Segregated Services

Recently, I found myself seated in the fifth row of a half-full church service. A service designed, dedicated, and designated for people who descended from Adventist spanish-speaking families. I am a caucasian, English-speaking, Adventist believer.

As I sat waiting for the program to begin, one of the progenitors of the program did a double take as she streaked across the front of the stage. Backtracking her steps to greet me, she said, "Hey! I'm kind of shocked to see you here. Are you here to support your girlfriend tonight?" Taken aback by the statement that my presence must be somehow connected to a logical association when entering a church, I sharply (and admittedly somewhat sarcastically) answered her, "Yes."

"Well, welcome all the same. Glad to have you with us." she responded as she returned to her task.

This experience led me to write the following post in hopes of calling out the intentional, accidental, and prevalent segregation that continues to breed separation within the church.

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Church should never be a place where the leaders are pleasantly surprised that you came. Our pews should never be counted by color, sexuality, age, social standing, economic stature, or physical appearance. The word of God is only found in one form, one Gospel message. And somehow this good news is good for everyone where one size fits all. The gospel does not have different news for anyone. It is the good news for every man woman and child spread over many languages to all people.

That being said, let our churches be diverse. Let us never be surprised, saddened, or dismayed when we arrive as find that we are a minority in a room. But instead may we celebrate that the kingdom of God is a habitat for the many. The ark that Noah built was a sanctuary for everything. Yet even as it was being filled with every living thing, there were only two of any one thing. Which means there was only one other object that looked familiar. God somehow found a way to repopulate the planet with just that.

 If God can reseed the garden outside of Eden with two seeds, then assuredly Heaven has room for the masses.

If we were fit to be called "good",

if we are fit to be made in the image of God,

if we were fit to be given grace,

if we were fit to be a chosen people,

if we were fit to be called,

then assuredly in heaven,

we will all fit.

We all await the time in which we are told that we, "have done well thou good and faithful servant." At that time we will not be asked for our papers to show our credentialed documentation. There will be no further need of a burden of proof. And if that much is true, then God is not a stranger to our deeds. We are not a stranger in the eyes of a Savior. Nor should we be surprised when the people that God is familiar with, sit adjacent to us in the pews of a church looking entirely different than we. The opportunity arises and we have the chance to begin to ask questions about why they are here with puzzled bewilderment. Instead, may we begin a new chapter as we ask questions that find out who God is in the eyes of those who God has welcomed into the story of our collective history together. Let us begin to piece together that which we have missed in looking through the interpretive lenses of our personal brand of understanding. This goal will constantly be more difficult if we continue to segregate services based upon that which already holds us apart (lingual requirements aside).

This Sabbath day we are commanded to cease and assist. This day belongs to the Lord. Not you, your son, your daughter, your maid, your butler, your ox, your donkey, your livestock, nor your resident alien are to do anything other than receive the love found in the presence of your God.

Our God.

Not in the sense that we possess God,

but in that God possesses each of us.

The Sabbath is the closest thing we have to Heaven on earth. So slide over in your pew and make room. If not already seated, roam and find a new spot to land that would be otherwise foreign if it weren't for our desires to maintain the habit of status quo living. For today is the day that the good Lord made. A day which had each of us in mind, not in spite, but because of, our differences in color, sexuality, age, social standing, economic stature, or physical appearance.

Therefore, what God has put together, let no one separate.