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There is this unfortunate issue with racism in the Church. This article explains in detail and gives a statistical point of view between the Black and White church

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Over the last several weeks, the United States has engaged in a long-overdue reckoning with the racist symbols of the past, tearing down monuments to figures complicit in slavery and removing Confederate flags from public displays. But little scrutiny has been given to the cultural institutions that legitimized the worldview behind these symbols: white Christian churches.

In public opinion polls, a clear pattern has emerged: White Christians are consistently more likely than whites who are religiously unaffiliated to deny the existence of structural racism.

A close read of history reveals that we white Christians have not just been complacent or complicit; rather, as the nation's dominant cultural power, we have constructed and sustained a project of perpetuating white supremacy that has framed the entire American story. The legacy of this unholy union still lives in the DNA of white Christianity today - and not just among white evangelical Protestants in the South, but also among white mainline Protestants in the Midwest and white Catholics in the Northeast.

For more than two decades, I've studied the attitudes of religiously affiliated Americans across the country. And year over year, in question after question in public opinion polls, a clear pattern has emerged: White Christians are consistently more likely than whites who are religiously unaffiliated to deny the existence of structural racism.

For example, surveys conducted by PRRI in 2018 found that white Christians - including evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics - are nearly twice as likely as religiously unaffiliated whites to say the killings of Black men by police are isolated incidents rather than part of a pattern of how police treat African Americans.

And white Christians are about 30 percentage points more likely to say monuments to Confederate soldiers are symbols of Southern pride rather than symbols of racism. White Christians are also about 20 percentage points more likely to disagree with this statement: "Generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for Blacks to work their way out of the lower class." And these trends generally persist even in the wake of the recent protests for racial justice.

As a white Christian who was raised Southern Baptist and shaped by a denominational college and seminary, it pains me to see these patterns in the data. Even worse, these questions only hint at the magnitude of the problem.

To determine the breadth of these attitudes, I created a "Racism Index," a measure consisting of 15 questions designed to get beyond personal biases and include perceptions of structural injustice. These questions included the three above, as well as questions about the treatment of African Americans in the criminal justice system and general perceptions of race, racism and racial discrimination.

Even at a glance, the Racism Index reveals a clear distinction. Compared to nonreligious whites, white Christians register higher median scores on the Racism Index, and the differences among white Christian subgroups are largely differences of degree rather than kind.

Not surprisingly, given their concentration in the South, white evangelical Protestants have the highest median score (0.78) on the Racism Index. But it is a mistake to see this as merely a Southern or an evangelical problem. The median scores of white Catholics (0.72) and white mainline Protestants (0.69) - groups that are more culturally dominant in the Northeast and the Midwest - are not far behind. Notably, the median score for each white Christian subgroup is significantly above the median scores of the general population (0.57), white religiously unaffiliated Americans (0.42) and Black Protestants (0.24).

This disparity in attitudes about systemic racism between white Christians and whites who claim no religious affiliation is important evidence that the common - and catalyzing - denominator here is religious identity. This consistent perception gap was the central research finding that launched the work on my new book, " White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity," out on Tuesday.

When confronted with unsettling results such as these, many of my fellow white Christians tend to explain them away with two objections. First, they assert that it is not white Christian identity itself but other intervening variables that account for such correlations. Second, they argue that even if white Christian identity is implicated, the results are muddied by the inclusion of people who have no real connection to actual churches, folks who are "Christian in name only."

But even when controls are introduced in a statistical model for a range of demographic characteristics, such as partisanship, education levels and region, the connection between holding racist attitudes and white Christian identity remains stubbornly robust.

The results point to a stark conclusion: While most white Christians think of themselves as people who hold warm feelings toward African Americans, holding racist views is nonetheless positively and independently associated with white Christian identity. Again, this troubling relationship holds not just for white evangelical Protestants, but also for white mainline Protestants and white Catholics.

The legacy of this unholy union still lives in the DNA of white Christianity today - and not just among white evangelical Protestants in the South.

Moreover, these statistical models refute the assertion that attending church makes white Christians less racist. Among white evangelicals, in fact, the opposite is true: The relationship between holding racist views and white Christian identity is actually stronger among more frequent church attenders than among less frequent church attenders.

I suspect many of my fellow white Christians will be appalled by these findings, asking with genuine dismay: "How can this be?" Haven't white Christians created charities of all kinds, built the infrastructure of much of our civil society and provided leadership on a host of social reforms, including the abolitionist movement, which was led in part by Christians moved by their faith?

But when we allow ourselves to cast our gaze beyond the rosy stories we tell about ourselves as champions and representatives of all that is good in America, a terrifyingly troubled alternative history emerges.

While it may seem obvious to mainstream white Christians today that slavery, segregation and overt declarations of white supremacy are antithetical to the teachings of Jesus, such a conviction is, in fact, a recent development for most white American Christians and churches, both Protestant and Catholic.

The unsettling truth is that, for nearly all of American history, the light-skinned Jesus conjured up by most white congregations was not merely indifferent to the status quo of racial inequality; he demanded its defense and preservation as part of the natural, divinely ordained order of things.

