What Does the Obama Election Mean to the Church?
This is a very historic time! I confess, I did not believe that I would see a person of color elected president of the United States in my lifetime. As the campaign neared the end and it became clearer what the outcome would be, I found myself afraid to think that it would happen for fear that it would somehow slip away and the disappointment would be overwhelming for me. What does President Obama mean for the Seventh-day Adventist Church?
We are a very diverse denomination, as denomination’s go in America. Another historic event in 2008 is that this is the year that the Adventist Church in North America has most likely crossed the line into “majority minority” status. From one perspective, we are a like the America of the future; the one that the U.S. Census Bureau predicts will arrive around 2030. There are a growing number of truly multicultural congregations (perhaps 15 to 20 percent of the total) where no major ethnic category has 51 percent or more of the membership. An amazing percentage of our young adults claim multiethnic status in surveys of Adventist members, which implies that already, in the Baby Boom generation (now middle-aged), the Adventist Church may be a more comfortable place for inter-racial marriages than the general population.
In the Adventist Church in North America, all of us are now minorities. Yet, for a larger share of the clergy and church administrators than for the laity, many of us still live in a mono-cultural bubble. We do not worship in diverse, multiethnic congregations nor in congregations of cultures other than our own. We do not work closely with diverse groups or leaders of other ethnic groups. There is a serious leadership gap developing because the Church is more multiethnic than the skills of most of its leaders.
Cross-cultural experiences and training in multi-cultural leadership must become a major priority for the Adventist Church. Leaders who lack multi-cultural experience and skills should not be elevated to major positions. We need to begin to educate more of the laity about the fact that they belong to a very diverse faith community. We must especially help them to understand and embrace the “minority majority” situation.
The world of future which President Obama symbolizes is the world of today in Adventism. We need to embrace it as a fulfillment of Revelation 7:9 and 14:6-7. We need to live into and make it an evangelistic asset, not a cause for misunderstanding, pain and injustice.
Monte Sahlin
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