racial divisions in Pentecostt

Richard Masoner (richardm@cd.com)
Fri, 27 Feb 1998 11:36:36 -0600



> That is because of demographics, not design, as far as I've seen.

Until recently, Apostolic Life in Champaign met in the Devonshire
Realty Community Room.  This building is in a mostly white development
with $350,000 homes.  Yet, because we as a church have made a
commitment to ethnic diversity, we have African-American, Japanese,
Philipino, Thai, and Hispanic members in our congregation and ministry
staff.  

(Parenthetically, we have no sodomites on staff, though a man who lived
the homosexual lifestyle a few years ago repented of his sins, was
baptized in the name of the Lord, and received the Holy Ghost.  He has
since passed on because of AIDS and is now at home with the Lord.)

There is some truth in the statement that the demographics of the
church location will have some impact on church membership --
typically, white people might be uncomfortable going into black
neighborhoods, and black people may not feel comfortable going into
white enclaves.  But this reticence can be overcome as Bro Skip has
illustrated in his example of the PAW church in Kentucky.

We have since moved from the "exclusive" part of town to a more
inclusive downtown location :-).  A homeless guy even lives under the
A/C compressor in our parking lot.

Richard "love one another" Masoner
Champaign Illinois USA