Pastors Pursuing Diversity: An Interview with Lance Lewis

Over the next few months, I will be conducting interviews with pastors who are pursuing diversity in their congregations. You can read more about the series in the introduction.

The questions are geared to help pastors and congregations in the pursuit of diversity in the church and all of life. All of the views, opinions, and suggestions are that of the interviewee. The goal of the series is to provide a resource from a variety of pastors, and therefore opinions may also vary.

(Due to length, please feel free to print interviews for future reading and referencing) 

Rev. Lance E. Lewis is theSenior Pastor of Soaring Oaks Presbyterian Churchin Elk Grove CA. He has been at Soaring Oak for six months but has served as a pastor for well over ten years. 

Have you always had a desire for a diverse or multiethnic church?

No, I haven’t.

If not, when did it change and why?

I think it was in 1982. I heard a song on the radio by a group called the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. One day while in the record store I picked up the album (yes there once existed stores that only sold vinyl records) and when I looked on the back cover I discovered that BTC was a multi-ethnic choir from a multi-ethnic church. I believe God used that to awaken me to the call to pursue His express design for tangible ethnic unity within His church. At this point I had no strong theological basis for this apart from God’s general command for God’s people to love one another which seemed to me reason enough to at least consider pursuing this call.

This resolve was strengthened the first time I heard Dr. Carl Ellis Jr. in 1993. He gave a testimony of a church in which he served called New City Fellowship of Chattanooga. It was the first church I heard of within my denomination (PCA) that was intentionally cross-cultural. Dr. Ellis also taught on the ways in which NCF sought to pursue cross-cultural ministry as well as the biblical ways our Lord Jesus taught and modeled this.

At that point I was convinced that the pursuit of gospel driven ethnic unity was an integral part of the call of the gospel.

How have you sought to build diversity within your congregation?

Actually not a great deal since I’ve only been here for a few months.  However, during the pastoral search process we did have some good and needed conversation regarding our continued pursuit of kingdom focused ethnic unity. We’ve also maintained our conviction to draw from a variety of cultural musical styles.

Beyond that it’s important to note that under the previous pastor SOPC renewed their commitment to sound, biblical, expository preaching. I’ll elaborate on this later, but for now it’s important to note that in my view one of the most important aspects of the pursuit of God’s promise of ethnic unity is the cultivation and practice of beautiful, biblical, Christ-centered worship of which expository preaching plays a crucial part.

My hope is to continue that practice. However, expository preaching must also be honest when the text address issues of ethnic unity or disunity. That means I cannot shy away from passages that speak to this issue even though it might make me uncomfortable. But more on that later.

How have you sought to cast this vision to your members?

At this point I’ve declared our vision to engage in multi-ethnic church planting as one of our main forms of evangelism.

 Do you have a diverse staff as well?

Yes, God has blessed SOPC to see our unity expressed in our staff as well as those who lead various ministries.

 What do you see as the benefit of having a diverse church?

A)  The opportunity to grow in ways that apart from pursuing biblically based ethnic unity we would not.

B) The blessing of displaying something beautiful about the gospel that I’m not sure can be displayed as fully with mono-ethnic congregations.

C) The witness a multi-cultural church can be to its community.

D) The members of churches that pursue Christ-centered ethnic unity also afford themselves the benefit of engaging in authentic, fruitful dialogue concerning issues of race/ethnicity.

E) Another potential benefit of churches that pursue ethnic unity is that they may be in a better position connect with newer groups of immigrants that settle within their community.

F) The blessing of entering into a new world that has the potential to yield life-long, significant cross-cultural relationships for decades and change you in the process.

G) The odd looks you get when a group of folks from the church are at a public place as people try and figure out what in the world do these people have in common since it’s clear their not physically related.

Tell us a little bit about yourself. What is your testimony? Did you grow up surrounded by diversity?

I was born and raised in West Philadelphia. Though neither I nor my immediate family was believers, I did have a strong Christian influence through my grandmother and an older cousin. At the age of 16 I got saved through the witness of a close friend and became a member of a local Pentecostal church. I commuted to a school that was about 1/3 African-American, 1/3 Italian, and one 1/3 Jewish. Beyond that there weren’t any other ethnicities in my neighborhood or church.

