Recent statistics from the Pew Research group, culled from the 2010 census, are showing that the growing population is not like me..

Racial and ethnic minorities accounted for 91.7% of the nation’s growth over the decade; non-Hispanic whites accounted for the remaining 8.3%.

Problem is, my Christian church, is mostly speaking to and programming for me (or the white European descent population, however you want to describe it). I will give my UMC credit, that it does try to be diverse in its efforts, but many times it is just tokenism. You do have to start somewhere.

How radical do we need to become to start to speak with and minister with ethnic cultures that are different from us?

Sure our white population still dominates a majority, but that might soon wash with emerging youth generations as they become more and more multicultural in their own make up.

America’s child population grew more far diverse over the past decade as a decline in the ranks of white children was offset by surging growth of Asians and Hispanics.

…

The number of non-Hispanic whites fell in 46 states and 86 of the 100 largest metropolitan areas. In 10 states, white children are now a minority among their peers, including six that tipped between 2000 and 2010. Others will follow soon: In 23 states, minorities make up more than 40% of the child population.

The number of black and Native American children declined as well, but by a far smaller degree than whites, according to an analysis of 2010 Census data to be released Wednesday by the Brookings Institution, a left-leaning think tank in Washington. The Census Bureau released the first results of its once-a-decade head count of U.S. residents, regardless of citizenship, late last year; over subsequent months, Census released state and local data.

from WSJ

As we many churches look at their “vital” congregations and programs for renewal of others then we might want to bring to light that a white euro programming / worship context is not our future. Assuming that a multicultural child/family would be up for assimilating into what we have historically presented as “how it is done” could be completely disingenuous and fatal to the future life of the denominational church.