This past week was a great encouragement to me as we powerfully experienced the diversity and unity of God’s ongoing handiwork in Durham. Wednesday, September 10th was a marker for us in Reality Ministries. We somewhat stumbled into the school season at our new Reality Center (at the corner of Gregson and Lamond), having made just enough improvements to welcome our adolescent friends. For the first two weeks a few after school visitors came by every day to shoot hoops, play ping pong, get tutoring, etc. The regulars were white, middle class students; we were thankful, but not satisfied, especially since our desire is to reach kids on the margins. We were convinced that before we got too far down the road to homogeneity, we needed a trajectory-altering event to introduce The Reality Center to a wider and more diverse population.

Last Wednesday’s Grill and Chill event was everything we hoped for and more. Dozens of kids showed up after the half-day for Durham Public Schools; they were young people of all types from all different schools. It looked like a microcosm of Durham in the Great Room during the basketball tournament; the racial demographic was reflective of the city.

But one of the most gratifying parts of the day to me was the representation of at least five different groups who want to help kids in Durham. On that afternoon at The Reality Center we had youth workers from Urban Hope, The Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club, Child Evangelism Fellowship and our upstairs tenants New Horizons working alongside our Reality Ministries staff. What a collaboration, what a joy!

We didn’t have to compare notes to see if we preached the gospel the same way or had similar theologies of conversion, we didn’t have to ask one another if infant baptism was preferred, we simply didn’t have to make a point of distinguishing ourselves from the other. All of us want adolescents to know Jesus Christ; all believe they are hopeless without him.

In our efforts to reach the multitudes of teenagers in Durham, we have two choices, uniformity or unity-with-diversity. Uniformity is easier, although severely limiting, because the goal is to find other groups who get to the same end in the same way. Unity-with-diversity is much more difficult and downright messy at times, but the effort to love one another in spite of differences in the body of Christ is itself a great testimony to the Lord. Sometimes we adapt to become more similar in order to make things work, other times this is not possible. What is possible, however, is the ability to follow our mutual leader and head and to march under his banner. It’s messier, but it’s worth it, and it smacks of the Kingdom of God.

The Grill and Chill inaugurated the beginning of my memorable week, but perhaps the very best picture of the Kingdom of God at the Reality Center came six days later. Almost forty of our young friends with cognitive disabilities, African-American, Caucasian, Asian, Indian, Latino - they all gathered for the first of our Tuesday Night Live meetings. Each of our guests was matched up with an able-bodied “buddy.” These buddies provided a beautiful tapestry of service; they are Durham’s church people from an untold number of denominations and congregations. All present joined in a cacophony of worship and listened to Susan McSwain talk about the Spirit of the welcoming Father and the gentle invitation of Jesus. The diversity was rich, the unity was thick, the joy was deep. If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and in purpose (Philippians 2:1-2).

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