I am just returning from a sabbatical and this is my first blog since before Christmas. I have been exploring multiethnic churches during the sabbatical and building on some things that have been a part of my ministry since I was first ordained.


     My first call was in an inner-city parish and I saw overt racism expressed by members all too often. I have served as Assistant to the Bishop for Urban and Multicultural Ministries for a judicatory and worked in a variety of cross-cultural settings with mixed results (and emotions). I have been an anti-racism trainer on a national denominational staff. And I have confronted government in my current setting when a white officer shot an African American woman after a very messy traffic stop. So, on paper, for a white guy, my resume looks pretty good.

     But I don’t feel like I have made a dent in the big picture nor do I feel like I have “arrived.” I have work to do and hunger for ways that would invite others into the same work rather than alienating them early in the process. Much of the work that I have been a part of has not invited people in for a journey as much as told them they had a problem and they better admit it. It has had good content but the tone has often lacked a quality that would encourage people to stay the course.

     That’s why I am increasingly optimistic about shifts in this work toward cultural competence. The school district where I live has been using this tact. And I have participated in this kind of training and experience a few times and every time I am left wanting more, not less. This is in part because the training has used doorways that appreciate that I am human and not just white. And the work has made seeing the ways that diverse people are impacted by their circumstances and labels more descriptive and less accusatory. I have watched as people who would likely have left previous trainings frustrated, nod their heads and acknowledge that the playing field is not level and become open to seeing what they can do to make it better.

     I have been part of an ongoing congregational renewal project for a few years. This most recent cycle, we added cultural competence as a part of the training on community engagement. Pastor Carla Christopher Wilson did a great job leading this section. It was too little – there needs to be more. But it was helpful, started a conversation that we can continue in the months ahead, and began to equip people to be more alert and more open to the life circumstances of others, especially those who are most different in some way(s).

     This is a pattern that I am noticing over and over – people who are exposed to cultural competency in helpful ways are responding by being open to more. Instead of being diagnosis heavy, it is competency focused. People leave more hopeful and feeling like there may be skills they can gain to be better able to relate to people from a variety of backgrounds. Rather than just being a problem, they think that they may also be useful at improving the quality of relationships and the access to things that all people gain when we work to move forward.