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Lydia was an outsider in Paul's world -- a Gentile woman. Americans do not cross racial and economic lines very well, and so most of our churches reflect a common ethnic and class composition (Beverly Tatum, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria; Charles Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010). The Hartford Institute reports that only 7% of American congregations have a membership where 20% of the members were of a racial minority. And with the growing residential segregation (the Pew Research Center reports that in 2010 28% of low-income households were located in majority low-income neighborhoods, up from 23% in 1980, while 18% of the rich live in neighborhoods where they are the majority, up from 9% in 1980) our congregations increasingly reflect less diversity regarding incomes. There are lots of "outsiders" in our communities, people not like us in our congregations, who are yearning for the community and gifts we can offer. Our story indicates that it is God's way to break those racial and economic barriers down.
