Sunday morning church services have often earned the title of "most segregated hour in America." As America's demographics change, however, the American church unknowingly retains the pitfalls of racism and white privilege. Dr. Soong-Chan Rah argues that the American evangelical church faces a beleaguered future unless it can reach out and learn from the growing number of racially-, ethnically-, and culturally-diverse churches springing up in America. Writing out of his experiences as a second-generation Korean immigrant and American pastor, Dr. Rah challenges white evangelicals to consider the future of the American church in terms of The Next Evangelism. He recently talked with Crosswalk.com about the challenges, impediments and hope for creating a more diverse North American church.
CW: Explain for your audience a little of how and why you came to write this book.
Rah: The book arises out of my experience as a pastor, a professor, and as a participant/observer of American culture and the evangelical subculture. I also write out of my experience as an immigrant and as someone who has grown up in the context of the immigrant church and also steeped in the evangelical culture. My motivation is out of a deep concern and love for Christ's church and to see the church prepared for the next stage of Christianity in the West.
In the past 100 years, Christianity has shifted rapidly from a Western, white dominant Christianity to a much more global Christianity. In the same way, American evangelicalism is seeing a change in its demographics - American Christianity is becoming less white and more multiethnic. Yet, many of the systems and assumptions of evangelicalism are still rooted in Western, white culture. A greater awareness of the obstacles to a multiethnic church (an increasingly popular topic of discussion) is needed. American evangelicalism is held captive to Western, white culture - in its worship, ministry style, philosophy of ministry, social and political involvement, etc. - preventing the church from being prepared to tackle the challenges of 21st Christianity.
CW: The American Religious Identification Survey that came out last year seems to show that American Christianity has had its day, even leading Newsweek magazine to announce "The End of Christian America." What did you think about that study?
Rah: I think the ARIS study along with the Pew Foundation study the previous year did a good job of documenting changing perspectives among white evangelicals but does not delve deeply enough into the changing face of American Christianity. The studies and articles tend to reveal the decline of white evangelicals, but do not fully reflect the growing number of non-white churches.
For example, the Pew study separated the black churches from the category of evangelicals - leaving out a significant number of Christians. These studies tend to have an underlying bias towards white evangelicals and, therefore, don't fully reflect the changing face of American evangelicalism.
This bias was very evident in the Newsweek article. The opening paragraphs of the Newsweek article cites Al Mohler's concern about "losing" the northeast to secularization. I document in the introduction to my book studies that reveal a very robust Christian community in the Boston area. Churches are being planted and are growing - among the African-American, immigrant, and non-white ethnic communities. But the media - even the Christian media - tends to focus on the decline of white Christianity and is oftentimes blind to the growth of the church among ethnic minorities.
CW: You use quite a strong term in the book - the "white cultural captivity" of the church. Why do you say the church is "captive"? What does that mean?
I am aware that the phrase may cause some discomfort. I believe that the creation of discomfort is a necessary component of growth and change. We don't change (i.e. - we don't have the motivation to change) unless we are presented with a level of discomfort. Sometimes strong, prophetic language is needed to shake us out of our compliancy and our tendency to maintain the status quo.
