THE REALITY OF DIVERSITY

If you could just close your eyes, snap your fingers and have this congregation be the size you wanted, filled with the people and faces you'd love to see here:

What would it look like?
How many people would be in here? 10, 50? 100? More?
In your ideal imaginings, do you see what you perceive to be a variety of racial or cultural identity?
Do you see what you perceive to be a variety of socioeconomic groups represented?
Do you see what you perceive to be a variety of sexual orientations?
A variety of gender expressions?
What else do you see in your ideal congregation?

Now let's assume for a moment that we all saw a similar vision (I know that is a stretch for us - but stay with me on this!) - one where Cole Hall is filled with people of all ages with a wide variety of racial and cultural identities, varying levels of abilities, and a wide spectrum of sexual orientations and gender expressions.

Take a look around - is this vision that I just described what you see here in Cole Hall?

Should filling our congregation with more diversity be a goal that we work toward?

In 1998, a project funded by the Lilly Endowment performed a study of multiracial congregations (that is, of congregations where no one racial group is more than 80% of the people). The central purpose of this research project was to take the pulse of American multiracial congregations and their peoples, to learn the lessons they offer the larger church and nation for living together in diversity. The main finding of this project is that multiracial congregations are rare, and any estimates we get from surveys are overestimates. In addition, the project defined two main types of multiracial congregations--accidental (different people groups just seemed to show up) and intentional (preparations and changes were made to become racially mixed). Not surprisingly, the congregational model that seems to have the largest effect on members' attitudes, faith beliefs, and social networks is the intentional model.

So should we at Mission Peak be more intentional about racial and other types of diversity?

I invite you to reflect on where you fit within various cultural, racial, gender, sexual orientation and socio-economic groups. How do you identify yourself?

Are you a first or second generation immigrant?
Are you lesbian, gay, straight, bi-sexual, transgender, queer?
Do you live paycheck to paycheck?
Do you identify as Black, Asian, multi-racial, white, African American, Euro-American?
Are there other people in the room who look like you?

Should we at Mission Peak focus on how we each identify ourselves? Do our cultural identities matter?

I spent a lot of time questioning my beliefs and understandings about my cultural identity while pursing my PhD in Multicultural Education. My focus of study was Diversity Education and I quickly found out that the real work was inward. As I led very diverse groups of undergraduate students through activities intended to identify and clarify one's own cultural beliefs and practices, I found that many of the white students had difficulty identifying their culture beliefs and practices, often stating "my family celebrates American holidays" and "we are just American". As we moved through the semester I witnessed deepening understanding for these students about their own family culture. This spurred me to learn more about my family history which led to multiple visits and conversations with both of my parents.

As some of you know, I was raised in the Mennonite church and, to a certain extent, I still identify culturally as Mennonite. The cultural parts that I identify with include:

Pennsylvania Dutch food - especially Shoo-fly Pie. My Nana Nice Nyce often served Shoo-fly Pie for breakfast - more like coffee cake, albeit with a pie crust. This is also the first type of pie that my mom helped me to make.
Quilts that tell a story. My Nana and Great-Aunt Sally made quilts for each child and grandchild and I was given my quilt on my wedding day. The pieces of the quilt were from various leftover pieces of fabric from clothing that had been made for family members.
My Grandma Osborne's side of the family used quilts with hidden messages for slaves escaping on the underground railroad. The quilts were hung outside of the house as if they were airing but instead would indicate if it was safe to come into the house or the direction to go to the next safe house.
Dutch Blitz - a very goot card game. When I was young we were not permitted to play regular cards but this game was permissible! We often took this game along on our vacation trips.
The importance of service. When I was in middle school and high school, I lived in Harper, Kansas. My youth group regularly helped when a disaster struck (usually a tornado) and helped clean up immediately after and/or made meals to serve to those helping.
Rich four-part harmony during congregational hymns. I remember learning to sing a "second-part" when I was about 4 years old. We often sang when we traveled and my 3 siblings and I sang together in four-part harmony. I thought all congregations sounded like this until I was in 5th grade and attended a congregation where an organ blasted out the hymn and the people all sang unison.
Pacifism and peace-building. When I was in high school I became politically active and wrote letters to my senators and congressional leaders regarding the horrors of war and the importance of seeking peaceful means to resolve conflicts. I attended rallies and protests at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapon plant in Colorado, protesting the mass production of weapons of war. I then fell in love with a man who was still in the Navy Reserve at the time of our wedding. My parents had a difficult time with that one.

About 10 years ago, my father told me a story that involved service and peacemaking on a very life-changing level. My father's Quaker relatives fled religious persecution in Germany. Great, great Grandfather Frye settled his family in the Yadkin River Valley in North Carolina. During the Civil War, this family served as a "safe house" for the Underground Railroad. When the teenage boys in the family were conscripted to fight for the Confederacy, the Frye family did not have the money to pay someone else to fight for the boys and, because of their pacifist beliefs, they refused to fight in the war. The night before the boys were to report for duty, the whole family disappeared through the Underground Railroad and moved first to Ohio and eventually settled in the Kokomo, Indiana area.

For me, this story cemented my belief that I needed to find more direct ways to live my values. As a result, I am no longer a member of a Mennonite congregation because they only offers membership to those who identify as LGBT if they are celibate. I found that I could not live my value to embrace diversity and continue to be a member of the Mennonite church.

Going back to the questions that I asked earlier:

Should filling our congregation with more diversity be a goal that we work toward?
Should we at Mission Peak be more intentional about racial and other types of diversity?
Should we focus on how we each identify ourselves? Do our cultural identities matter?

While these are all good questions, I think they lead us down the wrong path.

When you leave Cole Hall today, you are most likely to remember the part of my sermon where I told you my cultural story. We connect as people through sharing our personal stories which leads to increased compassion and understanding.

So, the questions I think we should be asking are:

How often do we create opportunities for people to share their personal stories of cultural identity?
Do we hold these stories as "holy"?
Do we create an environment of trust and acceptance where people feel safe sharing their stories?
Are we willing to expand the way we worship to include new expressions of faith and culture?
Should we ever dance our offerings up to the front again?

Inviting people to share personal stories about cultural beliefs and practices is about more than story-stelling. It is an opportunity to destroy stereotypes and prejudice, explore new understandings, build compassion, and discover community.

Will it always be easy to incorporate new cultural beliefs and practices into our family at Mission Peak? No, it will cause discomfort and cause us to examine why we currently worship the way we do. So why work at this? Because there is also a theological imperative to embrace diversity. Living our values means:

Affirming the inherent worth and dignity of every human being.
Working to create places of worship where all who subscribe to a liberal approach to religion can not only feel welcome, but enter into worship settings that reflect the diverse cultural realities of our community.

Diversity is essential to our spiritual and communal growth at Mission Peak. May we continue to live our values together.