The glory of God. It’s our ultimate ambition and the most important driver of the church. It fuels worship, and it is the goal of missions. It is where all history is headed. At Rock Bridge, it’s woven into our mission statement: “To glorify God by connecting people from all walks of life …” Yet have you ever thought of diversity as something that brings God glory? Diversity refers to a wide variety of people coming together from a variety of backgrounds, ethnicities, socioeconomic groups, and cultures to form the church. Diversity is what we mean by “all walks of life.”
How does diversity in the local church glorify God?
- Diversity shows the unifying and reconciling power of Christ.
- He can bring people together who otherwise would not associate and might find it difficult to even get along. Consider the groups Paul highlights in Colossians 3:11 — In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.
- Diversity shows Christ is not merely another tribal god or god of one culture’s tradition.
- Jesus is truly is the Lord of all (Acts 10:36).
- Diversity magnifies the praiseworthiness of God.
- Jesus’ worth is shown through the diversity of His admirers and worshippers. He can elicit praise from anyone!
- Diversity in worship points to where history is moving.
- Revelation 7:9-10 — Diversity is a preview of eternity.
- Diversity illustrates the truth that all humanity is created In God’s image.
- Diversity showcases God’s desire to save all people, not on the basis of their personal merit, but on the basis of His amazing grace.
- People can easily find merit in their status, their nationality, their possessions, and their race. However, salvation is completely by grace, and diversity shows that God truly loves all people, does not play favorites, and saves because of Who He is.
- I Timothy 2:4
- Diversity accelerates discipleship.
- When we share life with people who are different from us, we are stretched in how we love, learning to appreciate the diversity of God seen through the diversity of His image bearers.
The church exists in part to be a colony of Heaven, working for “God’s will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Therefore, not caring about diversity is not an option, and faithfulness demands we pursue diversity just as we pursue evangelism, missions, justice, and discipleship. Furthermore, if God’s glory is our bottom line (which it is) and one of the promised outcomes of history (which it is), then diversity is integral to who we are as the people of God.