by Stephen Hay | Jul 18, 2025 | Conflict, Cultural Trends
The Unspoken Truth About Our Congregations
Let’s begin with what we’d rather not admit: most of our churches still gather with people who look just like us. According to Pew Research Center’s latest Religious Landscape Study (2023–24), 73% of Mainline Protestants, 72% of Historically Black Protestants, and 66% of Evangelical Protestants worship in monocultural churches, where most attendees share the same race or ethnicity.
And lest we comfort ourselves with a quick “but we’re working on it,” the numbers haven’t changed much in the past decade. The gravitational pull of sameness is strong. And it’s not just about who fills the pews. Our pulpits, leadership teams, small groups, and song choices often mirror the same monocultural patterns.
Monocultural by Default, Not Design?
Most ministry leaders I know would never intentionally build monocultural churches. We preach about the Body of Christ, every tribe and tongue. We reference Pentecost. We nod at Revelation 7. We say we want diversity. However, the uncomfortable truth is that vision alone doesn’t produce integration. And inertia always favors the dominant culture.
Mainline congregations, with largely White memberships, show the highest percentage of racial homogeneity (73%). Evangelicals are slightly more integrated (66%), but they are still far from being representative of their communities. And historically Black churches, often born out of exclusion and injustice, continue to function as essential cultural sanctuaries, with 72% of Black Protestant churchgoers worshiping in majority-Black settings.
This is not inherently sinful, but it should be sobering. Because if Revelation’s vision of a multi-ethnic church is the culmination, then the Church today should at least be headed in that direction.
Comfort Is a Poor Discipler
Racial homogeneity often masquerades as unity, but what it more often reflects is comfort. Familiar worship styles, shared social assumptions, even unspoken humor, all of it reinforces the idea that church should “feel like home.” And when different expressions or perspectives disrupt that feeling, we often resist not out of conviction, but discomfort.
But comfort is a poor discipler.
Jesus constantly disrupted the comfort of His followers: eating with Samaritans, praising Gentile faith, and overturning temple tables. The early church in Acts didn’t diversify because of a mission statement; they did it because the Holy Spirit pushed them out of their comfort zones (Acts 10, Acts 15). Peter’s rooftop vision wasn’t a strategy session. It was divine intervention.
So if we’re not actively unsettling monocultural patterns, we’re likely reinforcing them, by default if not by design.
From Representation to Reformation
The goal isn’t just diversity for its own sake. It’s discipleship.
Multi-ethnic worship isn’t a branding move; it’s a sanctifying one. It forces us to confront hidden prejudices, challenge cultural assumptions, and practice the one-anothering Scripture commands. As Paul told the Ephesians, “He himself is our peace… and has made the two groups one… destroying the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph. 2:14). That was not poetic language—it was a blueprint for the Church.
So we ask ourselves:
- Who’s in the room?
- Who’s at the table?
- Who’s shaping the liturgy, the budget, the leadership pipeline?
- And who’s noticeably absent—and why?
If we only diversify our congregations cosmetically, but keep power and influence monocultural, we’re not embodying the New Testament church. We’re just window-dressing the old wineskins.
Take the Long Road
To ministry leaders wondering how to begin: this isn’t a sprint. It’s a lifetime of listening, repenting, re-structuring, and reimagining.
Start by asking hard questions in your staff meetings. Audit your platform: who preaches, who leads worship, who gets heard? Cultivate partnerships with churches from different ethnic backgrounds—not to “borrow diversity,” but to build trust. Let the young adults in your congregation lead in this area. Gen Z is the most racially diverse and integration-minded generation we’ve seen. Give them space to shape what comes next.
Above all, pray. Not the kind of prayer that looks for loopholes, but the kind that surrenders control. Ask the Lord of the Church to tear down dividing walls—not with slogans, but with Spirit-empowered resolve.
A Final Word for the Tired Shepherd
Pastor, I know this can feel overwhelming. You already carry the weight of expectations, finances, burnout, and more. But this isn’t just another initiative to juggle. It’s about obedience. It’s about formation. It’s about preparing the bride of Christ to reflect the fullness of His Kingdom.