Consider the cultural context in which American Christianity, both Protestant and Catholic, was born. In the 18th and 19th centuries, as Protestant churches were springing up in newly settled territories after Native American populations were forcibly removed, it was common practice - observed, for example, at the Baptist church that was the progenitor of my parents' church in Macon, Georgia - for slaveholding whites to take enslaved people to church with them.

The practice had it that whites sat in the front while enslaved Blacks sat in the back or in specially constructed galleries above. In late 18th-century Maryland, one-fifth of those included in a Catholic census were enslaved people owned by white Catholics or white Catholic institutions. And as late as the 1940s, urban Catholic parishes in major cities such as New York still required Black members to sit in the back pews and approach the altar last to receive the bread and wine of the Eucharist.

Moreover, the content of what was preached confirmed that white supremacy was part of the Christian worldview. Sermons, by necessity, tended to be light on the themes of freedom and liberation in Exodus, for example, and heavy on the mandates of obedience and being content in one's social station from the New Testament writings of Paul.

In these seedbeds of American Christianity, an a priori commitment to white supremacy shaped what could be practiced (a slave master could not share a common cup of Christian fellowship with his slaves) and preached (white dominance and Black subservience were expressions of God's ideal for the organization of human societies). Such early distortions influenced how white Christians came to embody and understand their faith and determined what was handed down from one generation to the next.

Our fellow African American citizens, and indeed the entire country, are waiting to see whether we white Christians can finally find the humility and courage and love to face the truth.

The plain testimony of history is that, alongside what good we white Christians have done, white Christian theology and institutions have also declared the blessings of God on the enslavement of millions of African Americans, the construction of a brutal system of racial segregation enforced by law and lynchings, the resistance to the civil rights movement and the mass incarceration of millions of African Americans. When the patterns in the current public opinion data are seen in this light, they seem unsurprising and, indeed, inevitable.

As monuments to white supremacy are falling all across America, a great cloud of witnesses is gathering. Our fellow African American citizens, and indeed the entire country, are waiting to see whether we white Christians can finally find the humility and courage and love to face the truth about our long relationship with white supremacy and to dismantle the Christian worldview we built to justify it.
Related:

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Opinion | Racism among white Christians is higher than among the nonreligious. Here's why.

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For most of American history, the light-skinned Jesus conjured up by white congregations demanded the preservation of inequality as part of the divine order.

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The Church is changing culturally in such a drastic way. The age of social media influence and new beliefs are taking it's hold over the church. This article mentions several ways social change is happening within the culture of the Church

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"There's something going on in culture that will have a substantive impact on the future of that Cubbie today," said Dr. Ed Stetzer during his talk at the Child Discipleship Forum this past year.

According to the author, researcher, and professor and dean at Wheaton College, the divide between Nominal Christians (those who identify as Christian, but don't shape their lives around the Christian faith) and Convictional Christians (those who attend church regularly and shape their lives by their faith convictions) is growing. Add to that the events of the past two years, and there is a "cultural convulsion" taking place.

Culture, social media and the pandemic have impacted America; people are finding themselves in debates about masks, vaccines, police activity and riots. And it's dividing congregations. "In my experience there has never been a more difficult time to lead," he said.

"Fifty years ago, Americans who said they were Christians stuck together. Convictional Christians used to have a buffer of Nominal Christians supporting them, but that has switched.

How the Changing Culture Impacts Our Churches

According to Ed there are five main implications because of this change.

1. Less nominally connected parents are attending church or bringing their kids to church.

2. With church seen as less important to nominally connected parents, children will grow up with a lack of commitment to the Church.

3. As parents continue to be discipled by their cable news program and political affiliations, "which distorts biblical Christianity," they increasingly seek out churches that align with their ideology, rather than be concerned about a church's theology.

For example, said Ed, if a church says you need to wear masks "25% of the people say you're a compromised coward." If you don't mandate masks, "25% say you don't care about people." Then there are strong opinions over whether your church mentioned "George Floyd, summer riots, capitol riots, etc. ... People are keeping track and are changing churches over it."

4. Traditional Christian values will continue to be marginalized at the center of culture.

"It is now increasingly unacceptable in polite society to believe that Jesus is the only way, to believe that men and women are created in the image of God, to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman for a lifetime, to believe things that 20 years ago were what mainstream culture believed."

5. Children will grow up in a syncretistic culture of paganism, pluralism, American Evangelicalism and biblical Christianity, and their beliefs will reflect that.

Ed said he doesn't discount what Jesus can do, but that "there are some things we've got to disciple into God's people and some things we've got to disciple out of God's people."

What Churches Can Do in the Changing Culture

Ed suggests churches use available tools ("Awana is a tool.") and engage in the following:

1. Develop and teach a robust ecclesiology. "We need to tell people again why it matters that we are [a Church] and who we are as a Church."

2. The Church must tackle the real problems of biblical literacy, engaging the Scriptures at a higher, more effective level.

3. " Churches must untangle themselves from the culture and from American Evangelicalism by developing a deeper understanding of both the kingdom and the mission of God."

