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Sunday: The Most Segregated Day of the Week

At the time we had only one minority leader who happened to be an East Indian guy named Alex, and the funny thing is that one of my youth pastors thought Alex was black! What? Not even close! Eventually my sister-in-law got involved and that brought the minority youth leader grand total to two. We began to put systems and processes in place to help with integration and behavioral issues, but we still had the awkward parent and leader elephant that we needed to address. Each week more and more questions, concerns, issues, and perceptions developed about the demographics of the student population at our campus. This was truly an anomaly for LifeChurch.tv. The perception of this issue had gotten elevated to our Central Leadership Team. I remember talking to my youth pastors and letting them know that I was going to attend their leader meeting, and we were going to confront the pleasantly plump elephant in the pew. Well, not in the pew but rather in the multicolor chairs. My youth pastors were looking forward to the discussion and thought it was a good idea. It just became one of those issues where no one knew what to say or what to do. Leaders were saying things that were offending other leaders, youth pastors were saying things that offended leaders, and everyone had the same core agenda — make a difference in the lives of the students. The question was, “How do we move from where we are to where we need to be?”

The day prior to the meeting I remember being on a conference call with my youth pastors and their LifeChurch.tv central team leader. We were talking about a game plan for how to address some of the parent, leader, and student issues that we were having. I informed the central team leader that I would be going to the meeting and confronting the awkward subject of race. This form of ministry is called “calling a spade a spade.” No sooner did I finish sharing my strategy, intentions, and game plans than the central team leader said this, “We are not going to make this about race. You are not going to go in there and make this an issue of race.” I’m thinking to myself, Seriously, do you want to have this conversation? My response was, “Yes, I am going to make this about race, because it is about race.” There were definitely some uncomfortable verbal exchanges before the conversation ended. That’s what happens when you confront the brutal facts.

The next day I received a phone call and apology from the central team leader. He simply said, “Man, you were right. I just didn’t want to make this a race issue. I know you have experience dealing with these issues, so we will just learn from you.” I appreciated his acknowledgment of the problem, and the reality is that his sentiment is how most people think. They don’t want to make this about race. They would rather keep a sleeping elephant sleeping. The problem is, the race elephant isn’t sleeping; he’s awake and we are just ignoring him.

The day after this call, I went in and led the AA meeting. Not the “Hi, my name is Scott and I’m an alcoholic” meeting.” I led the meeting I call “from Awkward to Amazing” with an amazing group of student leaders. We talked about race and some of them shared the fact that truthfully they were uncomfortable interacting with some of these students and really didn’t know what to say or do. Yes! We were getting somewhere. The conversations were initially Awkward but ultimately turned out Amazing. When you confront the elephant in the pew you move from Awkward to Amazing, and you begin the process of “moving beyond the dream.” To make a long story short, our youth ministry became known as the rare breed of youth ministry that was racially split down the middle, and it became a ministry where race is literally a non-issue. The only way race will ever become a non-issue is if you make race an issue. You must confront the elephant in the pew.

*We’ve announced all the Church Diversity winners! Check out the list here. 

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scottwilliams2@churchleaders.com'
Scott Williams served as a key leader and Campus Pastor for LifeChurch.tv. He is the Chief Solutions Officer for Nxt Level Solutions, a consulting company he founded to help businesses, non-profits and individuals with both internal and external growth. Scott is speaker, strategist, consultant and developer of leaders. He is an avid blogger at BigIsTheNewSmall.com, and leverages Social Media to make a Kingdom impact. Scott is passionate about leadership development, organizational growth and diversity. He is the author of “Church Diversity – Sunday The Most Segregated Day Of The Week.” Scott is married, a father of two, and lives in Oklahoma City, OK.