Jun 7, 2010
How Diversity Changed My Beliefs: Why Diversity of Belief Matters
I first encountered a diversity of Christian beliefs while attending college in the Mid-West. I met a lot of folks who were Methodist, Church of God, Nazarene, Presbyterian, and even one or two Catholics. I’m sure a few charismatic folks were blended in as well, but I only spotted them during worship services.
Back then I was light years away from understanding what it meant to be the body of Christ and how each member of the body could work together. I saw myself as a foot on the solid ground of my own beliefs and traditions, and anyone who differed was a threat who could knock me off balance.
It took years before I realized that all of the followers of Jesus around me played different roles and generally offered something of value to myself and to wider church.
As I interacted with them, I realized that I may have made some mistakes with my beliefs and that I was rather self-righteous about what I believed. While in college, God began to chip away at my absolute certainty and self-righteousness.
At this point, when certainty wanes, we generally have three choices we can make. The first two involve either giving up or hardening in our own beliefs. However, the third choice is to evaluate what we believe, learn from others, and then arrive at some new conclusions. By the time we test out beliefs with other perspectives, we’ll either have a better understanding of them, or we’ll have an opportunity to modify what doesn’t work.
We may even help someone else do the same.
Diversity affords us an opportunity to help one another grow, to look at ourselves from the perspective of another person, and to ask God to shape us into his body of disciples. Diversity matters because we can’t see our shortfalls and we can’t verify our strengths unless we meet someone who is a little different from ourselves.
We need each other far more than we’d expect.
Ed, Thank you for writing this post. You have described so well the journey that so many people are on. We began our faith journey with an idea that truth was completely knowable. Then as we live in a global world with so many ideas, we begin to wonder whether we really have such a tight lock on truth. The danger at this moment for so many of us is that we give up on truth altogether. But you described the alternative very well.
We just finished a book (Through the River) about how we understand truth today and our conclusion is focused on where you were ending up. There is truth we know and truth we are learning. In my mind there are two keys:
1. Rejecting the desire for certainty, we cling to the clarity of purpose that God provides.
2. Humbly learning in community.
I would love to interact more with you on these topics. Thanks for being a Generous Mind!
This is such an important truth: “Diversity matters because we can’t see our shortfalls and we can’t verify our strengths unless we meet someone who is a little different from ourselves.”
One of the things I love most about my church is how diverse it is in terms of attracting people of different races, politics, socio-economics and religious backgrounds. It’s one of the least polarized groups of people I can imagine being around in this day and age, which is a pretty unusual thing to be able to say about a church!
Of course, the very things I love about my church also tend to make it more complicated, and exhausting. I guess that’s why so few churches are able/willing to embrace that sort of diversity. I get it, but I still think it’s one of the most important things we’re called to do as Christians. Thanks for articulating some of that here.
Jon and Kristin. I hear a lot of good points in your comments about the importance of humility and the hard work that diversity demands. Thanks so much for sharing!