Reviews for One Body, One Spirit: Principles of Successful Multiracial Churches

The average rating for One Body, One Spirit: Principles of Successful Multiracial Churches based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-10-01 00:00:00 Mark Cross George Yancey is becoming one of my favorite voices when it comes to issues of race among Christians in America. He has worked with a set of researchers and authors over the years that includes Michael Emerson and Christian Smith (authors of Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America) and cowrote several books with Emerson (United by Faith: The Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race,Transcending Racial Barriers: Toward a Mutual Obligations Approach), and, in fact, Emerson wrote the forward to One Body One Spirit. Yancey is a sociologist, and he brings this expertise to bear on these discussions. I love how he confronts assumptions or theoretical possibilities with hard evidence. Is it true that mono-racial churches will grow faster than others (i.e., the "homogenous unit principle")? Actually, the data doesn't support this (35, 38). Yancey defines a "multi-racial" church as one with no more than 80% of a single racial group represented, which he admits is a pretty low bar. Nevertheless, even by this standard, American churches are doing very poorly at integrating our churches (8% when the book was written). He points out that "it is common for American churches to make a tremendous effort to support foreign mission work in order to reach people of different races in other countries and yet to do little, if anything, about reaching people of different races in their own cities" (49). This book is realistic, practical, but it does not pull punches. He pushes readers toward greater levels of cultural awareness, and specific recommendations, including Inclusive Worship, Diverse Leadership, finding an Overarching Goal, Intentionality, Personal Skills, and even Location, and having Adaptability. Every one of these is unpacked in nuanced and helpful ways. One example of this nuance is his discussion of "first wave" and "later cohorts" of minorities to multiethnic churches. Sometimes, the "first wave" is trying "to escape members of their own race" (for its "bad theology" or whatever purported reason), but "these individuals often validate the status quo." Leaders will be tempted to engage with them, but then to stop soliciting feedback, assuming that they've learned how to navigate these issues. However, the "later cohorts" are likely to be "more willing to shake up that status quo. If the leaders of the church do not listen to this later cohort, they will often lose out on the opportunity to make the alterations that can enable the church to become even more racially diverse" (156). Yancey is realistic: multiracial churches are not "a panacea to all of the racial problems in the United States." Not all multiracial churches " are very effective in producing racial healing or in retaining members of the numerical minority." Some multiracial churches "reproduced many of the values that have led to racial alienation" (152). It is important to "intentionally work to prevent the type of assimilation that disregards the racial culture of people from the nonmajority groups" in favor of a "Eurocentric" or "Anglo-conformist" model (153). It is "vital that multiracial churches do not attempt to hide racial issues under the philosophy of 'colorblindness'" (158). Nevertheless, Yancey sees an opportunity here for churches to make progress, offers compelling reasons for it, and practical ways to move forward. I highly recommend this book, and all of Yancey's work on this subject.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-10-27 00:00:00 Aaron Sauers Whilst focused clearly on US context, there were lots of relevant principles and examples for applying into any church community desiring to celebrate and encourage diversity as an expression of faith in Christ. George Yancey shares many good examples of multicultural churches but also is very clear about the challenges involved.