Profile: David Anderson

Monday, June 25, 2007

Profile: David Anderson (The Horizon Foundation) -- Forty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that 11:00 a.m. on Sunday is the most segregated hour in the nation. “In reality,” agrees Dr. David Anderson, Senior Pastor of Bridgeway Community and Horizon Foundation Trustee, “Church is the most segregated institution of the face of the planet.”

Clearly a man of action, Anderson decided to make Sunday morning a multi-cultural experience.

His interest in community was stimulated fifteen years ago while relocating from Chicago to his native Maryland. He says that setting up a racially diverse faith community “sounded like it fit my own personal mission.” Discovering that only a handful of congregations were significantly integrated, and he went about setting up the model of a multicultural church. The resulting Bridgeway Community Church is non-denominational and is one of less than ten percent of the 350,000 Christian churches nationally to have significant integration among members. Bridgeway also qualifies as a “mega” church by virtue of a congregation that exceeds 2,000 members.

“We [as a nation] drink from separate spiritual water fountains each week - but we do not do that Bridgeway,” says Anderson, who quips that his aim is to “make people sad to have to wait seven days to come back.”

Gracism

Anderson expresses the Bridgeway mission not only through church endeavors, but also as an author. Gracism: The Art of Inclusion, his third book, explores the topic of multiculturalism. What exactly is ‘gracism’? “It’s combining the negative term of racism and the positive term of grace to mean radical inclusion for the marginalized and excluded,” he explains.

Extending the Message of Multiculturalism

A resident of Ellicott City, Maryland, Dr. Anderson presents workshops on multicultural relations to groups of all ages, as well as Fortune 100 companies. He also consults internationally through the United Nations.

Multiculturalism isn’t a uniquely American ideal. For example, Anderson was contacted by a pastor in Kenya, who needed help in bringing understanding to forty warring factions. Sharing truths as well as stereotypes among the leaders of the different tribes allowed Anderson and a Kenyan pastor to make remarkable progress in ameliorating the situation. “They now have a multi-tribal church where six languages are spoken as a direct result of our [Bridgeway’s] involvement.”

Reconciliation Live

Each week, Anderson and co-host Tracey Tiernan tackle tough topics on a live radio show called, Reconciliation Live, which airs on WAVA 105.1 in DC and on XM satellite radio 170. The two-hour program, which is syndicated in 48 states, enables listeners call in to express their views on topics ranging from interracial dating and marriage to the politics of race, gender, war and other issues.

A quick glance through the website’s photo gallery shows how Anderson’s work has led him around the world; to China, Israel, Zambia and other distant locations. However, a gas station sign, in downtown Washington DC is unique among the photos. A listener to Anderson’s radio show used block letters to spell out: God’s Answer to Racism is Grace-ism.

Anderson’s mission is still a work in progress, but the headway at many levels and in many locations is evident.