Diversity: Far More Than You Can Imagine

By Erwin Raphael McManus


One of the questions I am asked the most is concerning Mosaic's diversity. Usually when a person refers to diversity they're dealing with ethnic or racial differences. I understand why this is such an important focus in our culture. The need to deal with the ever growing segmentation and the tensions that ensue have made diversity one of our culture's most significant issues. In this past year, for example, the Academy Award winning movie Crash powerfully unwrapped the complexities involved in a world where very different people are coming together and have to figure out how to live together.

Mosaic represents somewhere around 70 different ethnic groups. Just this past week we baptized someone from Finland, had a first time guest who was a Russian-Jew, and once again faced the challenge of how to integrate them into a community where we also have to deal with transplants from Michigan. Ironically the tremendous success we've had in bringing the world together hasn't happened as a result of what you'd expect. I haven't spent the last 15 years preaching, teaching, or even focusing on racial reconciliation. My experience and observation tells me that those churches that actually raise the banner of reconciliation and diversity rarely accomplish it. Whatever measure of success we have experienced in this arena comes from a very different focus. We have spent an endless amount of time and energy identifying, nurturing, developing, and maximizing the uniqueness of every person.

Rather than trying to create a rainbow coalition of white, black, brown, and whatever other colors our eyes might see, we have instead taken on a far more complex challenge. Racial reconciliation is like trying to fill a box of crayons with blue, red, yellow and green. Granted, they're beautiful and the bases of every other color, but you're still dealing in primary colors. Imagine expanding from the four-pack of crayons to the 64 pack filled with a seemingly endless array of color and opportunity. Reach in and pick a color. Turquoise, Indigo, Silver, Coral, Magenta, Tangerine. To the casual artist some colors seem redundant. Many of us are incapable of identifying the nuanced differences. But to the skilled artisan, those nuances are absolutely critical for their full creative expression.

It's the same when building human community. If all you see are the primary colors, you'll always be limited, even though all the potential in the world is there. When you begin to see people beyond the surface to the real uniqueness that resides within them, you'll wonderfully discover that the diversity you hoped for was just a starting point. What you'll come to discover is far more than you could have imagined.