Growing up I had no particular desire to live among people from different ethnic groups though thought that would probably be the case once I moved away from Philly. Even after becoming a believer the conviction of tangible covenantal unity across ethnic lines never occurred to me. It was only after seeing that BTC album cover that it entered my mind.

In college I did begin gaining some exposure to believers from other ethnic groups. However, I still participated in a mainly African-American student fellowship. I do remember having a joint fellowship with the local IV or CCC but that did not increase a desire to become attached to any kind of multi-ethnic fellowship. One of the main reasons I felt this way was due to the reality that there just didn’t seem to be any room for my distinctive cultural expressions of worship within these groups.

Following my faith in Christ I spent nearly ten years in all black congregations until moving my membership to a mainly while church. I didn’t do that to pursue ethnic unity however, rather it was due to a change in some doctrinal convictions.

 Perhaps you have only just begun this pursuit. Where ever you are in the journey, have you had any fears? Have you struggled with doubt that it is possible?

Yes, I have had fears and doubts. One of the things of which I’m most concerned is that the church will allow our political ideologies to take precedent over our biblical theology and calling. One of the biggest challenges the evangelical church faces in this area is our lack of thought, reflection, study and teaching on God’s call toward redemptive ethnic unity. It isn’t something taught much less even mentioned much in our seminaries, books, other media, or pulpits. It’s not viewed as an aspect of the ongoing process of maturity in our lives or part of the call of the gospel. Consequently, we tend to fall back on and embrace the prevailing conservative political ideology regarding issues of race/ethnicity. While this may have some use with respect to political issues within this country, it’s a wholly inadequate lens from which to discern a course for ethnic relations within God’s church.

Also, while I have no doubt that genuine, tangible expressions of ethnic unity are not only possible, but have happened (in my life and the lives of thousands of others) I am concerned that the church as a whole in America will once more fumble away an opportunity to display a critical component of the gospel that displays God’s power, wisdom and beauty. That we will ignore Christ’s cross, His call and His consummation out of fear, indifference and arrogance. Such a failure could do a great deal of damage to our present and long term witness no matter how ‘relevant’ we attempt to be with this and succeeding generations.

What are the demographics of your congregation?

I’m not exactly sure but I’d say we’re about 40% Black, 40% White and 20% spread between those of Asian and Hispanic descent.

 Do you do anything unique in your service?

I can’t say that we do anything unique with our worship service at this point apart from our song leader exhorting the saints into praise a bit more than might be found at other PCA congregations. She also does a fantastic job using video slides that feature people from various ethnicities during our worship through music.

In the previous congregation I served we did have a prayer line once a month (on communion Sunday) in place of the regular pastoral prayer. This gave those who attended an opportunity to have me pray for them personally during the worship service. While this is certainly not unique to many African-American churches it was somewhat different for those who had spent any significant time within PCA congregations.

 If you could give any advice to a pastor who desires to pursue diversity within his congregation, what would you say to him?

Over the past 20 years or so there are a few ways I’ve sought to pursue biblically directed ethnic unity within the churches I’ve served. Over those years I’ve learned that there are a number of ways to approach the pursuit God ordained ethnic unity within His church.

For those considering how they might begin to more fully obey God’s call concerning this issue I’d first start with Scripture. To me, you have to be convinced of the witness of Scripture especially since many believe (and I’d say mistakenly so) that issues of ethnicity have little if anything to do with our salvation. It might be good to start by tracing the history of our redemption with a particular emphasis on God’s promises of salvation to the world’s various ethnic groups. God’s call to Abraham (Gen. 12:3) was the first promise of this type and interestingly enough this aspect of the promise was repeated to Abraham as well as to his son Isaac and grandson Jacob. (see Gen.22:18, 26:4 and 28:14) Related to this is Paul’s declaration that this was the gospel that God preached to Abraham (Gal. 3:8). One of the truths this highlights is that our salvation was never view as merely a personal, private and individual affair. Rather, it was a promise to bring souls together from all ethnicities into one multi-ethnic worshiping community.