We Can Be the Light in Our Changing Culture

Although the landscape is challenging, Ed believes we can be "a substantial ray of light" if we will take up the charge to disciple the next generation to be resilient ..."prepared to live as a cultural minority ... showing and sharing the love of Jesus. "[Disciples] who are not being caught up in the ways of the world, not being driven by the ideology of the moment, but [are] being shaped by the power of the Gospel, being informed, trained and walking in the truths of the Scripture and in the power of the Holy Spirit."

Said Ed: "That is my prayer. And that is my prayer for you."
For more on this topic: Stetzer Church Leaders Podcast. To read other blogs in the CDF Highlights series:
Matt Markins - Mars Ain't the Kind of Place to Raise Your Kids: Children's Ministry in a Post-Christian Culture

Valerie Bell - Making Resilient Disciples Amid Cultural Shifts

Darren Whitehead - It's Discipling Kids More Than the Church; What Can the Church Do About It?

Eli Bonilla - Limited By Labels: Helping Kids Learn Who They Are in Christ

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The Changing Culture and its Impact on the Future Church

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"There's something going on in culture that will have a substantive impact on the future of that Cubbie today," said [...]

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Through this article and video, I learned that alot of the social justice movements were led by African American preachers, Martin Luther King Jr. being the frontline for a lot of movements in accordance to the Black people

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CHICAGO (WLS) -- Many scholars argue the Black church played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement.

"Most of the social justice movements were led by African American preachers, Dr. King being one of the most famous," said Bishop Derrick Fitzpatrick, pastor of Stone Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood.

Fitzpatrick said Dr. Martin Luther King Junior delivered several sermons at the church, including in 1966 when he came to Chicago to lead a campaign to end housing discrimination.
READ MORE: Chicago protest pushes for voting rights legislation on MLK Day
Fitzpatrick believes the Black church is the foundation of today's social justice fight.

"You will never see a social justice movement going forward, whether it's Black Lives Matter or anything else, that does not have a remnant or some type of fragrance of the Black Church," he said.

But some young organizers describe a growing divide between activists and the Black church.

Allena Bradley, a Black Lives Matter Chicago organizer, said that divide came to light during the demonstrations following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. She is critical of some faith leaders who she accuses of being tied to the systems many activists want to reform or disband.

"I have to be very selective with how particularly, like, our organization relates to these churches and what concessions we make for their comfort and for what feels palatable," she said.

Tonya Watkins, executive director of Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL), said although King was an ordained minister, some Black clergy were not supportive of his efforts.

"Some of the same fears and trepidations that folks are feeling today around the movement. That has existed for a very long time," she explained.

Both pastors and activists agree that the church still has enormous power to effect change and that all sides must work together to have the most impact.

"I want to see the Black church retain young membership," Bradley said. "I want to have a home there."

Watkins said the Black church should be a place where Black people can freely talk about the issues impacting their everyday life.

"We believe that life can be different, particularly for Black folks, and we want the church to stand with us and fight for that reality," she said.

Pastor Anthony Williams leads MLK International Ministry United Church Of Christ, which is in the process of finding a new location in Chicago. Williams said young people want realism.

"We named our church after Martin Luther King so that we can always be reminded that the role of the church is not to be a conformist institution, but a transformative institution," he said.

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MLK Day: What is the role of the Black church in today's social justice movements

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The Black church played was pivotal in the Civil Rights Movement but what role does it play in 2022's social justice and Black Lives Matter movements?

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Globalization has paved the way for cross religious encounters in Christianity.

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"You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." - Genesis 3: 4-5 ( NIV)

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth." But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel-because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. - Genesis 11:1-9 ( NIV)

In the third chapter of Genesis, man succumbed to temptation and disobeyed God. Pundits and theologians have long debated the reason for this disobedience. Some stipulate Eve's decision was based on deception and that she was tricked into disobeying God. Others claim Eve wanted to be like God and so ate the forbidden fruit. Whatever Eve's reason, her decision had a cascading effect on the history of mankind. Prior to her decision, man lived in harmony with God, his creator, as depicted in Genesis 2:15, which states, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it" (NIV). The leader-follower relationship was intact and perfect, as it was intended to be. However, once the decision was made to disobey God and become like God, man's relationship with his Creator was forever marred. No longer was the leader-follower relationship intact. Man had decided he knew what was best and, in turn, chose to be his own leader.

In Genesis 7 and 8, the familiar story of Noah and the flood is recounted. The Lord stated that man's every inclination was evil from the time he is born (Genesis 8:21), which is why he flooded the earth. A few chapters later in Genesis 11, we read the story of the Tower of Babel. This was a pivotal moment in the history of man. God had flooded the earth, yet he spared Noah and his family who were charged, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth" (Genesis 9:1, NIV). Man's presence had increased on the earth, and now man desired to glorify himself with a city and a tower that would reach into the heavens and make a name for him. What man really desired was independence from God (Boice, 1982). That is, man wanted to be his own leader.

