A call for the Church to be more inclusive

National Black Presbyterian Caucus president calls for members to be the change

by Gail Strange | Presbyterian News Service

Great music played as guests of all ethnicities entered the room.  No doubt a ticket to the National Black Presbyterian Caucus dinner was one of the hottest tickets of the 222^nd General Assembly (2016).

With a room filled with the newly elected co-moderators to the Rev. Aleida Jernigan, co-executive presbyter, presbytery of the Cascades, to Stated Clerk candidates the Rev. Dr. J Herbert Nelson, II and David Baker, the audience anxiously waited to hear from keynote speaker and caucus president, David R. Wallace Sr.

Wallace, retired Dean of Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary challenged the audience by asking “what is that in your hands?”

National Black Presbyterian Caucus President and keynote speaker, Rev. Dr. David Wallace, Sr., encouraged the audience attending the caucus dinner at the 222nd GA (2016) to be the change for a more inclusive and diverse church.
Photo Credit Tony Sibley.

According to Wallace, one of the major obstacles to the growth of the church is the refusal by some to affirm that it must become more diverse and inclusive.  He pointed out that when we fail to come together we establish boundaries that might be caused by the fact that some people are afraid of diversity because not only does it include visible signs of differences, such as race, age, ethnicity, gender and physical attributes; but also it includes invisible differences such as marital status, religious beliefs and income.

“Like the early Christian community, we still observe the practice of participating together with people from different racial and cultural backgrounds,” said Wallace. “We do this in meetings of the higher governing bodies and in ecumenical worship settings, but we are hard pressed to say that like the early Christians, we share social solidarity.”

Wallace noted that since the September 11 tragedy, relationships between Christians and Muslims have been further strained and that in this current presidential race and in the aftermath of the Orlando shootings, there are those who advocate for not allowing any Muslims to enter the U.S.  He went on to point out that hatred of Muslims or of any person different from us feeds the fuel of hatred.  “Then hatred builds walls of separation between whites and blacks, between women and men, between Americans and illegal immigrants”, he says.

Wallace then challenged the audience by asking “What’s that in your hand? First, speaking figuratively, we have in our hand the spiritual power to see what God wants us to see in order to begin the process of developing a more diverse and inclusive church and world.  This vision helps us to look around at our church, presbytery, synod and General Assembly to see how we as Christians have participated in and been a part of patterns of racism and structural inequality.”

Citing the ongoing protest against systemic injustices based on race and religion as well as an unfair economic system, Wallace said it helps us to look at our own communities.

We cannot continue to be the church singing, “They will know we are Christians by our Love,” while at the same time having only friendships and relationships only with people who look like us, talk like us, dress like us and act like us Wallace said.

He said we must be about confessing and dying to the sin of ethnocentricity, which is the belief that our cultural values and beliefs are more important and superior to others and become change agents with vision to see and listen to what God wants us to see and hear to begin the process of developing a more inclusive church and world.

“It is a truism that in life before we can be heard we must first learn to listen, says Wallace. “The problem with many of us is that we only listen to have our egos validated and stroked. Or we only listen when people are saying something that we want to hear. But to overcome boundaries that separate us, we must listen to what people are saying and also listen when folk do not agree with us.”

Wallace then told a story about his experience when he served as the dean of John C. Smith Seminary: “Sometimes I could walk into a room and all the students would get quiet as a mouse, but I could still discern by their body language that something was up and my meeting would be either calm as a summer’s breeze or turbulent as a torrential storm”.  “Whatever the context, I was determined to listen to them and even their body language, so that I could help students with their problems and concerns.”

Identifying the power to act as one of our spiritual powers, he said we have the power to act in our hands and to make our church and world more inclusive.  Actions always speak louder than words. “As people of God we are called to be people of action,” Wallace said. “God expects no less of us. We must act in our churches and world, standing up for justice, fairness and the rights of all people whether they are black, white, brown yellow, red, gay, straight, male, female, rich or poor.  Everybody’s rights and human dignity must be protected and defended.”