Ethnic diversity in church

It’s pretty well known that most churches in Britain are largely filled with white faces. Clearly there are hundreds of thousands of believers from other ethnic backgrounds, but on the whole they tend to worship in separate churches. In an era when we are more and more aware of racial injustice and lingering prejudice, can we just accept this as it is? Should church leaders be striving to make their congregations more multi-cultural and ethnically diverse? And how can we lead well and sensitively over a racially mixed church family? This week, Emma Fowle from Premier Christianity magazine assembles a panel of diverse church leaders to dig into the challenge of how to build thriving racially diverse churches. Guests this week: - Steve Derbyshire, senior pastor of City Gates Church in Ilford - Olivia Amartey, executive director for Elim Pentecostal churches in the UK and Ireland, and associate minister of a church plant in Birmingham - Ben Lindsey, founder of anti youth violence charity Power The Fight and author - Mohan Seevaratnam, part-time GP and leader of Mosaic, an Anglican church plant in North London Look out for a feature article drawing out some of the highlights of this conversation and our guests’ insights in next month’s Premier Christianity magazine, available in print and online.