Up until this point in history, man had one language and a common speech (Genesis 11). When God saw what man was doing in constructing a city and a tower, he observed man's potential - as it existed within the confines of a single language - was limitless. Nothing man set out to do would be impossible. The people "imagined that by binding themselves together they would be able to organize strong enough to procure their own will" (Barnhouse, 1973, p. 71). In essence, they were attempting to replace God and His leadership. Therefore, God scattered them and confused their language so "their words brought confusion" (Boice, 1982, p. 342). This scattering and confusing of languages created disunity and was the beginning of different cultures as we know them today. As Barnhouse (1973) noted, "Every time they opened their mouths to speak, there was the reminder of their disunity and failure" (p. 72). It was after this event in history that social conflicts are recorded in the Bible. Cultural division played a significant role in conflict development because it provided difference and the means for distinguishing such. In Genesis 14, the first battles in human history are recorded. This occurred after God scattered the people and confused their language. Boice (1985) noted, "The battles described in Genesis 14 are part of the first recorded war in history. That is, although there is evidence of warfare from earlier times, this is the first specific account of a military engagement" (p. 58-59). These battles involved several, different kingdoms.

Ever since the scattering of people and confusing of languages in Babylon, man has been attempting to reunify. In recent decades, man has attempted this via globalization. The term globalization first appeared in academic literature in the 1980s (Sliwa, 2007). However, long before it became an academic buzzword, man set out to explore and conquer his world. In doing so, man began his quest to unite the world. Today globalization is a ubiquitous term even in mainstream media. A recent search on forbes.com revealed over one-hundred articles dealing with globalization. Google lists over 44,000,000 results. Clearly, there is no shortage of material relating to the term.

Globalization has as its root in the word global, meaning "of or relating to the whole world" (dictionary.com). As technology has advanced, the term global has been used as an adjective to describe many things - global communication, global crisis, global economy, and, in this program, global leadership. This essay explores the concepts of leadership, globalization, culture, and the Christian response to a world that is rapidly seeking to return to its pre-Babylonian state. I posit that man's quest for leadership is the search for harmony between God and man; his quest for global leadership is the search for harmony and sameness among mankind in which conflict is mitigated and minimized and unity is achieved.

Culture: What's it good for?

As mentioned above, cultural variation has its origin in ancient Babylon. Since that time, the world has become replete with cultures and subcultures. Northouse (2007) defines culture "as the learned beliefs, values, rules, norms, symbols, and traditions that are common to a group of people" (p. 302). Culture is the construct wherein values exist. It is comprised of people who, for the most part, ascribe to the established values, which are defined as "socially and personally shared conceptions of the good, desirable, and righteous. They are stabilized beliefs about personally or socially preferred modes of conduct or end-states of existence. They determine how one ought to or ought not to behave or act" (Suar & Khuntia, 2010, p. 443). Values define a culture and are what distinguish one from another. For example, "one of the most important basic Japanese values is harmony" (Mooij, 2005, p. 87), i.e., doing things together. The Japanese are fond of doing things together whether it involves eating or working (Yasutaka, 1995). "In Japan, to be well adjusted one must fit into many social groups harmoniously rather than stand out" (Yasutaka, 1995, p. 5). Chinese culture is rooted in cohesive groups, which is based on their history of working in tight-knit clans (Hu & Grove, 1999). "A person who wishes to make a favorable impression [should] avoid being self-congratulatory or personally assertive" (Hu & Grove, 1999, p. 56).

In addition to values, cultures can be defined and divided by their orientation. Monochronic orientations are more concerned with tasks, punctuality, sticking to plans, short-term relationships and privacy, while polychronic orientations are flexible with their plans and timing, and are more concerned with long-term relationships, and have little regard for privacy (Bluedorn, Kaufman, & Lane, 1992). "In monochronic cultures, such as Northern Europeans and North Americans, people prefer to do things in a structured and linear manner - one at a time, and tend to be well organized and punctual" (Gong, 2009, p. 88). Whereas "in polychronic cultures, such as Latin America and the Middle East, people are laid-back, less concerned about how long a process takes, and tend to entertain multiple demands and handle several tasks simultaneously" (Gong, 2009, p. 88).

Another consideration in regard to cultural differences and division is high versus low-context cultures. In high-context cultures, "people are involved in many different activities with different people at the same time" (Kersten, Koeszegi, & Vetschera, 2003, p. 8). Conversely people in lowcontext cultures "prefer to undertake one activity at a time and emphasize priority setting, schedules, segmentation, and promptness" (Kersten, Koeszegi, & Vetschera, 2003, p. 8). For example, in high-context cultures such as Japan, meaning is conveyed through non-verbal cues, whereas in low-context cultures such as Germany, meaning is conveyed through words (Tanova & Nadiri, 2010), which brings me to the point of language.

In our everyday life, we often do not give our language much thought. We might have the opportunity to consider it should we encounter a situation in which English is not spoken. This is becoming more common in the United States, where there is a growing portion of Spanish-speaking inhabitants. In fact, Fox News predicted that by 2050, the U.S. would be the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world (2011). Language is an inherent part of a nation's culture. Hobsbawm (1996) stated, "Nothing is less common than countries inhabited exclusively by people of a single uniform language and culture" (p. 1068). Language unites people with their culture and provides national identity. For example, consider the process of education, which is typically conducted in the national language, or the running of local and national governments, both of which rely on a single language for effective communication and implementation (Hobsbawm, 1996). Language reinforces cultural norms and has a unifying effect within a single geographic border. On a global scale, it serves the purpose of distinguishing nations and cultures from one another.

