An invitation part 2 - Q & A

[edie19]

Friends - as I mentioned earlier Pastor Ken Jones will be speaking at my church on Sunday, February 12. Anyhow - I'm cooking dinner for him tomorrow evening - am looking forward to picking his brain.

If anyone has a question for Pastor Jones (a terrific Reformed pastor), let me know and I'll ask him.

edie

 

[strengthinweakness]

I don't know if you will see my question before you meet with Ken tomorrow, but I have decided to post it just in case. Is the world of Reformed Christianity really as "white" as it often seems to me? Since joining Capitol Hill Baptist Church, I have come to know many Reformed Christians of various nationalities and ethnicities. However, the world of Reformed Christianity, overall, seems, at least to me, to be very largely made up white people. Does Pastor Ken view this perception as being correct? If so, is this issue now, or has it ever been, a struggle for him, as an African-American man? I'm asking, as a curious Reformed Baptist who is white, and who is uneasy about the seeming "whiteness" of the Reformed world at times.

 

[edie19]

I don't know if you will see my question before you meet with Ken tomorrow, but I have decided to post it just in case. Is the world of Reformed Christianity really as "white" as it often seems to me? Since joining Capitol Hill Baptist Church, I have come to know many Reformed Christians of various nationalities and ethnicities. However, the world of Reformed Christianity, overall, seems, at least to me, to be very largely made up white people. Does Pastor Ken view this perception as being correct? If so, is this issue now, or has it ever been, a struggle for him, as an African-American man? I'm asking, as a curious Reformed Baptist who is white, and who is uneasy about the seeming "whiteness" of the Reformed world at times.

With apologies - I didn't see this until yesterday afternoon. I didn't get a chance to talk to Pastor Jones about this at the evening service.

However, he did attend and participate in our adult class yesterday morning. We've been discussing Christ as prophet, priest and king. In His role as King the jobs of protecting, providing and preserving. Someone asked where we draw the line - if we lose our job is Jesus fulfilling His Kingly role. I mentioned that only in the US would someone ask that question. Pastor Jones was recently in Nigeria - he shared the situation where an entire Christian village was destroyed by the Islamic majority. Those folks aren't concerned about whether or not they get laid off from their job - their worrying about their homes, their lives and the lives of their families and friends. To use Pastor Jones terms - we, in the U.S., have a "penthouse view" of Christianity. Another example - we open our refrigerator or pantry - move things around only to say "I don't have anything to eat" or open our closet, shuffle through the clothes and say "I don't have anything to wear."

I do know that his church is basically in a poor area, that he was raised in south central L.A. (where the Watts riots were in the 60's) - the brothers and sisters who attend his church certainly face different issues than the working class people at my church face.

I understand your perspective - mine is a small church, we are largely (but not completly) white. I'd like to see us more ethnically diverse. I will address your question with my pastor (who communicates with Pastor Jones fairly regularly) and one of our church leaders (who is black American). I'll be back with their answers.

edie

 

[strengthinweakness]

With apologies - I didn't see this until yesterday afternoon. I didn't get a chance to talk to Pastor Jones about this at the evening service.

However, he did attend and participate in our adult class yesterday morning. We've been discussing Christ as prophet, priest and king. In His role as King the jobs of protecting, providing and preserving. Someone asked where we draw the line - if we lose our job is Jesus fulfilling His Kingly role. I mentioned that only in the US would someone ask that question. Pastor Jones was recently in Nigeria - he shared the situation where an entire Christian village was destroyed by the Islamic majority. Those folks aren't concerned about whether or not they get laid off from their job - their worrying about their homes, their lives and the lives of their families and friends. To use Pastor Jones terms - we, in the U.S., have a "penthouse view" of Christianity. Another example - we open our refrigerator or pantry - move things around only to say "I don't have anything to eat" or open our closet, shuffle through the clothes and say "I don't have anything to wear."

I do know that his church is basically in a poor area, that he was raised in south central L.A. (where the Watts riots were in the 60's) - the brothers and sisters who attend his church certainly face different issues than the working class people at my church face.

I understand your perspective - mine is a small church, we are largely (but not completly) white. I'd like to see us more ethnically diverse. I will address your question with my pastor (who communicates with Pastor Jones fairly regularly) and one of our church leaders (who is black American). I'll be back with their answers.

edie

Edie, you and Pastor Jones are completely right-- far too often, as American Christians, we think, speak, and act more as if the "American" designation is primary, and "Christian" is secondary. Pastor Jones's terminology of "penthouse Christianity" is all too apt, and I say this as a Christian who currently lives below the American "poverty line." Even my perspective is too often self-centered, and as one who lives like a king, financially speaking, compared to my Christian brothers and sisters in many other parts of the world. Great physical comfort and material luxury may be two of the biggest problems for the Western Christian church, in terms of truly realizing, day-to-day, how desperately we need God, and how utterly dependent we ultimately are on Him for everything. Not that we should masochistically seek out physical discomfort though-- but we should be willing to forgo it, to degrees, in different ways, at times, for the sake of denying self, knowing God better (as in fasting, and not being overly materialistic in our spending), and advancing the Gospel with those around us and around the world.

I look forward to hearing your pastor's, and the church leader's, thoughts on my questions! Thanks!