About our Diversity Presentations in North Carolina

Daynette Snead

Community Outreach Pastor

Rev. Daynette Snead, is an Ordained Minister and a Licensed Christian Diversity/Inclusion Coach.  She holds a Master of Divinity in Practical Theology and currently serves as the Associate Pastor, First Chin Baptist Church New Bern, a Burmese refugee community.  Daynette coaches leadership and congregations seeking to breakthrough cultural barriers for Christ. Currently attending Gardner-Webb University, she is a 2019 Doctor of Ministry cohort.

Nov/Dec 2015 Issue

Become Like Rivers

Preparation for my ministry started early. At age six, I tightly held my mother’s hand as I walked into a school where no one looked like me. New to the suburbs, I had the nervousness of any first grader, but soon learned these children were like me in many ways. And they learned I was not so strange either.

This is the heart of my ministry, helping churches and church leadership embrace diversity and inclusion. Solutions to oneness in Christ begins first by understanding cultural boundaries are man-made creations. While preserving our traditions, they also limit our oneness in Christ. Just like the dams on a river, they slow the flow.

Imagine: new research shows that, genetically, we are all 99% the same, and our differences are estimated to be less than 1%. Should these create boundaries which continue to separate the body of Christ in churches across the nation?

In reality, the division is not in our genes, but in the systems we embrace within our individual cultures: family traditions, social expectations, and even worship and preaching styles are all examples of cultural divides to explore.

Expanding our experiences in other cultures increases our knowledge like water flowing over river banks, intentionally creating new streams of understanding.

Crossing boundaries like a river is how God uniquely designed my purpose and ministry. He is providing me opportunities to serve people in many cultures, including last year as an interim pastor in Westray, Scotland.

After graduating seminary this past spring, God provided an opportunity to serve a church where the language, culture, and worship were different from any in my past. The experience brought me closer to this confirmation: God’s hand has been holding mine through it all.

Feeling like a stuttering Moses going before the Israelites, I questioned how God would resolve the boundaries that existed between me and this church community. My questions were answered — I flowed into the Spirit, and we shared God’s love.

In 2002, the Burmese Christian Fellowship, renamed the Chin Christian Fellowship in 2004, was planted by Burmese refugees who struggled and risked everything to begin life new in America. Six years later, First Baptist Church of New Bern partnered in their faith walk by providing meeting space, pastor ordination, tutoring, school supplies, and English as a Second Language classes for this faithful home-grown congregation, now identified as First Chin Baptist Church of New Bern.

Reverend Vanbawi Ven’s willingness to honor Christ and embrace me as Pastor of Community Outreach speaks to the readiness of this leader and a congregation in understanding inclusion is about change. This partnership deepens their acceptance of the American culture.

The language constraints are awkward, but I am intentionally learning, teaching, and expressing a love of God through a new culture. Each week my Hakha Chin vocabulary and cultural understanding is growing, and the obstacles I questioned are calmed by a loving congregation.

The body of Christ is diverse and crossing cultural boundaries is an intentional ministry to be pursued with our hearts. We must purposely face outwards, engage and develop opportunities for outreach, understand the value systems of others, and fulfill the Great Commission. Jesus crossed many boundaries and lived a life where everyone mattered. In the same love, Christians are called to become like rivers and flow into God’s estuary of diversity and inclusion.