For all its pomp and circumstance, globalization has done little to proliferate the acceptance of differences between cultures. Rather, it has been a catalyst in promoting sameness (Ardalan, 2009). "The globalization of culture does not mean its homogenization. However, globalization uses instruments of homogenization such as armaments, advertising techniques, language hegemonies, and clothing styles" (Ardalan, 2009, p. 522). Globalization represents a threat to the proliferation of unique and distinct cultures, and it serves to minimize and nullify cultural values and beliefs and replace them with a set of universal moral principles (Esikot, 2012).

While globalization may have initially created a cultural melting pot of sorts, it has been stirred vigorously to the point of creating a level of uniformity and sameness across cultures. Davis (2008) observed the "problem is not that we overvalue cultural differences but that we underestimate them. Even in our multiculturalism, we imagine a sameness of outlook and aspiration, an unwitting projection of ourselves in the end" (p. 270). In other words, globalization has all but erased relativism, "where cultural differences [were] held to be inviolable and cross-cultural judgments have been rendered impossible" (Davis, 2008, p. 270).

The effect of globalization has been one of ignoring cultural differences and creating sameness. While it has not, and cannot, remove the barriers of language, it has nullified many cultural differences. A key component of this process has been economics as the world continues to develop a global economic system. Economics is a unifier that is erasing cultural boundaries and geographic boarders in the name of globalization (Halme, Park & Chiu, 2002). In fact, the International Monetary Fund and Federal Reserve are currently working to develop a global currency (Jasper, 2013).

Globalization: The Ancient Frontier

Globalization has been occurring since Adam and Eve were banned from the Garden of Eden and their offspring multiplied and spread throughout the earth, particularly after the scattering at Babylon. Man traveled and settled throughout the land in his effort to take dominion over the earth. This became a predominant theme throughout early history as early explorers set sail to discover new worlds. This is recognized and celebrated every year in the United States on Columbus Day. So what is globalization? "Globalization in the literature can be described as an absence of barriers and borders of trade" (Cristian & Raluca, 2010, p. 589). It is not so much the removal or surmounting of geographic borders as it is the insignificance and lack of importance ascribed to them.

Beyond the absence of barriers and borders of trade, globalization is fundamentally a movement toward global unity. Ali (2001) noted:

In today's society, access to information and opportunities to interact with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds ease communications and sensitize others to the realities and the contributions of different groups to civilizations and their progress. Indeed, people, in general, have become more tolerant of others' points of view and have simultaneously raised their expectations regarding civilized behavior (p. 1-2).

Globalization is not simply limited to trade and borders; it consists of several key elements that comprise a globalization index. A.T. Kearny created an index based on "information technology, finance, trade, politics, travel, and personal communication to evaluate levels of global integration in dozens of advanced economies and key emerging markets worldwide" (Foreign Policy, 2002, p. 40). The all-encompassing effect of globalization permeates modern society.

Globalization is based on a multi-faceted strategy to make cultural differences irrelevant and unify the world. Part-and-parcel of its strategy is:

Spreading confusion about the meaning and intent of globalization; inducing fears among CEOs that global trade and business will not flourish without maintaining some type of world conflict and military intervention; and promoting the proposition that the cost of allowing participation and inclusion on a global stage outweighs the benefits (Ali, 2001, p. 2-3).

The globalization train is leaving the station and all nations want to be aboard lest they miss out on economic advantage, which involves the interdependence of national economies (Ardalan, 2011). This interdependence has the power "to strengthen alliances and improve relations with adversaries" (Blanchard, Mansfield, & Ripsman, 2000, p. 311). In other words, economic interdependence has the power to unify! Financial transactions are becoming increasingly international, as well as the production process, which is diminishing economic control and adding product value (Ardalan, 2011).

Economically speaking, globalization has financially connected nations in that events in one country "have an immediate and direct impact on other countries. Countries and societies no longer live and operate as isolated self-sustained entities" (Ali, 2001, p. 6). The world is financially connected in a way it never was before in human history. Interestingly enough, "the global economy consists of hundreds of countries and yet it is heavily influenced by a relative few" (Patton, 2012). The four biggest economies are the U.S., China, Europe, and Japan, and they represent sixty percent of the world's gross domestic product (Patton, 2012). Needless to say, their performance has a tremendous impact on the rest of the world.

In addition to economics, globalization has had a profound impact on religion. The primary effect of globalization upon religion has been "the relativization of particularistic identities along with the relativization and marginalization of religion as a mode of social communication" (Burns, 1995, p. 174). In other words, the importance of religion becomes marginalized, and it becomes nothing more than a social function, or as Hitt (2006) referred to it, "a global ethic" (p. xi). That is, religion will only serve as a guide without absolute values and norms. It will be inclusive rather than exclusive; it will be tolerant versus discriminating. The global culture is representative of such ideologies. Long-time fissures between churches are now being bridged. "One consequence of globalization is that the walls that have long divided Catholics from Orthodox, mainline Protestants, evangelicals, and Pentecostals are eroding" (Morgan, 2013). Globalization is unifying religion and marginalizing it at the same time.

