My Thoughts on White-Guy Roundtables...

I am sure that I may get some push back from this, but I simply cannot watch another round-table discussion, about some point of doctrine or ecclesiastical practice, where a bunch of white guys give their perspectives.  From the Elephant Room to the Gospel Coalition, it seems that all of the relevant words come only from the minds and hearts of white middle class men.  Sure, there is Chan and Thabiti, but, to be honest, I am highly reluctant to say that we are getting, from these sources, the full reflection of Christendom as it flourishes today.

A chocolate chip cookie with one chocolate chip is hardly a chocolate chip cookie.  And anyone who holds it up as a sample of such is simply not representing the goodness of mamma's kitchen.

I am not dogging these organizations, nor am I saying that they are maliciously racist in nature.  I love the Gospel Coalition as well as T4G.  But, I am coming to find, however, that a large portion of the church is limiting its libraries and RSS subscriptions to only white authorship.  This is simply dangerous.  To feast at these tables alone will ultimately lead us into a state of malnutrition.  Consequently, we will gradually lose our ability to feed anyone, being in need of food ourselves.

While there are many benefits that these roundtable discussions and conferences offer, I fear that we may be neglecting their handicaps.   More and more writers have (rightly) begun warning against the idolization of "super-star" pastors.  Perhaps, in an effort to curb those tendencies, these organizations should actively invite "ordinary" as well as the "diverse" pastors, that are relatively unknown, so that we may hear their take on pertinent issues.

And pastorally speaking, I'm not sure that super-star pastors alone are really the best source of practical pastoral information.  When your membership is in the thousands, and you are traveling every week to this or that conference, knowing your sheep well becomes something that drifts farther and farther from your pastoral reach.  I know that there are many exceptions to this rule - however, it doesn't take a genius to follow the logic.

Simply put, we, as a church, need to hear from the common man as well as the "conference man".  Even more, we need to hear the common black man and asian man and mexican man.  And may I even add women?  Yes.  We need to hear what women have to say as well.  As we make our way towards a non-white majority in this nation, we can no longer afford to target, download, and purchase communicators who look like we do.  This is not a call to leave out the white-guy roundtables; but a call to expand our tables so that we can invite more, diverse, voices to join us.