A Dispute of Culture and Ethnicity

Barnabas was faced with a big challenge with the early church in Antioch and throughout the Near East, bringing together Jews and Gentiles. Today we face the same problem that Barnabas faced, we have multiple ethnicities, cultures, and beliefs in the world, and we are called to reach them all regardless of the disputes and differences between them. Barnabas encouraged the believers in Antioch, both Jew and Gentile, Greek and Hebrew to continue in the faith and to welcome all who joined them. So how would this be practical for us today in our separate communities, separate states, separate countries, and separate continents? First, like Barnabas, encourage a connection. I've noticed that Southern Baptist Christians have a problem with joining with groups that have different beliefs, cultures, and backgrounds than ourselves. Are we like Antioch? I believe so, we have caucasians, hispanics, african americans, etc. and in each of those we have people with different backgrounds and culture, and then different denominations in which we categorize ourselves with. It's sad! We don't even have to say it, our actions alone show that, "Oh, I'm a white baptist, so I'm going to hang out with other white baptists and won't give a second thought to partner with those Catholic's or presbyterian's, maybe I'll ask those methodist's and nondenominational's to come help with an event every once in a while though." Barnabas encouraged the Jewish converts to accept the Gentile converts, and even further than that, the Greek Christians to accept the Hebrew Christians. This is an encouragement to me to accept those who are different than me, a white southern baptist, and connect better with other believers that come from a different background and culture than myself, and even if they have slightly different views of Christianity than I do. As long as they know Christ they are still my brothers and sisters, and we are both obligated to take the good news of the Gospel of Christ Jesus to all nations as one body of believers.