The Christian Perspective

The world became global because God scattered the people and confused their language. Therefore, after Jesus' death and resurrection, a global command and strategy was necessary in order to spread the Gospel. Jesus commanded his disciples, "... go and make disciples of all nations..." (Matthew 28:18, NIV). This command, known as the Great Commission, was the first global edict. It was predicated on a simple strategy that involved crossing cultural borders in order to spread the Good News.

The strategy of the Great Commission was effective because it was simple. It involved preaching the Word, establishing churches, and appointing elders to rule local churches. In Acts 14:23 Paul writes, "Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust" (NIV). Boice (1997) observed, "Here for the first time in the Book of Acts we find the appointing of elders (v.23), which we learn later was to become Paul's natural pattern of church organization" (p. 257). It was through this simple pattern the disciples globalized Christianity and Christian leadership, both of which are based on Christ's example.

Northouse (2007) defined leadership as "a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal" (p. 3). Jesus certainly did that and so did the disciples. However, more is involved in Christian leadership. Hanna (2006) defined Christian leadership as, "a dynamic relational process in which people, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, partner to achieve a common goal ... [which is] ... serving others by leading and leading others by serving" (p. 21). This definition precisely captures the mission of Jesus and the disciples, and it embodies the strategic intent of the Great Commission. The advent of globalization has changed the face of Christianity from its early days. "The forces of globalization have refashioned the geographic and cultural boundaries of American Christianity, thereby paving the way for new types of cross-cultural religious encounters" (Baker, 2012, p. 132).

Globalization has had a profound impact on Christianity. It has a "tendency to foster secularization among peoples and cultures that are not secular and do not want to be secular" (p. 157). Man was originally intended to rule over the earth and take dominion of it, which he has been gradually doing since creation. In fact, it has been man's desire to master and control the world and leave his imprint on everything he touches; he is a globalizing force (Damian, 2008, p. 160). However, although man is living in a direct relationship with God, he is a corruptible being. Creation exists in order that man might commune in harmony with God. Sin disrupted that process. Damian (2008) noted, "In order, then, for globalization to become a positive factor in the development of human civilization, it has to be perichoretical or else it will become a factor of destruction (Damian, 2008, p. 161).

Christians were given the first global command-to evangelize. This command was one in which the relationship between God and man is harmonious. Globalization was God's idea, not man's. It was and is necessary to circumvent the cultural division and language confusion that occurred in Babylon. In regard to globalization, Damian (2008) concluded, "The real conquering of the world which makes man a master as he was meant to be, but which does not bring about destruction, the real globalization is when man understands the original purpose of the world and his own vocation in relation to it" (p. 166).

Conclusion

Man's quest to globalize is an attempt to unite the world-economically, politically, and religiously. His quest, in many ways, is the fulfillment of his destiny and prophecy. Globalization is not removing cultural boundaries and barriers as much as it is nullifying them and rendering them void. The leader-follower relationship that once existed has been altered due to the presence of sin in the world. Since the scattering and confusion at Babylon, man has been gradually working his way toward global domination in order to assert his dominion and leadership in place of God's leadership. Hitchcock (2012) observed:

Now for the first time in history since Genesis 11 and the tower of Babel, globalization is within man's (and Satan's) reach. It is most significant that in the twenty-first century not only does a need for world government exist, but the technology for establishing such a government is now in our hands (p. 116).

In Genesis 18:18, the Lord said, "Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him" (NIV). This was the great "announcement that the Lord Jesus would come from Abraham, that he would die for the redemption of believers who would come out of every nation" (Barnhouse, 1973, p. 154). It was, in effect, a global prophecy foreshadowed Jesus' edict at the Great Commission. The nations of the world have been blessed by the presence of believers, who are in those nations as a direct result of Jesus' command.

As man attempts to unify via globalization, he is unwittingly fulfilling Biblical prophecy in pursuit of his own agenda. Christians have been called to provide global leadership, to be the light in the world, and disciples of Christ. We must continue in the mission with which we have been tasked. Believers are called to exemplify Jesus' leadership and be his representative global followers.

About the Author

William Bishop is the founder and chief executive officer of the Bishop Advisory Group in Virginia Beach, VA. He has published articles in Talent Management, Journal of Human Values, Global Business and Organizational Excellence, and Proceedings. He is a third-year doctoral student in the School of Business & Leadership at Regent University and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Executive Education Program.