I cannot overstate the importance of beginning with the biblical teaching of God’s redemption. That’s crucial because if we’re to do anything within God’s church it must be based on what Scripture teaches. Another reason however is that ‘diversity’ seems to be all the rage these days. Consequently, it can appear that churches are thinking about these things simply as a reaction to some of the changes within our society. Also we cannot gloss over the reality that merely talking about issues of race/ethnicity makes many uncomfortable. Add to that the belief among some that the active pursuit of ethnic unity might be viewed as a concession to political correctness and you can see why beginning with a firm, biblical foundation concerning God’s redemption is the critical place to start.

In parallel with the Scripture study I’d strongly encourage the pastor and other leaders within the church to commit this to prayer on a sustained and regular basis. Prayer is needed for insight and wisdom along with the changes God will have to make in the hearts and mindset of the members. We must also pray against the work of the evil one who will not only seek to keep us separated, but complacent in our division. Here’s it’s good to heed Paul’s words from Eph 4 which calls for us to be ‘eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace’. Along the lines of this passage then prayer is needed to combat the attitudes of indifference and apathy that can short-circuit our pursuit of unity before it even gets started.

Begin to practice it within his own life. Try and find a group of pastors (or other affinity group perhaps based on a hobby) of a different ethnicity with whom to begin an ongoing. For many of us being new to any established group is at least a somewhat uncomfortable and awkward experience. Now imagine what it would feel like to do so among an ethnic group different from your own? To me it’s unwise for pastors (especially those who come from the majority ethnic group in this society) to entreat souls from minority ethnic groups to join their churches without the pastor himself knowing how it might feel for them. Moreover, there’s no telling what he might learn from being a part of such a group.

In his preaching and teaching start to use positive examples, stories and quotes from people of different ethnicities. Isn’t it interesting that we’ve named a certain story recorded in Luke 10 ‘the parable of the good Samaritan’. Neither our Lord who told the story nor Luke who included it in his account of our Lord’s ministry gave it that name. But the name has stuck since it fits the character and actions of the story’s protagonist. Now our Lord could have used a tax collector, pig farmer or even a fisherman to make His point. But he intentionally chose a Samaritan, someone whom everyone in the crowd would have been raised to revile and from whom to remain separate. Making use of people from other ethnic groups in this way helps to raise the church’s consciousness about them and reminds them that God has been at work among people other than those with whom we most identify.

In connection with highlighting souls from various ethnic groups in his messages, the church should actively consider inviting speakers to address their various groups. These speakers don’t have to address issues of race/ethnicity either. They can speak on any number of biblical topics to men’s, women’s, college, couple’s, youth, young adult, singles, etc. If the pastor and/or church are unfamiliar with whom to contact they might begin with those ministers within their own denomination or association. That should provide a level of comfort that the speaker won’t say anything that clearly disputes some of the core doctrines of the church.

All of these things can help prepare a congregation for the pursuit of redemptively focused ethnic unity. If done well, consistently and wisely they can help lay a foundation for the inclusion of whomever God’s calls into the fellowship.

Following that I’d encourage him to consider seeking to connect with people from various ethnicities that live within a 15 minute drive from where the church he serves meets for worship. Granted this geographic marker may appear to be a bit arbitrary, yet for most churches it will more than likely involve several thousand souls from a good cross section of ethnic groups. Beyond that, a 15 minute drive should still put them close enough to participate in any weekly church activities.

Please be sure not to limit yourself to just connecting with one particular strata within a given ethnic group. I say this based on experience within my own denomination in which those seeking to pursue ethnic unity decide to limit themselves to only connecting with dependently poor blacks or Hispanics. For some reason it just doesn’t occur to them to also reach out to those African-Americans and Hispanics who have similar incomes as those within their congregation.

It’s my view that the church will have to seek some creative and wise ways to connect with those groups they desire to be apart of their fellowship. Among other things this might mean they have to be pointed about their desire to pursue gospel driven ethnic unity in response to Scripture. For example, they may consider having the pastor record a short video for their website in which he expresses his desire to have souls from various ethnicities become a part of their fellowship.

