The Diversity Project

Language

Challenges

1. Prayer and other intimate communication happen most naturally in one’s native language. When those are different, it is challenging to maintain unity.
2. Hispanic and most other non-English-speaking Mennonite congregations are dealing with many young people who speak only English.

Creative responses

1. Conduct outreach in native tongues and worship in two or more languages.
2. Develop separate Bible studies and monthly joint events.
3. Have bilingual staff and leadership (Waco, Living Love).
4. Sit at the feet of native speakers to learn their language.

Communication

Challenges

1. Words mean different things to different people.
2. Even English has many dialects (street talk, etc.).
3. Differences of education and class are apparent and often offensive when people speak to one another.
4. Images and illustrations which are not culturally sensitive can cause serious offense.
5. Often people of color who misunderstand the words of an Anglo will not indicate they do not understand or are offended by a statement.

Creative responses

1. Become a student of the unfamiliar culture
2. Recruit an "interpreter" to help you
3. Adopt a humble role as learner
4. Face into your own tendencies to feel your culture is better.

Religious expectations

Challenges

1. "It isn’t a church unless there’s a building."
2. "Church must have a certain type of religious leader."
3. "If it’s not Catholic, it’s not really church."

Creative responses

1. Build caring relationships with people.
2. Use the current high level of interest in spirituality in the U.S. as an entrée to Christ-centered nontraditional communication of faith and Kingdom perspectives.
3. Be open to using worship styles from various traditions, including those which your neighbors may be most familiar with (e.g., elements of liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer).

Cultural misunderstandings

Challenges

1. Outgoing Anglos often appear to people of color to be arrogant; sometimes they are.
2. A deferential social style can create a false impression of weakness.
3. Difficulty communicating (e.g., in English) can cause people to feel isolated or excluded.
4. An outsider’s anxiety about safety and such issues in an inner-city neighborhood can be offensive to local folk.
5. Patriarchal cultures can be offensive to persons who are not used to them.

Creative responses

1. Become deeply aware of racist feelings, attitudes, and behaviors in yourself, American culture, and the church.
2. See Anglo social assertiveness as a cultural style.
3. Do a lot of listening; draw people out. Be a learner.
4. Be committed to giving everyone at the table their fair share of time to talk.
5. Develop a realistic assessment of the local community. Be honest but focus on its assets, not its deficits.

Personality, class, etc. (i.e., non-cultural factors)

Challenges

1. Differences of lifestyle and/or worship style may be viewed quite differently because of class norms.
2. If an educated person’s background is apparent in how they speak, others of less education may feel inferior or dominated.
3. Arrogant, chauvinistic, or dominating people can make the social life of a group difficult.

Creative responses

1. Treat others as equals at all times.
2. Be committed to mutual respect and solidarity with others.
3. Do not assume anything about a person based on their neighborhood or community.
4. Avoid chauvinism; see patriarchy as cultural.
5. Avoid creating barriers by unnecessarily revealing a level of education beyond that of your listeners (e.g., by "quoting the Greek").

Religious immaturity and woundedness

Challenges

1. White Americans can have an attitude of entitlement.
2. Persons of color may carry old wounds from family dysfunction or societal racism. These can lead to displaced attacks on persons who appear to represent either authority or the privileged establishment.

Creative responses

1. Become familiar with your own woundedness by sharing with someone you can trust.
2. Call out a core of persons with available personal strengths.
3. Be deliberate about the early target group.
4. Make judicious use of personality profiles (Myers-Briggs, the Enneagram) to help you understand interpersonal difficulties in the group.

Public image and staffing

Challenges

1. Image: People’s perceptions affect their responsiveness. A negative public image will increase resistance to the church planters.
2. Racial/ethnic composition of staff may limit possibilities of outreach.

Creative responses

1. Love and relationship counts ("Make love your aim.")
2. Persons on short-term assignment can change the image.
3. Bicultural or multicultural worship styles can communicate welcome to diverse peoples.
4. A location that is "safe" for persons of different races and cultures can make a great difference in participation.

Power and funding

Challenges

1. Excessive control from the outside
2. Insufficient financial support (urban living is expensive)
3. Deadlines for cutting off support which are too hasty

Creative respones

1. Design very explicitly "servant-type" support services.
2. Have very clear financial understandings at the beginning (e.g., CAL’s "$5,000 and that’s it" or EMM’s "$60,000 and that’s it, however we all agree to spend it."
3. Include local and outside folk on the support/review board.
4. Encourage local initiatives.
5. Encourage tithing as an expression of obedience, trust in God, generosity toward others, and freedom from dependence.
6. Avoid chauvinistic or paternalistic behavior or patterns.

Self-awareness

Challenges

1. Self-deception about one’s own strengths and weaknesses
2. The Superman syndrome ("I can handle anything.")
3. Feelings of inadequacy ("If this is so hard, there must be something wrong with me.")

Creative responses to problems of self-awareness

1. Prayer
2. Journaling
3. Mentoring
4. Counseling
5. Honest and loving relationships
6. Time and more life experience

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