Diversity 11 - Other First Steps

- Read widely – increase your awareness and your self-awareness (book recommendations below). Be informed! The coming conference on ‘Understanding World Views and Cultural Strongholds’ here at King’s Church on Sat 14th March would be well worth attending. Dave Devenish will be speaking – his wealth of experience and his well-thought out, biblically-based principles in this area will give us all the provocation and the encouragement to examine foundations and practice in our churches.

I would recommend the following books to help you:
Letters Across the Divide: David Anderson and Brent Zuercher – Baker Books, 2001
Gracism: David Anderson – IVP, 2007

- Avoid stereotypes. Black people who are late/disorganized… I know a lot of white people who are late, too. I watch them come into church every Sunday! Timekeeping is often a more important value to a white person than that of community. If a black person is late it may be because they have met someone and stopped to talk – there is a high value on community versus time keeping. Keep a sense of humour about this, but take care with jokes.

- Do not get ahead of the curve. By this I mean that you may want to establish the whole diversity thing in a short time. It can blow up if you open it up too quickly. Know where you are – take it steadily. Wisdom is required! Weigh all you are learning and then apply it in your context.

Conference details and booking forms are available at www.kingscentre.org.uk/downloads/Conference_Leaflet.pdf