"The Oreo Crumb in a Cup of Milk" 3 reasons you should read Reconciliation Blues

Rule Number one: No Country music in the Ghetto Blaster. 

 

The Ghetto Blaster, of course, was the name for the boombox in the boys' basketball locker room. Even though the black students were the minority in the school, we were the majority on the team. 

I remember one day one of my white teammates trying to replace our "Get Hyped" music - which was always hip-hop - with a country or bluegrass type of song called The Devil Went Down to Georgia. Needless to say, the song was quickly stopped. Our song, Time To Flow, was re-inserted. And I never thought about it again. 

But maybe I should have.

Here's what happened that day. One culture was validated. Another culture was invalidated. It was clear. There wasn't room for cultural diversity in our minds. We were the dominant culture. Everyone outside of our culture needed to assimilate. 

Listen to what we like only.

Fast forward some decades, and my life has been radically transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. For the past decade, I've studied in depth what the church needs to look like in my community so that no one feels like my teammate when he learned that country music wasn't allowed in the locker room.  

I want my friends to see the gospel and the church as beautiful, but I know my friends will rightly reject anything that tries to make them assimilate culturally.  (You can read a blog I wrote for Rapzilla.com about the church and the hip-hop generation here.)  

A friend in ministry told me I had to read Ed Gilbreath's book Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical's Inside View of White Christianity. Now I'm telling you to read it, too,  for the following three reasons. 

1. It's well written. Instead of a bunch of church statistics, Gilbreath makes his points through the power of story. Readers are allowed to go with him on his journey. It's comical at times, sad at others. And well worth the read.

2. You might be in the minority. My spiritual journey has led me to be the "Oreo crumb in the cup of milk," or the only black guy in the room, on many occasions. It's freeing to know others before have had the struggle of trying to navigate this.

3. You might be in the majority. Whenever I'm the "Oreo Crumb," the cultural issues and differences are easy to spot. In the locker room, when I was part of the majority, the problem becomes much more difficult to spot. This book will also help increase racial awareness for the majority culture as well.
  
If your hope is that the church doesn't wait until heaven to integrate, a good first step is picking up this book, which you can find here. 

 P.S. If my teammate were ever to read this, I just want you to know that I listened to The Devil Went Down to Georgia today. It wasn't that bad. 

Question: Is your church diverse?  If so, what has helped your church achieve diversity? If not, what have been the barriers to diversity?

Note: I purchased this book on my own. I've never met Edward Gilbreath. I did not get paid anything to endorse this book.

Chris Lassiter is a husband and father of five, radically transformed by the gospel of grace and hoping to see a gospel-proclaiming, racially diverse, missional church in his hometown of Staunton, VA, some day. He was writtten for The News Leader, VIBE, Young Life Relationships, HipHopDX.com and many other places. He is the author of You're Grounded, which you can find here.