All of this reminds me of something I heard recently.  Some people from the church my wife and I attend went to Mosaix this year.  Mosaix is a global network of believers, churches, para-church groups, schools, etc. who are attempting to catalyze a “movement toward multiethnic churches in the twenty-first century for the sake of the gospel.”  During a post-conference meeting a woman from our church shared this reflection gleaned from the conference: “Every perspective (white, black, Latino, Asian, etc.) has to give up something in order for us to gain traction toward truly becoming multiethnic.”

To translate that into Matt-ese, she’s saying that if we are really going to be the body of Christ the way that God envisions it (Revelation 7.9), then we all have to lay down whatever power me might have for the benefit of everyone else.  We must stop holding onto whatever power we have (which we tend to use for ourselves and those like us) and start making space for those who are different from us.

I’m going to do something heavy-handed here.  Ready?  This is what Jesus did.  Philippians 2.6-7 says Jesus “who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”  And how does Paul introduce these words in Philippians 2.5?  He says “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset of Christ Jesus.”

Ouch.

So, let me get this straight.  I’m supposed to have the same attitude that Jesus had and Jesus gave up his power for the benefit of others.  So that means in my life I’m being called by God to give up my power, my advantages, and my preferences so that others can flourish.

Dang.  That’s hard!

And the situation with Kobe is a reminder of our basic human makeup.  Left to our own devices, the vast majority of us will take as much money as we can get, even if it hurts our team and our chances of ever winning again.  Left to our own devices, we’ll not make space for others, instead will actively and subconsciously exclude people.  Left to our own devices, we’re pretty selfish from top to bottom.

So the missional call is to live like Jesus, emptying ourselves for the benefit of others.  That might mean that we have less control, we have less time, we have less say, we have less money, we have less power, and we have less influence.  But it will mean that we’re obeying the clear call from God in the Bible to put the interests of others before our own.

And that unselfish living is what our culture is hungry for.  That’s what can make us stand out from the crowd.  That’s what can help create in us lives that invite others to come to know this Jesus who changes our lives.  That’s what can help us fulfill the Great Commandment (Matthew 22.37-39) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28.19-20).

Let’s do this together!

Do you have any ideas of what laying down our power might look like?  How have you done it?  How have you seen it done?  What were the results?  Share with me in the comments below!

Half Full or Half Empty: Some Thoughts on Racism

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Nemo / Pixabay

Is this glass in the picture half full?  Or is it half empty?  (Or, if you are a nerd, do you focus on the half that’s full of a clear liquid or the half that’s full of air?)

Well, for me, it depends.  If it’s my glass, then it’s half full.  I get to enjoy several more drinks of refreshing water before having to get up and get some more!  But if you’re a guest at my house, it’s half empty and I need to get ready to bring you a refill!

In my life I find a similar sort of relativism when it comes to whether I’m an optimist or not.  When it’s my stuff, my life, the things I have leadership over, I’m usually optimistic, especially when I’m talking to others.  But if I’m looking at the situations that others find themselves in, I tend to be more pessimistic.

I find myself much more easily doubting the intentions of others rather than being honest about my own.  I’m really likely to ask for people to give me leeway for my mistakes and to point out my own progress on various issues but I’m pretty unlikely to do either for other people.

So, I don’t find it surprising that some people who have been hurt in the sticky racial climate in our country don’t want to hear from me how far I’ve come with regard to being more sensitive about ethnically-related ethics, practices, and behaviors.

But I have come a long way.  I fully imbibed the latent but polite racism that was part of the culture of my youth.  However, I always tried to fight against it.  I tried not to laugh at the racist jokes.  I tried not to use racial slurs.  I tried not to buy into the stereotypes of people of different ethnicities.  I tried to have a diverse set of friends.  I tried to lead groups in the churches where I have served to be more multi-cultural.  I have tried to stand in solidarity with those different than me.  I’ve tried to be an advocate, a support, and a freedom fighter.

I have tried.

But the folks who live in my neighborhood who are currently suffering thanks to unfair systems and structures don’t really care about how I have tried.  And my friends who when they look at themselves in the mirror wish that they could change, not their weight or hair, but their ethnicity thanks to all the pain they have suffered just by being a person of color, don’t really want to hear how I’ve tried either.  And folks who feel marginalized and unheard within Evangelical churches like my own simply because they were born within a different ethnic culture than me also don’t really care how much I’ve tried.

Is it good that I’ve tried?  Sure!  100%!

But why do I have this tendency to tell people how hard I’ve tried?  Is it white guilt, the feeling of shame and frustration that some white people feel when they see or hear about racism leveled against others by whites, whether in the present or past?  Or is it my sad effort to distance myself from those racists while ignoring some lingering racist tendencies in me?

My friend, Liz Lin, recently posted an awesome blog at The Salt Collective called “My Name is Liz Lin, and I’m Racist.”  In her piece Liz argues that we’re all racist by default.  It’s just part of what it means to be human to group people together and to make pre-judgments about them.  But Liz doesn’t leave it there.  She pushes forward, challenging us to move beyond simply accepting our own racism and that of others.  She says, “We need to actively correct ourselves — and each other.”

And Liz is right!  But as we do this active correction of ourselves and others, let’s not parade it around for everyone to see!  Instead of using some of my energy to tell others, especially those who don’t look like me, how much I’ve tried and how far I’ve come, I’d rather use that same energy to continue to treat people of other ethnicities with dignity and grace, just like I would like to be treated!

So let’s get a little less “the glass is half full” with this issue.  Instead, let’s admit that the glass is broken and the refreshing water that was supposed to be delivered to us all has spilled all over the table and is dripping onto the floor.  Now let’s work together, across all of our divisions (ethnicity, socio-economics, gender, education, etc.) to build a new vessel to hold water…and then let’s tip it over and shower those in the most need with the life-giving water of the good news of the kingdom of God!

Here’s a book by Efrem Smith that is full of helpful resources and thoughts about being missional and multiethnic: The Post-Black, Post-White Church: Becoming the Beloved Community in a Multi-Ethnic World.