Don’t despise the day of small beginnings. Invite one new voice to the table. Learn one new worship song in a different style. Hold one shared prayer night with a neighboring congregation. These are mustard seeds. God grows them.
Let’s lead churches that look less like echo chambers and more like Pentecost.
Not because it’s trendy.
Because it’s true.
Practical Tool: A Sunday Snapshot Audit
To help you get started, download or create a one-page “Sunday Snapshot Audit.” Include categories like:
- Pulpit voices (Who’s preaching?)
- Worship leadership (Who’s visible?)
- Greeter team (Who’s the first face newcomers see?)
- Language/translation needs
- Visual diversity (photos, signage, décor)
- Leadership pipeline (Who’s being discipled to lead?)
Then ask your team to reflect on this: If someone from a different ethnic background walked in this Sunday, would they feel like a guest… or family?
May we be found faithful to love as Christ loved—across every line the world tries to draw.
And may our churches be sanctuaries where Heaven is practiced early.
by Stephen Hay | Jun 20, 2025 | Church Health, Conflict, Cultural Trends, Leadership
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” —Ephesians 2:10
When Churches Forget Who They Are
A crisis is quietly unfolding in many local churches, not a crisis of attendance or funding, but of identity.
In our age of instant access, it’s easier than ever to mimic what’s trending. With a few clicks, a church can adopt another ministry’s vision statement, worship style, or leadership model. We borrow sermons, swap slogans, and mimic strategies. But in the process, something vital is often lost: the unique voice God has given your church for your place and your people.
Like Jacob wearing Esau’s clothes, we may gain attention, but we risk losing authenticity. When we wear someone else’s armor, we become less agile, less faithful, and ultimately less fruitful.
What if our calling isn’t to replicate what’s working elsewhere, but to rediscover the DNA God already planted in us?
God Doesn’t Mass-Produce Churches
The Scriptures remind us that God is not in the business of mass production. He’s a craftsman, intentional, precise, and personal. The local church is not a franchise. It is a body (1 Cor. 12:12), a household (Eph. 2:19), a temple (1 Pet. 2:5), and a bride (Rev. 19:7). None of these metaphors speak of uniformity; all speak of uniqueness shaped by grace.
Ephesians 2:10 tells us that we, both individually and communally, are God’s workmanship. That word, poiēma, suggests poetry, artistry, and craftsmanship. Churches are not factories; they are poems of grace meant to be read by a watching world.
And like any good poem, your church has a voice, a tone, cadence, and rhythm that reflects the unique combination of who your leaders are, where you’ve been planted, and who God has brought into your community.
Three Questions for the Church Ready to Listen
If your church is willing to lean in, to listen deeply rather than copy quickly, consider these three questions as the beginning of a sacred discernment process:
1. Who Has God Placed in Leadership?
The personality, passions, and theology of your lead pastor often set the tone of the church’s voice. That’s not accidental, it’s providential. God’s calling and gifting on a leader is often the seedbed for the direction of a congregation. What burdens has your pastor carried for years? What spiritual gifts naturally shape the rhythms of decision-making? What wounds and experiences have softened their heart toward specific types of ministry?
2. What Story Is Your Community Telling?
Every neighborhood, town, or city is narrating a story, sometimes one of despair, sometimes one of pride, often a mix of both. The question is: Have you learned to exegete your place as carefully as you exegete Scripture? The gospel is always contextual. Jesus came to a real town, with real people, in a real political moment. Your church was not placed in your zip code by accident. What problems break your heart? What doors seem to open again and again?
3. Who Are Your People and Why Might They Be Here?
The spiritual gifts, stories, and callings in your pews are not random. The stay-at-home mom with a background in addiction recovery, the retired teacher who weeps in prayer, the teenager who’s never met his dad, these are not just congregants. They are co-laborers, image bearers, and living stones (1 Pet. 2:5). What if part of your church’s calling is hidden in plain sight, in the people God has already gathered?
A Gospel-Rooted Identity, Not a Trend-Driven Brand
What the Church needs today is not better branding, but better beholding. The kind of beholding that says, “Lord, who have you made us to be?” and “What does faithfulness look like right here, right now?”