Email: w.bishop@bishopadvisorygroup.com

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About Regent

Founded in 1978, Regent University is America's premier Christian university with more than 11,000 students studying on its 70-acre campus in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and online around the world. The university offers associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in more than 150 areas of study including business, communication and the arts, counseling, cybersecurity, divinity, education, government, law, leadership, nursing, healthcare, and psychology. Regent University is ranked the #1 Best Accredited Online College in the United States (Study.com, 2020), the #1 Safest College Campus in Virginia (YourLocalSecurity, 2021), and the #1 Best Online Bachelor's Program in Virginia for 10 years in a row (U.S. News & World Report, 2022). The School of Business & Leadership is a Gold Winner - Best Business School and Best MBA Program by Coastal Virginia Magazine. The school also has earned a top-five ranking by U.S. News & World Report for its online MBA and online graduate business (non-MBA) programs. The school offers both online and on-campus degrees including Master of Business Administration, M.S. in Accounting (to include CPA Exam & Licensure Track), M.S. in Business Analytics, M.A. in Organizational Leadership, MA. in Product Management, Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership, and Doctor of Strategic Leadership.

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The Necessity of Unification in Globalization: A Christian Perspective

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Explores the concepts of leadership, globalization, culture, and the Christian response to a world that is seeking to return to its pre-Babylonian state.

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This article is part of the 10 Things You Should Know series.
Did you know that you can partner with Crossway to equip African pastors and church leaders with gospel-centered resources? Get involved.
1. The African church is growing.

It is said that the number of Christians in Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century was about 9 million and that by the end of the twentieth century it was about 380 million. Church structures cannot cope with this kind of growth. So, churches are simply meeting in classrooms, in grass-thatched makeshift structures, and under trees-and yet they are still growing! It is also refreshing to see in attendance young parents with their toddlers, teenagers and young adults, all the way to octogenarians. It speaks well for the future of the church in Africa.

2. Where there is zeal, there is some lack of knowledge.

The church in Africa is full of zeal, though sometimes this zeal lacks knowledge (Rom. 10:2). This zeal is seen in evangelistic fervor. Anyone with eyes to see cannot miss this, and it is the explanation behind the quantum leap in growth. African society, generally, is very open to the Christian message, though openness to listening is not the same thing as openness to responding to the message. If they know that you are a pastor who has come to visit their home, most parents will call everyone in the home to come and listen to you. The door of opportunity is still wide open. Individuals whose knowledge of the Bible is still at a kindergarten level will soon be found leading a church in a village. Some of them do not even have a full Bible. Yet, they are preaching wherever they find ears that are willing to listen. You will find lay preachers in streets and on buses and trains. Personal witnessing takes place in schools, colleges, and universities.

There is a desperate need for more training in order to reduce the wildfires being produced by this zeal where knowledge is lacking. The normal "Bible College" structures used in the Western world to train future leaders and pastors cannot cope with this zeal and growth. Other forms need to be brought in that would function more like the combine harvester does on huge commercial farms. All such "problems" aside, however, the church in Africa is refreshingly zealous.

3. There is a need for biblically-trained pastors.

It is estimated that by the middle of this century, the number of professing Christians in Africa will be around 600-700 million. All these Christians will need to be in churches, under well-trained church leaders and pastors. Ninety percent of the people who are currently functioning as pastors are untrained. If our churches are truly forward-looking, they ought to be preparing for this windfall by putting in time and money to train these future leaders. This is not the time to claim that we do not have money. Pastoral training is not an optional extra. It is an essential part of every church's ministry if it is to participate responsibly in the Great Commission that Jesus left with the church.

4. The church in Africa is respected by the community and the state because it often provides for the basic needs of society.

In my own country of Zambia, the church provides 60%of the health facilities of the entire nation. The church also runs the best schools in the country, in terms of both the physical structures and the holistic development of the students. Even when there has been need for disaster relief, the church has tended to be the vehicle chosen by donors to deliver help at the grassroots level. This has helped the nations of Africa that are on the brink of abject poverty to appreciate the church and to still have hope for the younger generation. The love shown by the church has won the ears of community and state leaders.

Therefore, when church leaders express concern about an important matter in society, local and national leaders tend to listen. This means that the church is able to speak into the moral issues of the day and gain a hearing. This is one reason why the leaders of African nations have been able to withstand the pressure from the West to redefine human sexuality and marriage to suit those with a homosexual agenda. This is despite the fact that some Western countries are tying their aid to an acceptance of this agenda. Although some church leaders have abused the listening ear of state leaders for their own personal gain, this relationship still augurs well for the ambience that enables the church to do its evangelistic work. What was true in the Western world some two hundred years ago is currently still true on the African continent.

5. The African chief mentality has affected how the church views leadership.

The view that a leader-even a church leader-is like a tribal chief still lingers in the African psyche. To begin with, a chief is not primarily chosen by the people. It is hereditary. The position comes to him because "the gods" placed him in the right family tree, at the right position in that family, and at the very right time. Once he is inaugurated, it is as if the spirit of the gods comes to dwell with him. A chief, especially a paramount chief, is the highest position in the tribe. He may have many elders and advisors to help him, but his decisions are final. He is the final custodian of the vast, vast land that belongs to the entire tribe. He has an aura about him that fills the people with fear when they are in his presence. He has a special seat, which is his throne. He has many assistants around him.

Pastoral training is not an optional extra. It is an essential part of every church's ministry if it is to participate responsibly in the Great Commission.

