Ready to Lead

Introduction: The Narrative “Black people will follow a White pastor, but White people will never follow a Black pastor.” These piercing words were the response I heard after I shared my dream to lead a multiethnic church. I was in my twenties and working as a campus missionary with Every Nation Churches and Ministries, a global family of churches that values cultural and ethnic diversity. At the time, I was not sure if I would ever lead my own church. But I knew that if I did, I wanted my church to look like what I’d experienced as a young man at Bethel World Outreach Church in Brentwood, Tennessee. A place where you could not tell if it was a Black church or a White church. I wanted it to be a place where people from Asian descent and Latinos could be at home, where people from every nation, tribe, and tongue could worship together in unity. In my eyes, this would be a taste of heaven on earth. So it made sense that when I talked about my future with an older pastor and family friend, this vision of a multiethnic church was what spilled out. His words, however, brought me face-to-face with a sobering reality. Let me first say that I do believe that White people, or people from any ethnic background, will follow a Black pastor. Chris and I both lead multiethnic churches as Black pastors in our respective cities of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Harrisonburg, Virginia. While it may seem rare at times, we are not unicorns. I (Brian) have deep friendships with several pastors who look like me who are leading very ethnically diverse churches. Every Sunday I walk into the worship service at the church where I pastor in Cincinnati, and I see cultural and ethnic diversity. I appreciate this pastor bringing up the conversation all those years ago. While I disagree with this well-meaning pastor’s opinion that White people will never follow a Black pastor, I have to admit that his words came from a narrative that is all too common. He simply articulated what many pastors and congregants alike have felt. He brought to light what has been discussed behind closed doors, and he concluded what any casual observer of church life in America, and many other places around the world, would easily surmise: it is possible to embrace the idea of a multiethnic church while rejecting the reality of multiethnic leadership. This book is about empowering leaders from all ethnic and cultural backgrounds to lead. But in order to do this there are some difficult questions that need to be addressed. A while back I had an opportunity to share some of my findings from my research about the challenges Black leaders face when leading multiethnic churches with a group of PhD students. I remember a student who pastored in Sri Lanka came to me after and told me something that was eye-opening. Some of the same dynamics that limit Black leadership in many diverse churches in the US are also at play in his homeland. The issues there pertain more to tribalism rather than Black-White challenges, but the basic dynamics are the same. How do we empower leadership in the church from all people groups and not just from groups that have historically been seen as dominant? The message in these pages is for all those who desire to not only see diversity in the pews but also in the pulpits. Over the last few decades, a multiethnic movement has gained traction in the United States and other parts of the world. In many ways, there is room for optimism because the church in America is waking up to the need for diversity in her congregations. The last twenty years have shown a pattern of growth in the number of multiethnic churches. (We use the term “multiethnic” to describe congregations that have no more than 80 percent of one ethnicity represented. This percentage is widely accepted as the tipping point when other groups outside of the dominant one in a congregation shape the culture and practices of a local church.) In 1998, only 6 percent of all congregations were multiethnic. In a more recent study in 2019, Michael Emerson released new numbers that revealed that 16 percent “of all congregations across all faith groups could be so described.” This is a 10 percent increase.