Yesterday, I experienced something that I have not experienced for a long time. As I went into a restaurant to eat, there was a family in front of me waiting to be seated. It was a family of five. As they were being seated, I overheard the youngest girl (about 7 years old) say, “Mommy, there is a Chinaman here.” In my surprise and chagrin, I was about to say something to the kid and the parents, but I decided to exercise self-control.
When I was finally seated, I looked around the restaurant and I noticed that I was the only minority in the place. I couldn’t help but to think how many people go through life without ever interacting with someone from another ethnicity. This goes on from generation to generation.
There is something about comfort and security that causes people not to go beyond what they are used to. This is the same situation within the four walls of the church. As I have mentioned many times before, the people of the “lighter hue” in our church are learning how to empathize with minorities since they are minorities in our church. I firmly believe that they will be bridges to the people of the majority to the minority.
On the same note, the people who are “the majority” in our church have a responsibility to reach out to people of “the minority” who come to our gatherings. We, who are the majority in the church, know what it feels like to be the minority in the world… therefore, we need to make sure that we become the bridge-builders first.