Should I attend a majority white church?

I love the church.

Not everyone feels that way, but I do. 

We're in the social media age. Everything gets puts under the microscope, and the church gets her fair share of bad press.

I'm not here to add to that.

In the book of Acts, we learn that Jesus loved the church enough to shed His blood for her. As we grow in Christlikeness - learning to love what He loved - it stands to reason that our love for the church should increase as our love for Christ increases.

in front of the church I grew up in ... Photo credits my daughter Hannah

If anything, I want to help people find healthy church situations. I wrote a whole chapter in my first book You're Grounded on marks of a healthy church, but today I want to write to people of color considering attending a majority white church (which is my current setting).

There is no canned answer, and this important decision should be bathed in prayer. Additionally, here are some questions worth thinking through.

• Is the church healthy? Is the church centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ and using the New Testament as a template for body life in the church?
• Has the church shown a commitment to the pursuit of gospel-centered racial reconciliation prior to you being there? 
• Do you have to assimilate culturally to fit in there, or is there a space for your cultural contributions in the life of this particular church? 
• Will the church be a safe place for you and your family (if you have one) socially? 
• Does the gospel preaching have applications for your context? 
• Will this church be an ally to you doing evangelism in your cultural context? 
• Will this church clearly call out all ethnocentrism as sin? 

 I hope those questions help. 

Chris Lassiter is a Christ-follower, a husband to Emily (read her blog here), a father to five kids and a freelance writer for Young Life Relationships, HipHopDX.com, JamTheHype.com and other publications. His first book, You're Grounded, was published by Moody Publications in 2013. You can order the book here.  His first kids' book, Grits & the Grimels, is out now.