Former NFL player Derwin Gray returns to the podcast to talk about what’s behind the pushback to racial diversity in the church, explain what the NFL taught him about building a multi-ethnic team, and what leaders need to do to build a truly diverse, multi-ethnic organization.
Welcome to Episode 429 of the podcast. Listen and access the show notes below or search for the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and listen for free.
Plus, in this episode’s What I’m Thinking About segment, Carey shares some continued thoughts on race, culture, and the Church.
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Conversation Links
Building a Multiethnic Church by Derwin Gray
Church Pulse Weekly Podcast – Episode 55: Derwin Gray
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Insights From Derwin
1. The marriage of the church and government isn’t working well in the US
In the process of leading a multi-ethnic church, Derwin has learned that with many white evangelical Americans, if you talk about America in any disparaging way (even if it’s historical and factual), it’s an affront to Jesus.
To have a helpful conversation with them about being a multi-ethnic church, he has to first explain that he loves America too, and remind them that following Jesus is more important than being an American.
2. If you want to know if a church is multi-ethnic, look at who makes the decisions
A lot of churches will be considered “diverse” because no one ethnicity is more than 80% of its attendees. Derwin has a better way to tell if an organization is truly multiethnic or not: Look at who makes the decisions. If the decision-makers are all (or almost all) one race, it’s not a multi-ethnic church.
3. Your first steps towards building a multi-ethnic church or organization
Derwin recommends 3 steps to lead a more multi-ethnic organization:
- Sit down in a quiet place and pray, “Spirit of God, help me to see my prejudice and blind spots.” If you aren’t a believer, spend some time in meditation and ask, “Where are my prejudices and where are my blind spots?”
- Seek out friends of a different race than yours to learn from and connect deeply with.
- Read Derwin’s book, Building A Multiethnic Church. Carey emphasized this point, stating that the principles in the book also apply to businesses and non-profits.
Quotes from Episode 429
One of the ways you know that you're growing in love for the other is things that affect the other begin to affect you. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet Justice is simply this—I want my neighbor to be treated the way I am, and I want the wrongs to be made right. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet That's what it really takes to love each other—to be humble enough to learn from the other, but also to be unoffendable by legitimate questions. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet You cannot have true healing without true recognition. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet Humility says, ‘I am willing to relearn some things in order to love.’ @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet God, in His genius, has created this human race to have different ethnicities and different cultures and different ways of being, and that's how we grow and learn. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet The image of God is not located in just one ethnic group. God loves diversity. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet Our identity as followers of Jesus, regardless of your ethnicity, is not in America. America didn't die for you on a cross. Jesus Christ died for you on a cross. Our allegiance is to Jesus, first and foremost. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet We allow the culture to dictate how we should treat each other instead of Christ. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet If you don't remember the past, you're doomed to repeat it. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet To dehumanize another person means the depth of your dehumanity is at toxic levels. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet When you mourn and when you cry with someone, that bonds your hearts to move forward together. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet As people of color, we need to be less offendable towards people of good will. But then our white brothers and sisters of the dominant culture must also be humble enough to learn. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet When you're the dominant culture, the world is revolving around you, and so people who aren't like you don't experience the same things that you experience. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet When you look throughout the history of the church, particularly in America, 90% of all black denominations exist because of racism in the white church. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet Christians who are white, who come from other churches, struggle with the idea of multiethnic church, struggle with the idea of racial justice. But unbelieving white people get it immediately. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet Research shows that if a house is owned by a black person in the same neighborhood as white people, the appraisal is much lower. But if you just simply switch the person, the appraisal goes up. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet People are more committed to their late night political TV show host than they are actually to Scripture. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet The Church of Jesus Christ outlasted the Roman Empire, the crusades, the Middle Ages, and he's going to outlast everything else. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet No parent is going to be perfect, and the best thing a parent can do is model the need for grace and asking their children for grace and pointing them to the one who is grace. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet The aspect of truly being multiethnic starts with who makes the decisions. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet A true multiethnic church has a diversity of perspectives ethnically and life experience-wise. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet When you have a diversity of leadership, you consider other people that your culture represents. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet There's one thing that leaders do that make them lead well—they are intentional. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet As a pastor, the goal is not diversity. The goal is to love each other well and beautifully. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet Have a table so big that everybody can sit at it and eat well and conversate and learn from each other. @DerwinLGray Click To Tweet I believe the future church will consist of Christians who look, live, and sound much more like Jesus than the political candidate of their choice. Click To TweetRead or Download the Transcript for Episode 428
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Next Episode: Amy Edmondson
Harvard Business School Professor and renowned business expert, Amy Edmondson, talks about the growing link between psychological safety at work and the results that high-performing teams accomplish.
She details what psychological safety is, how to create a psychologically-safe workplace, and what to do if you don’t have one.
Subscribe for free now so you won’t miss Episode 430.
