https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/02/celebrating-diversity
It is ironical that as stated in the story on the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 that God scattered humans and confounded their language, that we are now trying to unite peoples of diverse creed, colour and language in the church as well as out of the church. The church itself has a pathetic record in this in that just two hundred years ago, people who capture, transport, sell and trade in human slaves were people who professed to be Christians. Slaves were chattels, an economic asset and as humans can reproduce, they could be the means for their owners to multiply in wealth while providing them with food and lodging only type of cheap labour for life.
Is unity really achievable? We see that in America there are white and black churches, no doubt a testament of their past in slavery. And even within such churches, there are middle class and blue collar churches if not among churches, then within the churches themselves. As outsiders and observers, we cannot do much about the situation because no matter what we may want to say about it, churches are communities of believers that have got together and evolved over the years and thus each church has its own dynamics of interacting, gathering and reaching out among its people.
I think as individuals in a particular church, what we can do is to embrace that diversity breeds multiplicity and the more diverse we are as a church, the broader will be our appeal to the masses and the more diverse will our ability to reach out. As much as we like to gather as like minded and same type of people (whether in terms of race, education, social status, age), we should accept diversity and take advantage of the diverse sub-cultures within our community of believers. Everyone is unique and have special God-given gifts and talents. Our role as church leaders and members is to identify and allow such multiple talents and giftings to grow and flourish in our midst so that we can all serve God and fulfil His plans and purposes for our lives and our church together as a community of believers. Embrace, capitalise and make use of our diversity, rather than fight or overwhelm it. I believe much may be achieved if everyone is given the opportunity to do their part effectively.
Ronnie's Thoughts 