Pastor: Racial diversity in the church is at the heart of the Gospel
by Mary King (WIS TV - July 15, 2015)
COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) — As race relations remain at the forefront of conversation, pastors in South Carolina are weighing in on the church’s role.
In his new book titled The High-Definition Leader: Building Multi-Ethnic Churches in a Multi-Ethnic World, Pastor Derwin Gray of Transformation Church in Lancaster County notes that according to recent statistics only 13.7 percent of churches in America have diverse congregations.
“Eighty-six percent of churches in the United States have over 80 percent of one particular ethnic group, and so when that takes place, you have a mono-ethnic group, and so that will isolate folks,” Gray said.
Gray is the founding and lead pastor of Transformation Church. The church’s vision is “to be a multi-ethnic, multi-generational, mission-shaped community that loves God completely (Upward), ourselves correctly (Inward) and our neighbors compassionately (Outward)."
However, Pastor Gray wasn’t always leading a church of more than 2,500 people.