We know that people will look for churches via the internet. It could be that souls from different ethnic groups might be more inclined to check out a specific church if they know they’re welcomed and wanted. And yes this will mean that we will have to move beyond the canned rhetoric that says ‘oh we just preach the gospel to everybody’. The truth is that if our churches mainly consist of people who look the same, identify with our ethnic group, have mainly the same income level then we may have done a fantastic job of preaching the gospel to a particular subset of people with whom we’re most comfortable but not to ‘everybody’.

It will also be necessary to of course inform the church of this with the view that they will have to be sure to warmly greet and welcome all visitors, but especially those who respond to the church’s efforts to pursue ethnic unity. Now I recognize that this might fly in the face of some of our accepted views with respect to how we regard and treat those of other different ethnicities. This is why it’s critical for us to separate our political ideology from biblically based, redemptive theology. With that in mind it may be helpful for us to view souls of different ethnicities in the manner our Lord commanded our ancient forefathers to regard and view the foreigners who came to their land.

Deuteronomy 10:17-19 (ESV)

17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.

18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

One of the factors of which we ought to take note is that most people who seek a church need not go outside of their ethnic group to do so and probably won’t anyway. That’s a significant difference from say choosing a school or place of employment. Add to that the fact the developing relationships is one of the main reasons people choose and remain at a church. It’s probable that the average person who visits a church outside of his or her ethnic group will feel like a stranger in a strange land. For those who cannot yet understand this it could be that you’ve never really had to have such an experience. If your elementary education (whether homeschool, public or private), college, workplace, church and neighborhood in which you’ve lived were always mainly populated by people from your ethnic group, as well as led and ran by people of your ethnicity you may have never grappled with the experience of ‘otherness’ the way some have.

And it could be that the very experience of ‘otherness’ especially in your college experience and workplace moves you to be drawn to a spiritual experience with people who do come from your own ethnic group. The truth is that churches are cultural as well as spiritual places. What we must understand is that those who consider making the switch to a congregation of a different ethnicity may be doing so at a significant social cost to themselves. A social cost that we might not even know about or consider. Consequently, it both biblically wise and considerate to make them feel as welcome and wanted as we can.

 If you were asked to speak to a congregation who was about to begin a series of initiatives in hopes of building a more diverse congregation what might you say to them?

I’d probably say many of the things written in response to the previous question. I’d also try and give them a first person account of what might be going through the mind of one from a different ethnicity as he considers visiting and possibly joining their church.

 Did you actually do anything differently to pursue diversity? Do you think it is necessary?

Reflecting back I’m quite surprised and grateful at what God did to cultivate a deep degree of ethnic unity in our very small congregation. As I wrote previously I have a strong conviction concerning the use of biblically prescribed elements of worship within the public worship service. I’ll mention three here that highlight how in my view they helped draw us together and forged our peculiar church identity. The first was my attempt at expository preaching. The second was our regular responsive reading through the Psalms and the third was something I mentioned before which was our monthly special pastoral prayer. These are some of the regular prescribed elements of worship taught in Scripture and yet God blessed us to practice them in such a way that in my view spoke to the souls of the two ethnic groups of which our fellowship consisted.

Concerning should anything be done differently to pursue our God-given heritage of ethnic unity, yes I do and some of them I touched on in question 16. Since some of these changes can involve the actual service of worship let me again stress the blessing of making good use of the biblically prescribed elements found throughout Scripture. One other advantage of utilizing the biblically prescribed elements of worship is that they not only help to provide a basis for authentic unity, but within their boundaries God’s people have a great deal flexibility regarding the expression of and response to these elements. Remember, almost everything we do within a given worship service is in one way or another impacted by our culture. That includes such things we usually don’t think much of such as the start time for service (e.g. how and why did 11 AM once rule the start time of most churches in America) the length of service, how we take up the offering, the number of songs sung, etc.

