Editor’s note — Feb. 27, is Racial Reconciliation Sunday in the Southern Baptist Convention.
Protestant pastors largely agree that every church should strive to achieve racial diversity, though few are achieving it.
That’s the findings of a new study conducted by Lifeway Research. Lifeway surveyed 1,000 Protestant pastors to learn their views on race and racial reconciliation in the church. The findings reveal some gaps among churches, including the difference between what pastors say they want for their churches as far as racial diversity and what their churches actually look like. There are also differences between what African American pastors are doing to lead their churches toward racial reconciliation and what steps white pastors are taking toward this end.
“For years, pastors have expressed a desire to have more ethnically diverse churches,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “So every few years we want to check in on the progress they’re making toward achieving that goal.”
The reality
Most Protestant pastors in the United States say their churches are predominantly one racial or ethnic group (76%). There has been some progress over the past five years, however, as more pastors say there is at least some racial or ethnic diversity in their churches today (22%) than said so in a 2017 Lifeway Research study (17%).
Despite the reality that most churches are made up of predominantly one racial or ethnic group, most pastors think racial diversity should be a goal for their churches.
Today, 88% of Protestant pastors say every church should strive to achieve racial diversity. That’s a noticeable decrease from the 93% who said the same in 2017. This drop is seen most clearly when looking at the number of Protestant pastors who strongly agree that every church should strive to achieve racial diversity. Whereas 80% of pastors strongly agreed with this statement in 2017, only 68% strongly agree today. At the same time, there was an increase in pastors who somewhat agree from 2017 (13%) to 2021 (20%).
Younger pastors (those age 18-44) are more likely to say they want racially diverse churches (91%) than older pastors (86%). Mainline pastors are also more likely to agree churches should strive for racial diversity (93%) than evangelical pastors (86%). And pastors in the South are more likely to agree (90%) than those in the West (83%).
Threats to Church
Pastors recognize racism as a threat to the Church, much like it was a threat to first-century churches when the apostle Paul frequently addressed divisions between Gentile and Jewish Christians. And despite the rise in conversations surrounding Critical Race Theory, a highly controversial movement of civil rights scholars and activists that examines the intersection of race and law in the U.S., more pastors (48%) say racism is the bigger threat to the church in the U.S. today than CRT (29%). Another 16% of pastors say neither is a threat to the church, while 6% aren’t sure.
More than any other group, African American pastors (97%) see the need for racial diversity within the church, and they want to see the church striving to achieve such diversity. Meanwhile, 87% of white pastors and 83% of pastors of other ethnicities say the same.
“Nobody expects the color of churches to change overnight, but the appearance of more integrated churches is just barely noticeable over the last decade,” McConnell said. “The hard work of investing in relationships across ethnic lines and setting aside attendees’ cultural preferences to welcome others is still the exception.”
Read the full story from Lifeway Research here.
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