Book Review: Color
Our family was sitting around a table weighed down with delicious Yassa Poulet as we enjoyed a lunch with our new boss, Pastor Dany Gomis. As we were introduced to some of the amazing cuisine of Senegal, Pastor Dany shared with us about his vision for ministry as we worked together in the mission of God’s Kingdom in West Africa.
As our yassa was finished up and we continued our conversation over cups of tea, Pastor Dany shared with us several pieces of wisdom that have stayed with me over the years. One of the most impactful statements he made was pointing out that when Westerners say “theology” we often mean "theology as shaped by Luther, Calvin, and Barth”. But when we speak of theology by any other demographic other than Western white men - it requires a qualifying adjective:
African theology
Asian theology
Liberation theology
Feminist theology
Majority-world theology
What is the implication of this use of terminology? That the version of theology developed by 20th Century Europeans is the pure form of the theology of Jesus Christ, and everything else is a cultural translation of the unblemished truth of that unbiased Western theology.
More accurately understood, Pastor Dany pointed out, all theology is culturally influenced because our environments impact our understanding of who God is and how God is at work in the world.
And we each have something to learn from Christians in all corners of the globe as we seek to better understand and follow our God who is beyond full comprehension. No one person or theological strain has a corner on the market of understanding God. The diversity of God’s children, when embraced, allows us to better grasp the diverse, holy love of Jesus Christ.
In short, our God is best understood within community with the diversity of God’s daughters and sons.
That’s why I am so excited that Dr. Daniel A.K.L Gomis (Pastor Dany) partnered with Dr. Carla D. Sunberg to share about the holy power and beauty of diversity as followers of Christ in their new co-authored book, Color: God’s Intention For Diversity.
Using the analogy of a bride in a stunning wedding robe, Gomis & Sunberg highlight various identifiers of the Church using different colors as the unifying metaphor for the book.
In the beginning of Color, Gomis & Sunberg paint this beautiful picture:
“The vision of the bride was but a foreshadowing of the messianic era when the church would be birthed. The church - the bride of Christ - is to be ushered into the presence of the Bridegroom. Prepared for that day, the church will be adorned in beautiful many-colored robes, woven together with threads of gold, with design far outshine any human embroidery. The tapestry of these robes will come from the diversity of her people who are not mixed together to become uniform, but who are woven together by golden threads of faith and doctrine, creating a pattern so stunning that the world is left in awe.”
And that is the central point of their book: that the diversity of the Church reflects our Triune God in a way that does not erase uniqueness with uniformity, but rather weaves together all Christians as we each share our distinctive reflections of the God we were made in the image of.
In writing this book, Gomis and Sunberg invite the reader to join them in this conversation. One can almost imagine sitting down around a table over cups of tea as you listen to - and engage with - this discussion on the beautiful and complex diversity of the Church.
I highly recommend you pick up a copy of the book as we step into a new chapter in human history, with the cataclysmic (and catalytic) COVID-19 pandemic thrusting us forward into a new reality as humans and as Christians. Our future will look very different, and we will need the strength of the fullness of the Church and the power of the Holy Spirit as we continue to participate in the advancing Kingdom of God.
Here are a few of my highlights from Color: God’s Intention for Diversity:
Be a guest. It is important for Christians to experience being both the host and the guest when it comes to Christian hospitality. All too often, we can fall into a dichotomy where “some are always the hosts, and others are always the guests.” This can easily be seen in the contrast between the “developed” and “developing” world. Some are seen to always be in need and some are seen to always have the solutions. This is a false and destructive myth. We are all guests at the table of Jesus and we each bring something to the table. Without being a guest, one never experiences the fullness of Christian hospitality.
Jesus doesn’t look just like me - or you. The Jesus that we know and love can be based upon our own social constructions. So we need to be open to having those boundaries expanded in order to more fully grasp the identity and love of Jesus. Like a Polaroid photo collage, we each can have accurate views of God, but they are incomplete without the other “photos” and views of our sisters and brothers in Christ.
Christian hospitality is more than a strategy for conversion. “For far too long we have had programs and emphases that taught us to catch and release. Real change means that we must take one another home, practice genuine hospitality, and incorporate our brothers and sisters into our lives, proudly sharing them with our friends and neighbors.”
The Kingdom of God is not mono-cultural. “Within the kingdom of God there should be no dominant culture….The witness of the church is damaged when emphasis is placed upon adaptation to culture, and not on life in the kingdom of God.”
“Holiness brings us into a life of power.” Simply put, becoming more like Christ also means stepping more fully into the power of the Holy Spirit.
Color is an important conversation about the difficult, yet beautiful reality that we are a diverse Church made up of diverse humans who reflect the wholeness of our Triune God. Like a multi-colored robe, we find our beauty in community. As we journey together as Christians, we experience more fully the love of Jesus and the diverse ways we can reflect that love and Good News to the world.
These words from African author Cheikh Hamidou Kane, quoted in Color, are a fitting conclusion to this summary of the book:
“We have not had the same past, but - unquestionably - we shall have the same future. The era of individual destinies is over. Thus the end of the world has really arrived for each of us, for none can live any longer taking thought only for self-preservation.”
As we step into a shared future, Gomis and Sunberg invite the Church to lean fully into our true identity as the Church. A Church grounded in unity by the power of diversity, diversity by the power of holiness, and holiness by the power of our unifying, Triune, holy God.
This is who we are. May we embrace our true identity, in all of its beautiful colors.
p.s. - Get the book here and watch a great FB Live interview with Gomis and Sunberg here.
