Sanctification, Rearview Mirrors, and Diversity in the Body of Christ: A guest post by Walter Strickland

Walter Strickland talks blind spots and diversity in the church.

When my father taught me how to drive my first instinct was to jump into the car and race down the street. Like any good instructor, my father stopped me before putting the key in the ignition and walked me through a pre-driving checklist that included checking my rearview and side mirrors; without them I could not see into my blind spots.

Over time, it was evident that my need for car mirrors was a ready-made lesson about my own limitations in my pursuit of God. My aim is to explore the usefulness of diversity in the process of sanctification and expand the concept of diversity beyond the context of race and ethnicity.

A blind spot is an area where our view is obstructed because of being uninformed or indifferent. My blind spots extend far beyond driving a car, they reach into every area of life and frustrate my pursuit of Christlikeness. Unfortunately, our blind spots lead us down a path of partiality and apathy to matters that are important to God. At its core, the call for believers to imitate God (Eph. 5:1) is a call to a life of balance. Part of Christ’s beauty is that he skillfully balanced law and grace in perfect harmony, he effortlessly embodied justice and mercy and was the epitome of humility and boldness.

God is gracious and has not abandoned us in the awesome pursuit of imitating himself: God gave us the Holy Spirit and the body of Christ to illuminate our blind spots and encourage us toward balance. Although an exploration of the Holy Spirit’s role in sanctification is worthy of our attention, I’m convinced that a helpful exploration of the role of God’s diverse body in the Christian walk is needed.

When the words ‘diverse’ or ‘diversity’ enter a conversation the …