A Church That Reflects the Multitudes in Heaven

 Amen and amen. Not in the sense of “it is finished” but in the real sense of “I have faith” and “let it be so.” Williams and Jones in their upcoming book, In Church as it is in Heaven, build a guide on the shoulders of giants from Augustine, Martin Luther, Howard Thurman and more well-known and obscure Christian writers and thinkers of all backgrounds. For newbies to the racial barriers found in the US church and others who have hoped and worked to make a difference, the authors provide an excellent toolkit and role model for changing our heads, our hearts and our dirty hands—both in the sense of past sins but also in the sense of “getting down to business” by doing something rather than just talking. Let’s walk the walk. If you have done more reading and practice in this area, you’ll find some additional ideas beyond what you might find in Jamar Tisby’s “Color of Compromise” or Chalmer Center’s “Are You a Good Neighbor?”—and other comparable works and curricula.

Full of scripture and perhaps some new takes on familiar passages—e.g. how many of us catch onto the ideal of the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11 beyond our measly Eucharistic celebrations?—Williams and Jones take us on their own journey of understanding how the vision of many tribes and tongues worshiping the Lord can be seen here on earth. Each chapter ends with practical steps we can all implement. For some they’ll be baby steps; for others, they’ll feel like landing-on-the-moon journeys. In every way though, we need to be curious. But with grace and mercy, as our Lord too provides such, the authors understand us who hesitate to step forth. 

If there’s a drawback in the book, it’s that the authors struggle with coaching us how to identify subcultures within ethnicities. One might understand this just from the title of Bryan Loritts’ “Right Color, Wrong Culture: The Type of Leader Your Church Needs to Become Multiethnic.” As a person who has made mistakes, like asking a Nicaraguan what part of Mexico they’re from or assuming West Africans think and behave like East Africans or thinking one person’s story leading to poverty is indicative of others I meet downtown, I’ve had to remind myself to be more curious than assured in my knowledge. In any regard, this will be a reference I pull out and to which I’ll refer many others interested in starting this journey.