Two speakers explain how their church picks elders based on character, spiritual gifts, and calling, not skin tone. They distinguish between genuine multiculturalism and token diversity, arguing the Holy Spirit guides the selection process.
Chapters
Yeah, but I mean, since we're in the conversation, more than just getting checkmarks for having enough different people than, you know, middle-class white in America, um, if, if that situation ended up happening, you might wonder by what mechanism, right? By what mechanism have we reached this place of polyculturalism or multiculturalism, right?
Yeah, in the States it's not polycultural, it's multicultural, right?
Definitely. I'm expecting, because I believe I know something of your substance, I'm expecting that the, the process of putting that group of elders together wasn't, um, by nature a checking off the box situation. It was built by—
That's a multicultural thing.
Yeah.
Yes.
Please, please, please further that, right, as a difference.
Yeah, yeah.
Please illumine.
It's so important because you just have to love people and know that you respect people no matter where they're from. And the thing is, as you grow as a church, and frankly, there's some places in the U.S. that you could not do what we've done simply because you don't have the diversity. And you won't have that. It can never be, it can never be, I need a, I need a Black person. I need a Latino. I need a, I need a Chinese person to be on because, yeah, you know, but the thing is, if people are following Jesus and you got a church full, a diversity of people who together are following Jesus, and the only people that you're picking are light-skinned people. To serve as elders, then there's an issue. And the issue is not that you haven't ticked a box. The issue is that you don't know all the people. Because as soon as you get to know people, you get to know who's, who's an elder. We will never pick an elder based on their skin tone. That doesn't even come into the equation. It never has come into the equation. You know, we look for the quality of a person's character. We look for their gifts and their calling. In the Holy Spirit, and that's why a person becomes an elder.
