The High Definition Leader: Building Multiethnic Churches in a Multiethnic World - Softcover

Gray, Derwin L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0718031636 ISBN 13: 9780718031633

Publisher: Thomas Nelson, 2015

Synopsis

The High-Definition Leader is an invitation of grace for churches and their leaders to grasp the ancient call of the early New Testament Church that crossed ethnic and socioeconomic barriers to create heavenly colonies of love, reconciliation, and unity on earth. In it, you will learn the theology and practices that will help you build a mission-shaped, multi-ethnic church.

About this title

About the Author

Dr. Derwin L. Gray is the cofounder along with his wife Vicki, and leader pastor of Transformation Church, a multiethnic, multigenerational, mission-shaped church in the Charlotte, NC, area. Dr. Gray has been married since 1992 and has two adult children. He played six seasons in the NFL. In 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Southern Evangelical Seminary. In 2018, he received his Doctor of Ministry in the New Testament in Context at Northern Seminary under Dr. Scot McKnight. He is the author of several books, including the national bestseller, The Good Life.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The High-Definition Leader

Building Multiethnic Churches in a Multiethnic World

By DERWIN L. GRAY

Thomas Nelson

Copyright © 2015 Derwin L. Gray
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-7180-3163-3

Contents

Foreword, xiii, 
Acknowledgments, xvii, 
1 High-Definition Leadership in a Multicolored World, 1, 
2 Seeing Life in High Definition, 23, 
3 Seeing Salvation in High Definition, 43, 
4 Seeing Christ Jesus in High Definition, 69, 
5 Seeing Missionally in High Definition, 97, 
6 Seeing the Gospel in High Definition, 123, 
7 Seeing the Church in High Definition, 143, 
8 Seeing Discipleship and Leadership in High Definition, 165, 
9 Seeing the End Times in High Definition, 191, 
Conclusion: Are You In?, 213, 
Appendix: High-Definition Traits, 217, 
Notes, 225, 
About the Author, 233, 

CHAPTER 1

High-Definition Leadership in a Multicolored World

He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.

— Ephesians 2:15–16, NLT

The Tsunami Is on Its Way

Times are changing. You can feel it. You can sense something in the air. America is starting to look and feel a whole lot different. For the first time in the country's history, ethnic and racial minorities "are projected to make up the majority of students attending American public schools this fall, ending the white-majority population that has existed from the beginnings of the public education system."

In 1960, the population of the United States was 85 percent white; by 2060, it will be only 43 percent. The face of America is no longer just black and white, like those old televisions from back in the day. America is in high definition now, filled with different colored people. America is now a beautiful mosaic that includes Asian and Latino brothers and sisters.

Since 1965, forty million immigrants have arrived in the United States, "about half of them Hispanics and nearly three-in-ten Asians." In addition, "Intermarriage is playing a big role in changing some of our views of ethnicity." I know this to be true from personal experience; my wife is a white girl from rural Montana, and I'm a black guy from urban San Antonio, Texas. We have two stunningly beautiful children. When our children are asked to fill out an ethnicity questionnaire, they write, "We are first children of God who happen to have a black father and a white mother."

Not in Mayberry Anymore

What do all of these statistics mean? They mean we no longer live in a black or white America. We live in a colorful, high-definition America. It means we are not in Mayberry anymore. It means that the ethnic diversity of New York City, Los Angeles, and Houston is coming to a neighborhood near you much sooner than you think. Pastor, are you and your church ready to embrace this new community, or will you futilely attempt to maintain a homogeneous ministry in a multicolored world? The church needs new kinds of leaders, cross-cultural leaders who can guide the church into a multicolored America and world. Are you that leader? For the sake of the gospel and Jesus' church and glory, I sure hope you are this leader. Or at least desire to be this kind of leader.

Just Before a Tsunami

Before a tsunami hits land, the water level drops as water pulls away from the shore, leaving a wide chasm and exposing the seabed. Denominational leaders, pastors, church planters, and elders of homogeneous churches, I want you to know that the seas of change have pulled back from the beach and the tsunami is coming fast. The church needs a new kind of leader who can see this sea change coming and prepare the church and God's people for it. Don't let the tsunami crush Jesus' church.

Blackberry Churches in an Android/iPhone World

Blackberry used to be synonymous with the word smartphone. From 2000 to 2007, Blackberry phones were considered cool and were nick- named "Crackberries" because of their addictive nature. Celebrities and Fortune 500 leaders clamored to own one.

But times changed quickly for Blackberry. In 2011, this once innovative global company had more than 17,500 employees; in 2014 they were down to 7,000. What happened? How did Blackberry go from dominating the smartphone world to being a relic of the past? Google and Apple happened. Blackberry was blinded by its past success and was out-innovated by Google and Apple. As happened with the typewriter and the VCR, the Blackberry was left behind because the company did not adapt to changes in demand and technology happening around them.

We are no longer in a black or white America. We are in a multi-colored, high-definition America. Therefore, we need cross-cultural leaders who act as ambassadors of love, reconciliation, and unity across ethnic and generational lines. I believe the fastest growing, most innovative, community-transforming local churches in the future of America will be multiethnic, Christ-centered, gospel-shaped churches.

