ELKHART, Ind. (Mennonite Mission Network) – When DOOR’s Beloved Community Council held its annual gathering in September 2014, it celebrated significant progress made toward the diversity that it had set out 10 years ago to achieve. Having actually made major changes, the council is wondering, “What’s next for 2015?”
A partnership program of Mennonite Mission Network, DOOR (Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection) realized in 2004 that its organization was just “too White” to effectively and faithfully reflect and serve the diverse big cities that it serves in, such as Chicago and Miami. DOOR’s Black and Latino board members initially formed the Urban Leadership Development Task Force to determine how to empower people within the organization and the communities to improve DOOR’s racial and ethnic composition. About six years into the effort, the group changed its name to reflect the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision of a beloved community – a place where the triple evils of poverty, oppression and violence are transformed into relationships that are restored and just.
Over the past decade, staff diversity has increased from 13 percent to 50 percent by emphasizing people of color among its new hires. In 2004, the total staff team was eight compared to 13 today.
“In 2004 we were primarily all White, and if you are in an urban setting and all of your staff and board members are White, then are you truly urban, or are you playing?” said Glenn Balzer, the group’s executive director.
A key reason for the staff and diversity increase was that DOOR recruiters were more intentional about pursuing candidates from the urban contexts where the ministries are, instead of relying on traditional advertisements. Balzer said that it was the Black and Brown board members who emphasized that internal changes at the decision-making level, such as the board, had to be made first in order to diversify the staff. Now the organization’s local and national boards are 40 to 60 percent Racial/Ethnic minorities, Balzer said. A Hispanic person is among the DOOR program co-chairs in Los Angeles, Denver and Chicago, Balzer said. Persons of color are on staff in leadership positions in five of the six cities where DOOR is in operation: Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Hollywood and Miami.
“Over the past 10 years, DOOR has recognized that while diversity is important, it must go beyond tokenism, too,” said Anton Flores-Maisonet of the Alterna Community in Georgia. Flores-Maisonet has served as volunteer co-chair of the Beloved Community Council since its inception. “We’re re-imagining what it means to be a prophetic ministry that not only offers participants the opportunity to ‘see the face of God in the city,’ but also for our partners and neighbors in the city to see the face of God in our ministry.”
Balzer said that reexamining how power was used within the organization and changing who controlled it was crucial. For example, the committee that examines how much Balzer gets paid is made up of people from across the racial, social and economic spectrum, he said.
“It’s a real shift of power in terms of how our budgets get set,” he said. “It’s an endeavor that people of all types of background get a say in. When you change the power, you change everything.”
So what’s next? During its annual gathering at the Cenacle Retreat and Conference Center in Chicago, Sept. 4-6, the council marked the milestone by determining priorities for 2015 and looking ahead to the next 10 years. DOOR must keep evolving by continuing to do what is working, Balzer says.
“White people are used to thinking that they are right about everything,” Balzer said. “Change is being willing to enter into pain and being willing to say, ‘I’m wrong.’ When I realized I didn’t have to be right about everything, my work became a little easier.”
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Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact news@mennonitemission.net.