Jesus didn’t tell every person He healed to do the same thing. He didn’t plant every church to reach the same crowd. And He won’t hold your congregation accountable for another church’s success but for your own faithfulness (Luke 19:17).
Don’t spend your days chasing someone else’s fruit. Dig down to your church’s root.
What If Clarity Is a Form of Courage?
Clarity about your identity and your church’s DNA requires courage. It’s easier to copy than to discern. Easier to follow a trend than to follow the Spirit. But clarity invites confidence. And confidence, when rooted in the gospel, breeds a kind of freedom that can’t be franchised.
You don’t need to be the next big thing.
You need to be the next faithful thing.
And maybe that starts with asking, in prayerful humility:
“Lord, who have You made us to be, for such a time as this?”
by Stephen Hay | May 23, 2025 | Church Health, Cultural Trends, Leadership
Because the gospel doesn’t segregate what Christ came to reconcile.
Ministry Leader, Let’s Talk About the People You Don’t See
You know your congregation. You could list the regulars by name. You know who makes the coffee, who sits in the back row, and which teen has started bringing their Bible or which one is always on their phone. But here’s the more searching question: do you know the family two doors down who’s never once come through your doors?
And more importantly, does your church look like them?
Scripture is clear: the gospel of Jesus is for every tribe, tongue, and nation. However, many of our churches today operate more like spiritual echo chambers than missionary outposts. Our pews remain safe, familiar, and homogenous—even when our neighborhoods don’t.
We’re not called to curate community; we’re called to embody the kingdom. And the kingdom has always been a kaleidoscope.
The Bible Doesn’t Whisper About Diversity
When Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he didn’t suggest that Jews and Gentiles might consider having a potluck together. He proclaimed something far more radical:
“He himself is our peace… who has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” (Eph. 2:14)
The gospel didn’t merely save individuals; it built a new people. A reconciled family. A body where every part, no matter how different, belongs to the same Head. And that means a local church that refuses to cross cultural, ethnic, or socio-economic lines is not just missing a strategic opportunity—it’s missing a theological one.
What the Data Confirms About Kingdom Diversity
This isn’t just a biblical principle—it’s backed by measurable realities. In fact:
- Racially diverse churches grow faster and sustain higher attendance over time. A 20-year Baylor study of over 20,000 Methodist congregations confirmed it.
- Multiracial congregations report stronger spiritual vitality, clearer mission, and deeper community engagement, according to the 2020 Faith Communities Today (FACT) survey.
- Yet still, 66% of American churchgoers attend a church where nearly everyone looks like them (Pew 2025).
We’re preaching reconciliation while remaining segregated by default.
What message does that send to the neighbor whose accent, skin tone, or story doesn’t match the majority in our pews? What does it say to the child being raised in a multicultural household who never sees that reality mirrored in her Sunday school room?
Diversity Isn’t a Trend—It’s a Test of Discipleship
Let’s be clear: reflecting our community isn’t a cosmetic fix. This isn’t about inclusion for appearance’s sake. This is about obedience.
When Jesus prayed in John 17, He didn’t just pray for unity among those who already had it. He prayed for a future church—a gathered people whose love for one another would authenticate His message to the watching world.
That kind of love costs something. It requires:
- Listening to the voices you haven’t heard.
- Platforming leaders who represent the diversity of your city.
- Repenting of comfort when it has become a barrier to connection.
The path to a multi-ethnic, multi-class, multi-generational church is paved with self-denial and Spirit-dependence. But it’s also paved with joy.
The Church That Mirrors Its Neighborhood Ministers to It
When your church starts to reflect your ZIP code, something beautiful happens:
- You understand the unspoken fears of your neighbors.
- You pray more specifically for their burdens.
- You learn to serve not from a distance, but from across the table.
You gain credibility, empathy, and spiritual insight—not because you’ve built a program, but because you’ve become a people.
Barna’s 2023 study found urban churches that mirrored their neighborhoods were nearly twice as likely to report deep understanding of local needs. That’s not surprising. Representation builds resonance. And resonance leads to real ministry.
Start With What You See—and Who You Don’t
Ministry leader, take a walk through your neighborhood this week. Really see it. Take a slow lap around the nearest school building. Watch who gathers in the local park. Then ask yourself honestly:
“If my church disappeared tomorrow, who would notice?”
