First of all, I actually have really enjoyed reading this book so far. I am not saying I didn't enjoy the other honors books, I'm just saying this one has a more interesting start in my opinion. Moriah said this as well, but Trevor Noah has a fantastic way of drawing people in with his story and making it relatable to readers despite any of us experiencing something even remotely similar to what he has.
Now that that's out of the way, one thing that really stuck out to me was something Trevor talked about at the very beginning of the book. He began telling his experience of church as a child and he talked about the differences of each church. How one was a mixed congregation with flashy lights and a contemporary style worship that in all honestly, probably looks like a lot of the churches today. He talked about how another was an all-white church, that seemed almost traditional in its style, but gave the opportunity to go deeper into scripture. The last church he talked about was the black church, which obviously was all black, and how enthusiastic (and long, which I thought was hilarious) it was.
This stuck out to me really because I actually just had a conversation in one of my zoom classes this past week about churches being or persuing multiethnic congregations and leadership staff. The conversation was about the importance of this and if it is something that we should pursue. The verse in Revelation about every tribe, tongue, and nation bowing before the Father in Heaven was brought up as a "this is what the future will look like" point. The point that the church should focus more on being indigenous (relating to focusing more on the people of its location despite their ethnicity) as opposed to searching for more ethnic groups just to make it look better was also made. I think it is interesting that the church is sometimes categorized. I realize the importance of denominations, and I also realize that denominations do not always mean the separation of the body of Christ. What I am referring to is the categorization of the church by ethnic group or race being the, in some cases, dominant way of describing it. This may not have happened to anyone other than me in my home town, but the church was often categorized by 'white' or 'black' where I am from. And now it seems as though all the big mega-church pastors are pushing for the idea of "the more ethnic people we have the closer we are to Jesus". I suppose I am just a little confused. I'm not saying being "more cultured or ethnic" in a church is bad, I actually definitely support it. It's just interesting to me that all of this has only sprung up within the past few (5-10ish) years. What do you guys think?
To clarify my opinion, I believe that ethnicity in the church is an incredible thing because I believe Jesus loves and died for ALL people. But like pastor (and rapper) Trip Lee says, "The church should not be so multi-ethnically centered, that it loses its desire to be Christ-centered."
I commented on Moriah's and Addison's posts.
Now that that's out of the way, one thing that really stuck out to me was something Trevor talked about at the very beginning of the book. He began telling his experience of church as a child and he talked about the differences of each church. How one was a mixed congregation with flashy lights and a contemporary style worship that in all honestly, probably looks like a lot of the churches today. He talked about how another was an all-white church, that seemed almost traditional in its style, but gave the opportunity to go deeper into scripture. The last church he talked about was the black church, which obviously was all black, and how enthusiastic (and long, which I thought was hilarious) it was.
This stuck out to me really because I actually just had a conversation in one of my zoom classes this past week about churches being or persuing multiethnic congregations and leadership staff. The conversation was about the importance of this and if it is something that we should pursue. The verse in Revelation about every tribe, tongue, and nation bowing before the Father in Heaven was brought up as a "this is what the future will look like" point. The point that the church should focus more on being indigenous (relating to focusing more on the people of its location despite their ethnicity) as opposed to searching for more ethnic groups just to make it look better was also made. I think it is interesting that the church is sometimes categorized. I realize the importance of denominations, and I also realize that denominations do not always mean the separation of the body of Christ. What I am referring to is the categorization of the church by ethnic group or race being the, in some cases, dominant way of describing it. This may not have happened to anyone other than me in my home town, but the church was often categorized by 'white' or 'black' where I am from. And now it seems as though all the big mega-church pastors are pushing for the idea of "the more ethnic people we have the closer we are to Jesus". I suppose I am just a little confused. I'm not saying being "more cultured or ethnic" in a church is bad, I actually definitely support it. It's just interesting to me that all of this has only sprung up within the past few (5-10ish) years. What do you guys think?
To clarify my opinion, I believe that ethnicity in the church is an incredible thing because I believe Jesus loves and died for ALL people. But like pastor (and rapper) Trip Lee says, "The church should not be so multi-ethnically centered, that it loses its desire to be Christ-centered."
I commented on Moriah's and Addison's posts.
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