Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said…

“It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.”

How does that make you feel? Is there still a problem with churches being “segregated?”

I’ve been pastoring in two immigrant churches for the last 12 years. That experience taught me a lot. It’s also fueled my passion for multiethnic ministry. Not to mention being 1/4 Chinese, 1/4 Czech, having a half African-American sister, and growing up in a diverse community. My life is multiethnic!

NOTE: As long as immigration flows into the US immigrant churches need to serve them. However, the next or second generation usually wants a more diverse experience. Especially when growing up in a diverse community.

What does multiethnic mean? My concise definition* of the term “multiethnic church”:

A multiethnic church is defined simply as having a minimum of 20 percent of its make-up being from one or more ethnicity outside the majority. Thus, a multiethnic church would not have more than 80 percent of any one ethnicity.

*based on the definition used by the authors of United by Faith: The Multiracial Congregation As an Answer to the Problem of Race. This definition is the standard used by the Mosaix Network. They state: “Mosaix promotes the goal of seeing 20% of local churches achieve 20% diversity by 2020.”

McIntosh and McMahan devote an entire chapter in their book Being the Church in a Multi-Ethnic Community to defining the multiethnic church. They provide the most exhaustive overview of definitions and perspectives. They admit,

That the study of this topic is still in its infancy is evidenced by the fact that many people use a wide variety of terms to describe roughly the same phenomenon. At least four terms are used to describe churches where the people come from diverse background: multinational, multiracial, multi-ethnic, and multicultural.

Should your church be multiethnic? I don’t know. Here is the first of three things to consider.

1. Biblical Rationale for a Multiethnic Church

• Matthew 22:34-40: Loving God and our neighbors as ourselves is the core of the Christian faith. “Who is my neighbor?” Luke adds in Luke 10:29. Jesus then tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. The mono-cultural Jewish leaders were not the ones justified in Jesus’ eyes. The multiethnic man who in the eyes of the religious leaders was less than a whole person was. Luke seems to make the point that loving one’s neighbor involves crossing boundaries, which often includes ethnicity and culture.

• Matthew 28:18-20: Jesus emphasizes his desire for people from “all nations = ethnicities” to become disciples. While this includes an emphasis on overseas missions. It is a call for those who live in diverse areas to make intentional efforts to reach people from other ethnicities with the gospel.

• John 17:20-23: Jesus prays for a oneness and unity between all Christians. This should be applied in a diverse and multiethnic context.

• Acts 1:8: witnesses “in Jerusalem, to Judea, Samaria, and then around the world with the gospel.” The rest of the book of Acts describes how that was accomplished.

• 1 Corinthians 12:12-27: The Apostle Paul calls the church to humble cross-cultural interdependence.

• Galatians 3:28: The Apostle Paul calls the church to bring Jews and Gentiles together in one body. People from one background have something important to offer people from other backgrounds and vice-versa. Christena Cleveland notes,

“We are called to participate in the reconciling work of the cross, that tore down racial, gender and class divisions.”

• Ephesians 2:14-16: The Apostle Paul describes the “wall of separation” between Jews and Gentiles being torn down in Jesus. In Jesus they are reconciled as one body. The language of this passage argues strongly for a multiethnic church wherever possible. The barriers that existed between Jews and Gentiles before Jesus have been torn down. Therefore, barriers between all ethnicities have been torn down.

Later this week I’ll share the other two things to consider. Demographics and Beauty.

QUESTION: Does your church reflect the diversity of your local community? Why or why not?