If your answer is “only the people inside the walls,” then you don’t need a new program—you need a new posture. One of humility. Of invitation. Of alignment with the One who broke every barrier, starting with the one that separated you from God.
We Reflect Christ Best When We Don’t All Look the Same
The book of Revelation ends with a picture of perfect worship. But it doesn’t center on sameness. It centers on diverse unity—every tribe, tongue, and nation worshiping the Lamb. That’s not just a heavenly vision. That’s our present mandate.
Let’s lead churches that give our cities a preview of that glory.
Let’s build communities so blended that they can only be explained by grace.
Let’s make it normal to say, “This church looks like my community.”
And may our neighborhoods say in wonder, “We didn’t know church could look like this.”
by Stephen Hay | Mar 24, 2025 | Spiritual Formation, Cultural Trends
Leading in a Time of Change
As a pastor, I often find myself reflecting on how to better connect with and guide my congregation. The cultural tides are shifting rapidly, and as leaders of faith communities, we must stay attuned to these changes if we hope to shepherd well into the future.
This past week, I spent time engaging with two significant research efforts from the Barna Group: their State of the Church 2025 initiative and the newly released Gen Z Volume 3. What I discovered was both enlightening and challenging—offering timely insights into the evolving landscape of church life and the spiritual hunger of the next generation.
A Glimpse into the Future Church
Barna’s State of the Church 2025 offers a compelling forecast of where the church is headed. At first, I met the data with some skepticism—wondering how charts, graphs, and statistics could fully capture the spiritual heartbeat of a congregation.
Yet as I read deeper, I was surprised by how closely the report echoed what I’ve observed in my own ministry. It spoke of:
- A continued shift toward digital engagement
- A growing hunger for authentic community
- An urgent need for spiritual transparency and depth
These aren’t just distant trends—they’re realities we are already experiencing. The data validated the undercurrents I’ve sensed among those in the pews.
The Call for Spiritual Authenticity
What struck me most was the emphasis on spiritual authenticity. Time and again, I see people—young and old alike—longing for a faith that’s real, raw, and deeply personal. Barna’s research confirmed that this desire is not isolated; it’s widespread.
This insight challenged me to ask: How are we creating spaces for authenticity in our churches? Are we giving people permission to wrestle, ask questions, express criticisms and doubt without fear?
For our ministry, this means moving beyond surface-level engagement and building a culture that nurtures honest faith journeys.
Understanding Gen Z: A Generation of Opportunity
Next, I turned to Gen Z Volume 3. My initial feeling was a mix of curiosity and caution. Gen Z is often described as complex, digital-first, and emotionally attuned. Could we really meet them where they are?
Barna’s report made it clear: this generation is seeking emotional health, meaningful connection, and spiritual authenticity. They are not disengaged—they’re searching. But they want to engage on relational, truthful terms through formats that reflect their world.
Rethinking Ministry for a New Generation
This realization led to some practical thoughts. What if we started piloting scripture-saturated small group sessions focused on storytelling, vulnerability, and the real-life application of faith. These aren’t programs designed to entertain; they’re meant to build trust and make space for real conversations.
Young people want to talk—they just need to know we’re listening.
Insights as Tools, Not Templates
Both Barna reports offered more than statistics—they offered a roadmap for ministry. They reminded me that effective leadership today requires more than tradition; it requires curiosity, adaptability, and a willingness to learn.
As pastors and ministry leaders, we must approach cultural shifts not as threats but as Good News opportunities. Invitations to rethink, relearn, and reimagine how we disciple others in a rapidly evolving world.
Moving Forward with Courage and Grace
In the busyness of weekly sermons and pastoral responsibilities, it’s easy to overlook broader trends. But if we hope to shape churches that endure and flourish, we must take time to reflect, learn, and adapt.
So, what’s the takeaway?
Let’s not fear change—let’s engage with it. Let’s use insights like those from the Barna Group as tools to better understand the people we serve. And above all, let’s lead with love.
In writing this, I’ve found renewed inspiration. I’m reminded that we are not just caretakers of tradition—we are co-creators of the church’s future. May we step into that calling with open hands, willing hearts, and the courage to lead well.
