Makeup of Your Church

[Romans922]

I was wondering what kind of make up (racially/ethnically) exists in our churches. Simple, white, black, hispanic, asian. Our heritage is not needed (e.g. I am german, irish, russian, and italian). I just want to know really how many of our congregations are mainly white homogeneous.

If of one predominate ethnic group exists in your church and it is due solely to actual community makeup, please state that as well.

This is to see how many reformed churches are mostly homogeneous (as well as most churches period).

Is there a problem with a church being homogeneous in communities that are not? Especially, most of us who are reformed and presbyterian.

[Edited on 8-28-2005 by Romans922]

 

[Craig]

Predominantly....Dutch.

 

[Romans922]

Originally posted by Craig
Predominantly....Dutch.

I think that would mean white then? Sounds CRC, but it is actually OPC?

 

[Craig]

Originally posted by Romans922

Originally posted by Craig
Predominantly....Dutch.

I think that would mean white then? Sounds CRC, but it is actually OPC?

Yes, then white. Most of the members left the CRC because they believed the OPC to be more faithful to their Reformed heritage.

 

[Ex Nihilo]

Entirely white. The immediately surrounding community is predominantly white; the metro area is more mixed.

 

[Arch2k]

White.

 

[ReformedWretch]

Originally posted by Ex Nihilo
Entirely white. The immediately surrounding community is predominantly white; the metro area is more mixed.

 

[Romans922]

I will let this go for awhile, but why are all these congregations predominately white if they are in mixed areas, proclaiming the gospel, etc.? Is there a problem that I am seeing here or am I wrong in what I am asserting?

 

[ReformedWretch]

Ours is not in a "mixed" area unless by area you include a 20 mile radious or so. And to be honest, I am friends with many African-Americans and I don't know any that would be even slightly attracted to a reformed style of worship. I am certain they are out there, but I don't know any.

 

[Poimen]

99% home grown Dutch.

 

[Ex Nihilo]

Originally posted by Romans922
I will let this go for awhile, but why are all these congregations predominately white if they are in mixed areas, proclaiming the gospel, etc.? Is there a problem that I am seeing here or am I wrong in what I am asserting?

The problem may be less in failure to evangelize the African-American community, which is largely internally evangelized (they are certainly no less Christian than white people, by my casual observation), than in a failure on both sides to unite after decades of having separate churches. The problem for Reformed churches is that forcing unity with most African-American churches would compromise Reformed theology. I know this is an overgeneralization, and I'm not trying to deny that the entire situation is extremely regrettable, but it isn't as simple as stating that the predominantly white churches are entirely to blame. The situation is largely inherited.

Has anyone read On Being Black and Reformed, by the way?

 

[turmeric]

Our church is predominately white, we have one Afro-American family, we had an African (Kenyan) going for a while but he chose a black Baptist church recently. He is Arminian and heavily influenced by Campus Crusade for Christ.

 

[DTK]

Originally posted by Romans922
I will let this go for awhile, but why are all these congregations predominately white if they are in mixed areas, proclaiming the gospel, etc.? Is there a problem that I am seeing here or am I wrong in what I am asserting?

If you don't mind, I would like to address this question from the perspective of our congregation. We are situated in a small southern town with a mixed population of whites, blacks, and some hispanics. Our congregation is predominately white with both white and blue collar folk. We have done some meaningful evangelism in the black community here, having presented the gospel to many and invited many others to attend our worship services. With respect to our VBS efforts in the summer, we have had better success in seeing both black children and hispanic children attend. But though we have held many special services where blacks attended (and were very much encouraged to return), we have yet to receive a single member into our church from the black community.

Now then, there is a black church in a larger town to the south of us (Macon, GA) that is a fledgling work, and we support it monetarily regularly. I have fellowship often with the pastor there, meeting for mutual encouragement and exhortation. Being a black pastor, I asked him if he had any insight into our inability to reach these groups in our community. He informed me that he had seen many blacks come to Christ under his personal ministry, but that inevitably they are drawn (for sense of loyalty, family, community ties) back to churches they were raised in, even though they were converted under other ministries; and that even though his church is predominately black, these people go elsewhere to churches they had previously been associated with for the above stated reasons. He told me that he suspected that this was, in part, the reason why we had not seen any folk from these ethnic groups join us.

I found this somewhat discouraging, but he encouraged me to persevere in our efforts. Our church is also the primary sponsor of our local Crisis Pregnancy Center, and again, we have had opportunity to minister to many young black women in this context, but have seen precious little fruit in attracting them to our church through our outreach efforts.

Now, it is my conviction that Christ's Visible Church ought to be multi-colored and multi-cultural, but it seems that this will have to be something to commit to God in prayer, as well as persevere in our efforts.

Blessings,
DTK

 

[brymaes]

About 2/3 white, 1/3 hispanic. We're in a small farming community that has about the same cross-section.

 

[Herald]

Originally posted by houseparent
Ours is not in a "mixed" area unless by area you include a 20 mile radious or so. And to be honest, I am friends with many African-Americans and I don't know any that would be even slightly attracted to a reformed style of worship. I am certain they are out there, but I don't know any.

Adam - I guess this begs another question: what is our reponsibility, nay, mandate to reach out to all racial groups within our sphere of influence? I understand that many ethnic churches/believers would not embrace the Presbyterian. style of worship. But it is more than that. I attend a baptist church that is more contemporary in worship style (it is more contemporary than I prefer but that is another discussion). We have lost a few ethnic families over that very issue. That distresses me because they often go to churches that are deficient in doctrine.

I am not offering a resolution...just sharing the plight.

 

[rmwilliamsjr]

a even more telling question is average family income and 1 standard deviation.

i'll bet that the average reformed church is twice the local average income and half the SD.

 

[ReformedWretch]

Originally posted by BaptistInCrisis

Originally posted by houseparent
Ours is not in a "mixed" area unless by area you include a 20 mile radious or so. And to be honest, I am friends with many African-Americans and I don't know any that would be even slightly attracted to a reformed style of worship. I am certain they are out there, but I don't know any.

Adam - I guess this begs another question: what is our reponsibility, nay, mandate to reach out to all racial groups within our sphere of influence? I understand that many ethnic churches/believers would not embrace the Presbyterian. style of worship. But it is more than that. I attend a baptist church that is more contemporary in worship style (it is more contemporary than I prefer but that is another discussion). We have lost a few ethnic families over that very issue. That distresses me because they often go to churches that are deficient in doctrine.

I am not offering a resolution...just sharing the plight.

That's the thing. I have tried reaching them. I have tried to tell them of the reformed tradition and why it's important. All have accepted my point of view but none could even begin to bring themselves to be so "structured". To them it's almost sinful to have an "order of worship".

For example we met a wonderful african-American woman who was raised in the Dominican Republic, she likes me and my wife, and she is a wonderful, Godly woman, but she thinks the reformed tradition is "putting God in a box".

I know she's wrong, but trying to tell her that, teach her that, show her that in deed is tough.

 

[JonathanHunt]

Both Reformed Baptist Churches on the 1689:

My previous church in London, which is a multicultural city, is a multicultural church. I reckon it is now half white/half ehtnic minority. It reflects the community it is in.

My current church in Cheltenham also represents the community it is in - all white apart from two or three fairly regular black visitors and an oriental couple.

JH