AUTHOR: Irwyn L. Ince Jr
PUBLISHER: Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2020, (176 pages).
Is beauty really in the eyes of the beholder? That is another way of saying that beauty is deep in the pool of subjectivity. Before jumping to that conclusion, what about from God's point of view? What God had created good, just because it has been marred by sin, can we really claim it is no longer good? In a book that casts positive light on the potential of God's community, we have a book that describes the attributes of God being made manifest among the people of God. Author Irwyn Ince Jr writes with conviction: "The ministry of reconciliation demonstrated in the local church by the gathering of people from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and ethnicities is the natural outworking of a rich covenantal theological commitment." The reason why we persevere in cultivating a beautiful community is simply because our Lord God is beautiful. He begins with God, the beautiful God. We learn of what it means to see and know our beautiful Lord. That means seeing God as He reveals Himself to us, primarily through loving fellowship with Him. This is essentially the "fellowship of knowing." Through His grace, we learn that God is community. God is perfection, proportion, and pleasure. All of these highlight the simplicity of God's love to us. This beauty in knowing God as Trinity helps us appreciate the beauty of God in us. Sadly, we are often divided among ourselves. This leads to a marring of God's beauty and dignity in us. We need to go back to God for healing and to be remade into the image of Christ, the One who came to redeem us.
Part Two of the book deals with this step of being redeemed and how our beautiful community could be restored and cultivated. Ince does not mince his words with regard to the depravity of sin that has impacted the relationships, even among Christians. Calling it the "ghettoization of humanity," he traces the cracks all the way to Genesis 2 and the Tower of Babel. "Bumper sticker theology" will never cut it as long as it remain only on our lips and not from our hearts. What happens back in Genesis is still happening today in our fractured society. Racism is alive. The cruse of sin is still reeking its ugliness in our relationships. Instead of increasing friction in the different ethnicities around us, we ought to learn to see the beauty of God's blessings in our various diverse communities. We are called to come together instead of living apart. More specifically, Ince notes that a beautiful community ought to be led by the open embrace of diverse communities, and not one that is dictated by whiteness. This is a strong statement which Ince feels passionate about. This is also reflected in the foreword by popular preacher Tim Keller who also confessed that he didn't know how blacks feel about the cultural whiteness in our society. Instead of looking through the lens of culture or colour, we need to adopt the lens of love. This means embracing diversity, even to the level of doctrine. The Church must lead the way. They need to do their part to tear down barriers that divide and to build bridges that unite. Two initiatives stand out: 1) Confession and Forgiveness; 2) Proper Exercise of Power. The former deals with the inner changes that need to happen. The latter involves the outer actions that arise out of these convictions. He give us tips on what it means to hire a minority person. The majority need to find ways to include this person in more ways than one. In fact, the proper exercise of power essentially means finding ways necessary to display hospitality and acceptance. The beautiful community must be a constant care and sensitivity to all, especially those in the minority.
My Thoughts
It is not easy to speak from a minority perspective. As a black, the author seems particularly sensitive to his own ethnicity especially when interacting with white members of the community. He has woven into his book a number of confessions about the distancing he felt when among white community. I think such a self-awareness are not usually understood by anyone from the majority population. Ince's perspective feels strangely familiar for those of us serving in white-majority communities. In spite of the best of intentions, we will always be seen differently. Ince highlights some points which we should all consider seriously. Who knows, the tables might be turned sometime in the future, and when we become the majority group, would we also commit the same errors that we are calling out now? That is highly probable, given that sin continues to haunt us and to look for ways to harm the community of Christ. I appreciate how Ince describes the trauma of the minority leader and how we all need to count the cost of minority churches.
Having said that, I cannot help but wonder whether the feeling of being discriminated against is more self-imposed rather than reality? I have met people from majority groups who genuinely cared and are class acts of hospitality. They cannot be lumped together with the few bad eggs in their community. I believe that the desire to build bridges must grow from all sides. We can say that the responsibility lies with the majority or the ones in power, and so on, but the truth is, Jesus himself was never considered part of the majority, yet He came. If we could all learn to dialogue more and to find ways to understand one another's perspectives, it would go a long way to building a beautiful community. Both sides need to learn to give and forgive. The best way is for both sides, in fact, all sides to see God more clearly from His perspective. Ince did well to do that in the first part of the book. Yet, I see Ince highlighting that it is the majority white culture that should shoulder the "greater burden of dying to preferences." Personally, I am only partially convinced, given that the gospel is not about others taking the initiative but all of us, regardless of majority or minority position to lead as the Spirit leads.
Finally, I applaud the author's boldness to look at the promises of beauty on the one hand, and on the other hand, to recognize the reality of our society today. The beautiful community is the vision. Our mission is to do what we can in the power and strength of God to journey there. In the meantime, we need to educate, to advocate, and to initiate building bridges of reconciliation. Cultural values need to be secondary, while Christlikeness must always be primary.
In summary, this book ought to be given a wider audience, both majority and minority, and everyone else in the middle.
Irwyn L. Ince Jr. serves as a pastor at Grace DC Presbyterian Church and director of the Grace DC Institute for Cross-Cultural Mission, a church-based training and research entity dedicated to equipping current and future Christian leaders for cross-cultural ministry. He is a graduate of City College of New York, Reformed Theological Seminary, and holds a DMin from Covenant Theological Seminary.
Rating: 4.5 stars of 5.
conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of InterVarsity Press and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.
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