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Profile: David Anderson
Monday, June 25, 2007
(Marla Shaivitz) --
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
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.