A church thinking and praying through responding to God’s call for ethnic unity would do well to at least investigate how other cultures express some of these biblical elements within their worship service. Doing so can give a window into how those with which they seek unity practice some of the very same things they do in worship and may suggest ways to incorporate them into their existing service.

Let me give an example. I’ve heard and sung the hymn ‘Holy, Holy’ Holy’ in both Pentecostal and Presbyterian churches. While we sang the same words and even used the same tune I can testify that there were noticeable differences in the way each church did the hymn. And yes, our Pentecostal brothers and sisters were a bit more expressive (though never, ever out of control). They also tended to repeat the verses a few more times and had more exhortation from the one leading the song. They also ended the song with a jubilant expression of praise. As you might have guessed this is not the way I’ve sung this wonderful hymn in Presbyterian churches, and yet it seems to me that it would not be too difficult to integrate the two approaches to the same song as a way of practically and yet biblically demonstrating our unity.

How do you think that the Great Commission can motivate a pursuit of diversity?

I think the Great Commission is one of the key passages that taken with others on this topic help to form a biblical line of thought for the call to pursue cross motivated ethnic unity. While I won’t take the time or space to reflect on it fully let me suggest a few points about it that in my view supports the pursuit of our God given unity. Many of your readers are aware the controlling verb clause of the passage is ‘make disciples’. Thus the focus of our Lord’s teaching was for His initial closest followers to enter into relationships with others for the purpose of seeing them too become His active followers (i.e. those who orient their lives around His worship, walking before Him in obedience and witnessing of His gospel and kingdom). As my friend Rev. Kevin Smith, (senior pastor of New City Fellowship of Chattanooga) says the very process of making a disciple means entering into a close and long term relationship with the ones you’re discipling. This is exactly what Christ did with His disciples.

The next clause that speaks to this issue is ‘of all nations’. Once more I’m sure many of your readers know that the English word translated ‘nations’ is from the Greek term ‘ethnos’ from which we derive our word ‘ethnic’. This shouldn’t surprise us as Christ is the seed of Abraham who came to bless the nations (more specific various ethnic groups) of the world with holistic salvation (see Gen. 12:3 and compare with Gen. 22:18, Gen. 26:4 and Gen. 28:14).

So far then we have our Lord Jesus commanding His closest followers (who were all Jewish and thus from childhood were taught not to closely associate with non-Jews which included having a meal in their home, see Acts 11:3) to initiate and maintain close, kingdom-focused relationships with non-Jewish souls for the purpose of discipleship. And from the way the ancient disciples applied this command (namely they started churches, see the book of Acts) it follows that our Lord intended for them to worship with these non-Jewish disciples.

The next clause should help us to see how a tangible expression of unity is woven within the very process of discipleship. ‘Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’. Here our Lord institutes the sacred sign of baptism as a way of publicly indicating that not only have our sins been washed away, but that those baptized also publicly declare that they now belong to Christ and His church. Baptism then is not only a sacred sign that Christ has washed away our sins, but that we’ve identified with His one, unified people. To put it another way to become baptized into Christ means that I’ve publicly declared that I’m now a connected member of the Father’s one new spiritual race, His one new spiritual kingdom and His one new spiritual family (see 1 Cor. 12:13and compare with Eph. 2:11-22)

Granted, it took the ancient church several years to truly put this into practice even to the point where a leading apostle was publicly confronted about it (see Gal. 2:11-14). But the truth of Great Commission is clear. Christ’s death has not only called me into fellowship with the Triune God, but also with His one body the church. Among other things this fellowship consists of discipling relationships that should exists across ethnic lines which results in the tangible ethnic unity promised by God in the O.T., prayed for, commanded and purchased by our Lord Jesus Christ, taught throughout the N.T. and culminated in the age to come when God’s multi-ethnic worshiping community will exist to know, serve, worship, and delight in the Lamb together forever.

 I, personally, believe diversity begins in the home. In other words, we are adopted into a new family and that family, the church, is beautifully diverse. We should seek not to have a face change in our churches but to have it in all of life—our lives should include those unlike ourselves. Do you agree? If so, how might you encourage members to build diversity in their homes?

