Big Is The New Small

Reason #1 Homogeneous Platform

Church Diversity Sucks for many reasons; this week I’m going to share a few of those reasons with you.  This first reason Church Diversity Sucks is because too many churches have a Homogeneous Platform.  By homogeneous platform I’m talking about the church platform, stage, pulpit… or whatever you call it.  In other-words, everyone that you see on the stage looks the same from the perspective of race and ethnicity.    

Often times people will say that they don’t really pay attention to the ethnic diversity or lack there of on their stage.  Generally speaking, individuals who say that are probably attending a church that does not have any reflection of ethnic diversity on their platform.   Those churches that have ethnic diversity represented on their platform; not only see it each and every week but they can feel it.  There is something distinct about a church culture that at-least considers embracing the notion of every tribe and every tongue or maybe starting with another tribe and another tongue.

Individuals who happen to be the ethnic minority of a particular church, can not only feel the presence of a diverse platform; but it speaks the love language of welcomeness not only to them.  In other words, someone that looks like me, my cousin, my friend, my neighbor… is welcome here.  That same love language of welcomeness translates to the ethnic majority of the church as well.  There are many ways to begin the process of creating a culture of embracing diversity and the first place to begin is having a diverse platform.

If Church Diversity Sucks in your church, I bet your platform is not diverse.

Do you find this to be true in your church or other churches that you have attended?  Share your overall thoughts!

If we look at the myriad of diversity in the world we can clearly see that God values diversity.  Diversity is not always about race or ethnicity; for instance  Jesus certainly expressed diversity in his choice of staff: tax collector, fisherman, physician, former prosecuting attorney, women…  He valued and placed an array of personalities, backgrounds and experiences around him in order to advance his work.   The story of Jacob and the “minority” sheep is another great illustration.   

The bottom line is most organizations and teams do not like to talk about or embrace diversity.  Teams like to talk as though everyone has the same backgrounds, experiences, Godly wiring… and act as though someone will be offended by a diversity discussion.  It’s even more taboo to acknowledge the realization that diversity in organizational teams should and in my opinion must exist.  It’s not like Jesus just said he took a “group of people” to be on his team; he articulated who they were and there uniqueness to give us a clear perspective of how he rolled.   In other-words; I know these peeps bring a diverse way to think and act to the table, but that’s the beauty about how we are going to get this work done.  In other-words, Jesus is saying that you and you and you and you… can be on my team with the unique differences, skills, thoughts and backgrounds that God gave you. 

Jesus embraced diversity at all levels; I personally think we need to be like Jesus and move from tolerating diversity to embracing diversity at all levels.

Fortune magazine states that “diverse groups make better decisions.  If everyone in the room is the same, you’ll have fewer arguments and worse answers.  Diversity is a distinct competitive advantage.” 

Share your experience and thoughts working in organizations that either embrace or simply tolerate diversity of any kind?  Race, Gender, Thoughts, Backgrounds…