| I know I'm late to the game, but I wanted to throw in my "two cents" about the Nines. For those of you unaware, The Nines was a series of 75 - 9 minute videos by christian leaders, hosted online as a massive video conference by Leadership Network and Catalyst. By most accounts, the Nines was well received. Their site reports, "During the day of 09/09/09, there were over 20,000 total IP addresses that connected at one time or another to watch part of the conference. There were over 60,000 hits to our video servers throughout the day. We used 8.7 TB (terrabytes) of data to stream the more than 1,685 days of viewing time. THE NINES was the most tweeted topic on Twitter for about three hours on 09/09/09. In fact, over 6,000 tweets contained the hashtag #thenines." I watch a great deal (but not all) of the videos. A lot of people have chimed in (both during and following the event), but there were a least two presentations on a topic that I have not seem people responding to. (Admittedly, my circle of friends does not encompass the thousands who watched.) That topic is ethnic diversity. Many of you know, the church I work with here in San Antonio is bilingual; I am keenly aware of the issues and struggles in blending cultures into one faith community. (Not to mention my experiences and struggles growing up and working in the South or my ministry time on the outskirts of Dayton.) There is something beautiful and mysterious though when people develop a bond and share life together despite (or even because of) their difference. I believe this is too important to be pushed aside. So, back to the Nines. Scott Williams of LifeChurch.tv and bigisthenewsmall.com made his video available, but it seems to have been taken down already. I guess that's what I get for waiting a week to post this. I'm hoping they plan to make all the videos available soon. Mark DeYmaz of Mosaic Church also addressed diversity during the Nines. As a followup, he posted 25 FAQs re. the Multi-ethnic Church. There, he defines "ethnic diversity" and how it exists as a movement of churches: I intend it as general and inclusive of ethnic, economic, educational and generational diversity within a local church. In fact, I believe that ethnic and economic diversity are two sides of the same coin and that educational privilege is most often a factor of economics. So when I'm talking about a multi-ethnic church, I’m thinking of one that reflects diversity in a variety of forms beyond ethnicity. I have my reservations about some of the specifics he lays out, and really don't understand his concerns over churches being reflective of their communities (as opposed to meeting his percentage goals), but the issue of churches being so homogeneous (and I believe often intentionally so) is important enough to me that I am willing to consider his points. So what's the deal? Why are churches so divided? Why is Sunday the most segregated day of the week (to paraphrase MLK)? Seriously. Look around you. The American landscape has changed. I doubted I would see an African American elected as President of the US in my lifetime and am proud to live in time when that is possible (and I'm only 29). It seems like our society has come so far, but as is so often the case, churches are decades behind. And I believe this is an area where followers of Jesus should have been leading the charge. So I guess I'm left with a few questions. First, why is this even still an issue? And Second, what can we be doing to fix it? If we could just skip trite answers, cop-outs and finger pointing usually associated with this topic, that would be great.
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