The Kingdom Foundation: Diverse leadership is a mandate and reality of the Kingdom of God. This can be seen from an examination of New Testament examples in their sociocultural context. Here are three key passages that highlight God's intent in regards to ethnically diverse leadership:
Jesus and the disciples. Although not ethnically diverse Jesus draws a diverse group of Jewish men to be his apprentices. A tax collector, a revolutionary zealot, a group of fishermen, and a few of these good Hebrew boys had Greek names. Was it a preview of what was to come?
The apostolic team of Acts 13:1-3. Finally we have the group of prophets and teachers in Acts 13. These leaders hailed from a variety of places and were of different ethnic origin. One was from Cyrene. Another was called Niger which is a Latin loan word for dark complexioned. Still another added a component of socioeconomic diversity as Manaen was brought up in the household of the ruler Herod Antipas. The team that assembled at Antioch for fasting and prayer were a model for diverse leadership.
So the foundation for diverse leadership is the kingdom of God, and anything other than this foundation will ultimately prove to be unstable ground. Diverse leadership needs to be pursued not to make the church more marketable or to gain a good reputation in the wider political culture. Diverse leadership is mandated by the scripture. It is the way the Kingdom of God is supposed to function where:
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28 ESV)