Won't Diversity Just Happen?

Just because America is becoming more ethnically diverse doesn't mean that local churches magically will become ethnically diverse along with it. As humans, we tend to be tribal and ethnocentric. We like being with our kind. Our kind is like us, and it's easier to love someone who is like us.

One of my great concerns is that we will find ourselves in a multi-colored environment throughout the workweek, yet worship in monocolored, monoclass churches on the weekend. Perhaps you're thinking, What's wrong with that? That's a fair question. My prayer is that as you read this chapter and the chapters that follow, your heart would be captured by God's dream of filling America and planet Earth with churches that reflect the ethnic diversity, unity, love, and reconciliation that we will find in the new heaven and the new earth. God desires the church of today to be a picture of that great eternal tomorrow.

Blinded by Success and Imitation

Often the leaders of homogeneous local churches are blinded by success. A homogeneous church is a church where 80 percent or more of the individuals are of the same ethnicity. Often what we view as ministry success blinds us to God's perspective of successful ministry. Ministry success is an opiate that can take you so high you won't even see the storm of epic change that has already arrived. I believe that God, in his providence, has seen fit to raise up leaders who will plant and build multicolored local churches that will challenge the status quo and disrupt the norm. I believe these new high-definition leaders are measuring successful ministry by a different standard.

We Reproduce Who We Are

As leaders, conference speakers serve as examples and models for others to learn from and emulate. Overwhelmingly, I began to realize I was about the only African American pastor–church planter at the conferences at which I spoke and the only pastor–church planter who had planted a multiethnic, gospel-driven, missional local church. I chose to stop going to conferences as an attendee for several years and only went when invited to speak. I felt as though I was hearing the same stuff from different leaders that produced the same result: homogeneous, middle-class, predominately white churches. In this context, I would share with pastor friends, "Surely my brothers realize America is so much more than the white, suburban, middle-class church? Surely my brothers realize that nonwhite people also live in the suburbs? Surely my brothers realize that performing Asian skits was offensive to our Asian brothers and sisters in the audience who had to endure a white guy poorly acting Asian?

Don't get me wrong. I've learned a lot at conferences and I'm so appreciative of the support system they offer. I am who I am today because I stand on the shoulders of others. However, thousands and thousands of pastors and church planters in America weekly are learning and imitating others like themselves who lead homogenized churches, whether black, white, Asian, or Latino. Leaders learning from homogeneous church leaders, therefore, are learning to do ministry and lead churches in a way that perpetuates the homogeneity of the local church. In a multiethnic America, we need a new kind of pastor-leader who desires to be an agent of reconciliation and to build multiethnic local churches because reconciliation is at the heart of the gospel.

Reconciliation at the Heart of Paul's Ministry

When the bride of Christ — his blood-bought, grace-covered, missional ambassadors of reconciliation — remains homogeneous in Christian ghettos, we dishonor King Jesus and the unsearchable riches of his gospel. Sociologist Michael Emerson has found that homogeneous local churches reproduce inequality, encourage oppression, strengthen racial division, and heighten political separation. I also believe that when ethnic diversity is possible and local churches remain homogeneous, the church loses credibility. How can we say Jesus loves everyone when our churches choose to create ministry models that ensure they will remain homogeneous? How can we be obey Jesus' instruction that his people become one when we remain segregated? (See John 17:21–23.) Our unity is a witness to the fact that God the Father sent Jesus to rescue the world and that God the Father loves us the way he loved Jesus.

Homogeneous local churches can perpetuate sins like racism. When you are only around your tribe or your own kind, you don't have to interact with other ethnicities, so your potential racist attitudes go unchallenged. Homogeneous local churches can perpetuate the sin of classism and inequality. When we choose to be with people of our socioeconomic tribe, we can become callous and dismissive of the plight of others. Homogeneous local churches can perpetuate the sin of systemic injustice. If we know only people like ourselves, our hearts shrink and concerns for others and their struggles never teach us to carry one another's burdens. Homogeneous local churches can perpetuate the sin of economic injustice. We must shift from "Let's help the poor" to "Let's be among the poor and do life with the poor." There is a great opportunity for mutual and beneficial exchanges to take place. When we stay segregated and separated, we find ourselves as Christians living in different worlds even though we may be right next door to one another.

On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed eighteen-year-old black teenager was shot and killed by a white police officer named Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of Saint Louis. Before Michael Brown encountered Officer Wilson, he had robbed a convenience store and was walking down the middle of the street. On November 24, 2014, a grand jury decided not to indict the police officer for Brown's death. Riots ensued across America. Black evangelicals and white evangelicals interpreted this situation very differently. For black Americans, the horror of black men being lynched came to mind. Anger, fear, and sadness have a context. And for black Americans that context is the oppression and pain of slavery and injustice that their people have experienced in America for four hundred years. We will continue to interpret events like the Michael Brown shooting very differently as long as we stay segregated in the tribal worlds of black churches and white churches.