I suppose the most direct way to enhance our pursuit of unity is to have believers of various ethnicities in our homes and begin to talk with them about their lives and our common faith. This fellowship should include discussions on how ethnicity has impacted our lives. Let me give you just one of many, many examples of why this may be necessary.

Years ago a group of co-workers and I (I was a claims adjuster at a major insurance company at the time) took a road trip from PA to DE through NJ. While en-route we saw a group of young black men who’d been stopped and were in the process of being searched by the NJ state police. Up to that point (there were four of us and I was the only black person) our conversation was a pretty animated one about work and family. As we drove past this scene however an uncomfortable silence fell over our vehicle. After a few moments the awkward silence was broken when someone asked me what I thought of this. If I recall rightly (this was in the early 90’s) I said that though I’d seen plenty of people pulled over by the state police in tri-state area I’d rarely seen whites have their car searched and that was not the case with African-Americans.

At this point our newest co-worker (a transfer from CA) told an account of a former supervisor of hers who upon earning a promotion attempted to buy a home closer to his new office. He was prevented when the residents of the neighborhood banded together to buy the house instead so that he would not integrate the area. She remarked at how shocked and saddened she was to learn that this could happen to someone she knew and respected as well as man whose education, experience and work ethic had afforded him a position where he could purchase a house in this area.

I hope this story is helpful in a few ways. First, it shows how this man’s ethnicity impacted an important part of his life while not dominating it. He didn’t lose his job, was not threatened with bodily harm, nor was he forced to live in a segregated area. However, this incident did remind him of his ‘otherness’ and was part of his experience living as a black man in America. Consequently, to get to know him (i.e. all of him and not just the parts with which I might feel comfortable or safe) I’d need to know this story, how it affected him and perhaps most importantly how the church I serve could be used to minister or reinforce the gospel to him.

There is so much more that could be said on this topic. For one, it is true that not everyone will want to talk about how their ethnicity has impacted their lives. It’s also true that there are many who believe that discussions along these lines do nothing but exacerbate the problem. Also, this is by no means a mandate to always and only talk about the issue of race/ethnicity. As the actor Sidney Portier once said in an interview concerning these things (I’m paraphrasing from memory) ‘yes I am a black man. But I’m also a husband, a father, a friend and an actor.’ His point was that being black didn’t dominate every aspect of his existence, and yet he could not ignore the reality that at some level it did impact it.

 Please tell us about your family.

I’ve been richly blessed to be married to my wonderful wife Sharon for almost 29 years. We’ve followed the call to pursue ethnic unity for nearly 25 years and have shared its ups, downs, struggles and triumphs. Sharon is an exceptional woman who has developed authentic relationships with people from a variety of ethnic groups. She’s just as comfortable and eager to swap healthy nutrition recipes as she is talking about issues of unity for the sake of the gospel.

God has graced us with two extraordinary children who are walking with Him and each have a strong interest in the kingdom motivated call of authentic ethnic unity.

This leads to my final thoughts on this subject (at least for now). Answering the call concerning striving for the church’s heritage of ethnic unity has been one of the signature blessings of our lives. It’s brought us into close, life-long relationships with people who apart from answering the call we would more than likely never even met. I simply cannot tell you of the vast wealth of relationships we enjoy with so many souls from different ethnic groups. These are souls with whom we share an authentic fellowship that’s grounded in our common faith in our Savior Jesus Christ. It is a deep and meaningful fellowship not because we live as though our ethnicity did not exist or conversely that it dominates our lives to the extent that it is the only subject that occupies our time and fellowship. Its richness is experienced as we enjoy all of the aspects of our fellowship including the differences over which we through our good, wise, powerful and gracious Lord did not separate. We’ve shared countless meals, conversations, outings, wondrous worship services, struggles, sorrows, celebrations, holidays, and triumphs. The truth is I count them as my family.

They aren’t just ‘those white folks’ or ‘those Asian folks’ or ‘those Hispanic folks’. They are our folks and for that I thank our great and gracious Savior who was slain and with His blood He ransomed a people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and He has made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. (Rev. 5:9-10)

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