In a bygone era, even the lives of individuals in his tribe were at his mercy. If he demanded that you die, you would die with nowhere to appeal the decision. That was the absolute power that chiefs wielded. When you understand this psyche, you begin to see why pastors and other church leaders in Africa tend to be treated with the dignity that leaves political leaders in the West green with envy. They end up being accountable to no one and easily abuse the money, property, and females in the church-and get away with it. We need to get back to the Bible and see what God says about who should be church leaders and how they should carry out their work.

6. The church in Africa is communal and has respect for authority.

This is something that comes largely from African culture, and it is commendable. The ubuntu phenomenon captures something of the tendency by the African people to prize human relations more than anything else. This is the fountain out of which relationships in the church tend to run deep and which also means that the elderly and those in positions of leadership are respected. Pastors living within certain distances of each other will have pastor "fraternals," where they not only meet to listen to each other teach but also share their common lives as pastors and meet each other's needs. They develop deep relationships in those groupings, and many of these are beyond immediate denominational circles. The "one another" imperatives of Scripture are already in practice in the culture before they are augmented with biblical teaching. People have a greater sense of belonging to churches than they normally do in the West. If there were to be a fault, perhaps it would be that people do not question the actions of their leaders as much as they ought to because of their respect for authority. Some biblical balance may be necessary.

7. Although there are unique issues facing African Christians, the central beliefs and practices of the church are the same worldwide.

There is a growing view that Christianity in Africa must be different from Christianity in the East or West. I think this view is wrong because it creates a divide that the Bible knows nothing about and would not even want to encourage. For instance, it wants us to deliberately and intentionally worship differently from our brethren in the West, many of whom live among us in our cosmopolitan cities. This self-conscious effort is foreign to New Testament Christianity, which tries to bring all of us into one body-". . . Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3:11). Rather, I think that there is a need for the application of Christian truth to vices that are peculiarly African. This latter approach is what should be encouraged because it tries to apply biblical principles to what is customary in Africa so that we are drawn back to belief and practice that follows God's design for the church.

8. There are many issues in the African context that need to have the torch of Scripture shone on them.

As God's word is taught and the doctrines of Scripture are enunciated, we must apply God's word to those areas-areas like ancestor worship, tribalism, corruption, funeral and burial rites, initiation rites, marriage and family relationships, human sexuality, servant leadership, relating to refugees and foreigners, culture and traditions, superstition and witchcraft, the world of the spirits (ancestral spirits, Satan, demons, and angels), taboos, polygamy, traditional sacrifices, bride price and weddings, widows and orphans, religious syncretism, disease and healing, and so on. If Christians are going to grow in maturity, they should be taught how to think through these issues from God's perspective so that they can know how to live in society in a way that truly glorifies the God of the Bible. These teachings should be Bible-based and must grow out of doctrines of Christianity that are drawn out of Scripture.

9. The church must acknowledge the world of spirits and witchcraft so prevalent in African culture and correct it according to the Bible.

The world of the spirits is so real and near in the African church that it needs to be addressed in order to produce authentic Christian practice. Deliverance sessions have become a common phenomenon in the churches in Africa. Church pastors have inadvertently become the equivalent of witch doctors. Even Christians come to church not so much thinking in terms of what they should render to God as their divine Benefactor but rather thinking in terms of what they can get from God through his servant, and especially through his powerful intercessions and interventions. As popular as this has become, it is not what should be happening during worship services. There is no biblical warrant for this.

10. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are largely misunderstood.

For many Christians, baptism and the Lord's Supper remain a mystery. They undergo baptism because it is commanded in the Bible, but they lack knowledge as to its meaning and significance. Likewise, when a pastor or an elder is praying for the Lord's Supper, and the bread and drink are being passed around, many Christians have no idea how this simple meal benefits them spiritually. They assume that something mystical is happening that impacts them simply by the fact that the bread and drink are swallowed. Due to this wrong perception, they often hold the bread and the cup as if they were holding magic charms in their hands. Such views of the Lord's Supper are superstitious at best and idolatrous at the worst.

In the average African mind, witnessing a pastor or elder praying for the Lord's Supper conjures up thoughts of the village witch doctor invoking the spirit world as he apparently shatters whatever it is that is causing misery in the lives of those who have come to him for help. They know what it means to watch with awe as a witch doctor moves a few bones and feathers from dead animals on the floor while he chants some words in an apparent trance. Finally, he puts some concoction together and gives it to them to drink as part of their purification exercise. He may also give the people some roots that they are to put in water the next time they bathe. As they bathe and eat, in obedience to the witch doctor's instructions, something is supposed to happen in the spirit world. They are supposedly going to be liberated from the mysterious curse and spell that is on their lives. Is this what really happens when you enter into the baptismal waters, or eat the bread and drink the cup during the Lord's Supper?

The African church needs to understand the Scriptures to see what it teaches concerning these two ordinances.

This article is adapted from God's Design for the Church: A Guide for African Pastors and Ministry Leaders by Conrad Mbewe.
Did you know that you can partner with Crossway to equip African pastors and church leaders with gospel-centered resources? Get involved.

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