What if black and white evangelicals (and Asian and Latino for that matter) were members of multiethnic churches, living together in community? If this Christ-exalting life were to become our reality, we could address racism, oppression, and injustice in a unified voice of love. What if evangelicals of all ethnicities shared life with one another in a local church community and heard each other's stories and walked in each other's shoes? If this Christ-exalting life were to become our reality, I believe our suspicions and mistrust would be abandoned and replaced with love for one another. The church could actually speak with credibility about the sad events of the Michael Brown shooting if we were living examples of ethnic and class reconciliation.

Western Individualist Gospel

Our Western, American individualist gospel is obsessed with sending people to heaven when they die, but Jesus and the apostle Paul were more interested in building a church that would bring heaven to earth through redeemed people. Of course we know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord Jesus (see 2 Corinthians 5:8), and I'm grateful for this eternal assurance; however, the gospel is an announcement that there is a King named Jesus who established a kingdom through a multicolored, regenerated people called the church, who are empowered by the Holy Spirit to embody heaven on earth as a foretaste of that which is to come on that great day (see Revelation 5:9–12). This means that as much as we look forward to heaven, there is important, rewarding work to do here on earth. Preeminent New Testament scholar Scot McKnight said this about the local church: "God's desire is for us to experience multiethnic fellowship now in the local church as it will be for eternity. God's heart is total reconciliation."

One of the most beautiful aspects of the gift of salvation is reconciliation, which means enemies have become friends. Through the sinless life, atoning death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, God made humanity, which was once his enemy (see Romans 5:8–11), his friend. Thus an ethnically diverse, racist, brutal, unjust, fearful oppressive humanity can be family and friends with one another as a heavenly community on earth.

As I wrote this book, I stood on the shoulders of the leaders who knew that the heart of the gospel is reconciliation. God reconciles humanity to himself and humanity to humanity. I'm thankful to those who have gone before, laboring to see multicolored local churches of love and reconciliation become a reality in America.

I Heard About a Church

In the early 2000s, as God was shaping and molding me, I shared my ideas and dreams of church that would look like heaven and how I could be a living witness to God's grace and human flourishing. Some friends told me about a multiethnic church in Redmond, Washington, pastored by a former NFL player, Ken "Hutch" Hutcherson. Two things in their description immediately grabbed my attention: the possibility of a church that looked like heaven and the fact that it was led by a former NFL player. Several years passed before I actually met Hutch.

In 2008, I was asked to preach at the Antioch Bible Church's men's retreat. This turned out to be a life-defining moment for me. As I stood in the pulpit to proclaim the gospel to these men, I looked into the eyes of multiethnic men, and their communal witness showed me the kind of community the gospel can create. Antioch Bible Church is a heavenly looking community on earth, and it was founded and planted by a reformed racist.

Hutch grew up in Alabama. He hated white people and believed they hated him. He experienced racism and was racist toward white people. The only one who could deal with his racist, hated-filled heart was the one who had a grace-filled, love-filled heart: Jesus. During Hutch's senior year in high school, Jesus tackled him and transformed him. And Jesus took a former racist and planted a church that was 65 percent white and 35 percent black: Asian, Hispanics, and bi-ethnic. Hutch said, "And I married one of the whitest women in the world — a German woman — and we have four beautiful chocolate German children!"

At the men's retreat, Hutch and some of the elders prayed over me. They commissioned me to be a multiethnic church planter. I don't think I understood the significance then, but I do now. Hutch has gone on to be with Jesus now, but the impression he left on my life is as strong today as it was when I worshiped that weekend at Antioch Bible Church. As I sat next to Hutch and his wife, my heart was exploding. At Antioch Bible Church, I knew a multiethnic church forged by grace and the blood of Jesus could be planted. I saw it. I experienced it. Thank you, Hutch; you were a mentor and a friend.

Australian New Testament scholar Michael F. Bird wrote: "The gospel is lived out when Christians practice reconciliation among themselves and exemplify it before their neighbors. The Ambassadors for reconciliation have the opportunity to promote peacemaking in communities rife with factions, distrust, and mutual suspicions." Isn't that beautiful? Our world needs more beauty like this coming from our local churches.

Right now, the church in America does not exemplify reconciliation, which is the heartbeat of the gospel and God's longing for humanity. The average church in America is ethnically and socioeconomically segregated; granted, sometimes this is because of demographics, but most of the time it's by choice fueled by indifference, prejudices, petty preferences, or ignorance of the gospel. Instead of being fueled by Jesus' heart for reconciliation, we are fueled by the status quo.

Preeminent New Testament scholar N. T. Wright said that the apostle Paul's "aims and intentions can be summarized under the word katallage, 'reconciliation.' "11 Paul, the original high-definition leader and champion of multiethnic, Christocentric, missional church planting, wrote these Holy Spirit–inspired words in an ethnically and socioeconomically segregated Greco-Roman world:

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The High-Definition Leader by DERWIN L. GRAY. Copyright © 2015 Derwin L. Gray. Excerpted by permission of Thomas Nelson.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0718031636
• ISBN 13: 9780718031633
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224