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Ask the Pastor with J.D. Greear

Is the Deliberate Pursuit of Ethnic Unity the Same As DEI?

Ask the Pastor with J.D. Greear

J.D. Greear

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 630 Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In another special episode, Pastor J.D.  addresses the question: “Is the Deliberate Pursuit of Ethnic Unity the Same As DEI?”

Key Takeaways:

    • There is an unbiblical DEI that really is about quota and virtue signaling.
    • Hiring practices should consider the experience of candidates over age 50.
    • Ageism can be a concern when hiring for specific demographics.
    • DEI initiatives can sometimes miss the mark by focusing on superficial metrics.
    • Experience can be more valuable than age in certain roles.
    • The conversation challenges traditional views on diversity in hiring.
    • Understanding the context of DEI is crucial for effective implementation.
    • Church leadership hiring should prioritize the ability to connect with the community.
    • Quotas can undermine the true purpose of diversity initiatives.
    • Real diversity includes valuing experience alongside demographic factors.

Dive more into this conversation with Pastor J.D.’s new book, Everyday Revolutionary, which explores how ordinary believers can live out the gospel in ways that transform their communities.

Episode Links:

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey everybody, welcome to Ask the Pastor.

0:08.7

I am Matt Love.

0:09.5

I am here with Pastor J.D. Guru, but also, and importantly for this question,

0:14.8

former SBC president, J.D.

0:18.8

And we're back with another episode.

0:22.1

J.D., you were the president of the SBC. You are the lead pastor of the Summit Church.

0:27.5

Yes, both are the things. And over the years that those things have been true, there's been a lot of talk about the ways in which you've kind of pursued.

0:35.8

When you were president of the SBC diverse appointments

0:38.1

and different committees and positions and things like that. And then even here at the summit,

0:43.6

how kind of we've celebrated the diverse makeup of our staff. And then maybe in the much broader,

0:51.0

you know, world, there's this conversation going on about diversity, equity,

0:55.2

and inclusion, DEI, and how that is pursued in companies or in government and the limitations

1:01.2

or challenges or issues with that. And we know there's been some, there can be some problems

1:07.5

with how that plays out. So today's question for you is,

1:11.3

is the deliberate pursuit of ethnic unity in the church the same as DEI? And so in other words,

1:19.3

why do you think we still need to be deliberately pursuing ethnic unity in the church? And how do we

1:25.2

do that in a biblical way? Yeah. And well, and again, for those

1:30.0

that it might be unfamiliar, there's been a couple things here when you're saying as a church,

1:34.0

we actually want to staff be intentional about having diversity on our staff because that helps

1:38.9

us in reaching people, is that essentially just, you know, a DEI kind of like, hey, we got to have, we want to have the right balance. And so we're just going to, that's going to be the, we're going to have quotas and that sort of thing. People say it is. Absolutely it is. All that is, there's no other version of that. I mean, I've had that thrown at me, you know, several things. When I was president, we would appoint committees from the states. Each state is a certain member

2:02.0

representatives, and we wanted to be intentional about having the representatives reflect the

2:07.7

diversity of the SVC in every way, not just racially, but sizes of churches and everything.

...

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