Derrick Smith, a self-described “white guy from Spartanburg,” readily admits he has a lot to learn from the dozen or so international cultures represented at his church.
Smith is pastor of Kaleidoscope, a new church plant that seeks to serve Spartanburg County’s diverse multiethnic population.
“I’ve traveled some in my young life and seen some of the world, and I feel I’ve gotten out of the white Spartanburg bubble a little,” said Smith, “but I also know I have cultural blinders on.”
For that reason, he hopes his church will be “a place where we can learn from each other.”
Serving a multiethnic congregation isn’t about racial reconciliation, Smith said, but about reconciling people to God through Jesus Christ. “If we get people reconciled to God, racial reconciliation follows,” he said.
Smith will be one of five panelists at “Multi-Ethnic Evolution: Modeling a Church Without Prejudice,” a one-day conference and luncheon Nov. 17 at Cornerstone Community Church in Orangeburg.
The event, sponsored by Cornerstone Church, the South Carolina Baptist Convention and the Orangeburg-Calhoun Baptist Association, is billed as “a conference for church leaders who are comfortable being uncomfortable for the glory of God.”
“There is a certain required posture of humility when crossing cultural boundaries,” said Smith. “It’s not easy to put yourself in situations where you might make a mistake. “It’s a posture of learning in the context of Christian love. We know what matters eternal. This is about being willing to hear what our blind spots are – and sharing with them theirs – to edify one another in Christ.”
A church, whether homogeneous or multicultural, “is not about a what, but a who,” Smith said. “It’s of one Lord, one faith, one baptism. From our unity, God blesses our cultural diversity.”
Marshall Fagg, associate executive director of the SCBC evangelization and missions team, said that while Southern Baptists take pride in reaching people from every nation, many churches “fail to reflect this passion.”
“Most of us learned to sing ‘red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight,’ but we soon discovered these words are easier to sing than to practice,” Fagg said. “Because of culture and past traditions, all of us have developed prejudices that hinder our ability to relate to those who are different from us.”
Fagg said that as more people from across the globe settle in South Carolina, there is an increasing number of people from many ethnic groups who need to hear the gospel.
Statistics posted at the SCBC’s Web site reveal that only 65 percent of South Carolina’s population is white. In Spartanburg County alone, more than 70 countries are represented in the population. In 2010, Spartanburg County Baptist Network’s director of missions Jim Goodroe will lead the city in hosting a national ethnic ministry summit.
In addition to Smith, panelists for the Orangeburg conference will include Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans; Artie Davis, pastor of Cornerstone Community Church; and church planters Ricky Eason and Andrew Winburn.
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