Building Multicultural Churches: Practical Steps Toward Diversity and Inclusion
It’s now been more than 15 years since I was first burdened with a simple, clear, yet provocative conviction for a Mississippi pastor: “If the schools, workplaces, and civic organizations in our community can be multiethnic, then why must our churches remain monoethnic?”
If we can increasingly live, work, and play in multiethnic spaces in Mississippi, then how can we remain content saying that worshipping multiethnically is too hard here.
This conviction wasn’t born randomly. It was sovereignly cultivated over years in monoethnic and multiethnic spaces. Attending schools where, at times, I represented one of the few brown faces in a classroom while living in neighborhoods where the opposite was often true was God’s preparation before I ever understood the path He had for me.
This conviction wasn’t born randomly. It was stirred through the power of God’s word convicting me in passages like John 17 where Jesus’ words seem to communicate a MANDATE and not simply a SUGGESTION.
John 17:20-21 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
The desire of Jesus is that we would be one! So that, in our oneness, it would be apparent to the watching world that God the Son was sent by God the Father. Deep authentic oneness is an apologetic of our faith! A church able to navigate the landmines of cultural/ethnic divides bears witness that Jesus is real and sent by the Father for the salvation of the world!
This conviction wasn’t born randomly, but it was one of the seeds God used to give birth to the church that I now serve as pastor.
City Light Church was established in 2016. From the beginning, our desire was to be a church that reflected the aesthetics of our community, and by God’s grace, from the beginning, we did. This work has not been without its challenges. We began gathering right on the heels of a uniquely difficult time in our country as it pertains to issues of race and ethnicity, but those challenges have paved the way for many lessons to be learned, lessons that I believe have deepened the fruit of Gospel witness, Gospel discipleship, and Gospel unity in the life our church. If a church desires to reflect the community in which it exists, here are a few practical steps born from the lessons learned in our faith community.
The Multiethnic Church Is Committed to a Neighbor Outreach Strategy
Author and Pastor Dhati Lewis, in an interview with Outreach Magazine, once said that churches desiring to reach their communities must shift their approach from “an ethnic missiology to a neighbor missiology.” The question isn’t “How do I reach my black neighbor, my brown neighbor, my white neighbor, my rich neighbor, or my working-class neighbor?” Rather, the question is and must always be “How do I reach my neighbor?” (Luke 10:25-37) A neighbor missiology should include a yearning to be a church where anyone from your neighborhood can come and find a seat and have a voice that’s heard. Is your neighborhood monoethnic? Expect to be a monoethnic church. However, if your neighborhood is multiethnic and multicultural, then the question must be asked early and often, “is this church an assembly that is positioned to reach, serve, and disciple EVERY neighbor?”
Leaders oftentimes bristle at the concept of contextualization, but every church contextualizes, just not every church realizes it. Sometimes, unknowingly, the culture of the church’s majority is held up as not simply the culture of choice but the biblically faithful one.
“The way we sing is the way Jesus requires us to sing!”
“The way we preach is the way Jesus wants everyone to preach”
Demonstrating a neighbor missiology is a humble approach that leaves room for other cultures to see their redemptive expressions on display in the sound, look, and life of the church!
The multiethnic church must remain diligent and open in this endeavor to not just call neighbors to the front doors, but to ensure that they can find home when they arrive.
The Multiethnic Church Is Captivated by a Missionary Mindset
Missions is a subject very familiar to Christian leaders. However, we often only consider the full breadth and scope of missionary preparation when missions take us across international borders and waters.
“Has God called you to Asia? Well, you’re going to need to spend some time understanding the language, the culture, and customs.”
“Is He calling you to Africa? You’re going to need to patiently cultivate relationships in these new communities and earn trust.”
To this counsel, we shout resoundingly, YES, AMEN, AND…this is not just wisdom for nations and cultures outside of our borders. We must also exercise this wisdom “down the street” and “across the tracks”. In a country defined as a “melting pot”, we are surrounded by different cultures, customs, languages, and dialects. Neighborhoods three blocks in any direction from your church building can feel like a completely different context. Our collective history also ensures the work of building trust from one side of town to another can also be just as daunting as cultivating relationships in foreign nations.
Building multiethnic churches is a call to enter neighborhoods with a missionary mindset, walking into diverse communities with a humility that doesn’t assume the neighborhood culture is fully known and trust has been fully established. Building multiethnic churches drives us to invest time and resources with the same intentionality as missions overseas even when it’s just missions the next corner over.
The Multiethnic Church Is Comfortable in Discomfort
One of the most significant challenges that churches face who are seeking to better reflect their neighborhoods is the challenge to not cater to one group’s preferences. Those preferences show up in many ways; from the obvious, like decisions in worship styles to the not so obvious like decisions for large and small group activities. Changes in these areas can often feel unnecessary and even superficial, but only to those whose preferences are already built into the life of the church. However, unless intentionality is demonstrated in welcoming new cultures, new customs, and new displays of Gospel redemption, then new people will not feel welcome.
Building multiethnic churches often begins with a commitment from every person in the church to sacrifice some of their preferences in how our collective lives and worship in Jesus are expressed in order that neighbors from different walks of life have space to see their own expressions on display.
One of the first demands Jesus gives us in the call to discipleship is the demand to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him (Matthew 16:24). Our demonstration to obey this challenge is not just seen in our willingness to die in unreached places, but it is also found in the small and quiet work of joyfully celebrating a different brother or sister’s style of worship being platformed for the exaltation of Christ and the edification of His church. This discipleship call is a call to grow comfortable with discomfort, to grow comfortable yielding our way in favor of another. The more we embrace this discomfort, the more likely it becomes for our church to reflect the community we’ve been called to reach.
In Acts 11, we are introduced to a church plant in the city of Antioch. As the third largest city in the Roman Empire, Antioch was a sprawling and diverse metropolis with Greeks, Romans, Syrians, Jews, and Egyptians all present. However, it wasn’t just the city that was diverse; the local church was as well. People from Cyprus, Cyrene, and Judea all came together to live in multiethnic Gospel fellowship. Despite the certain differences in culture, the “First Church of Antioch’s” members held fast to their first identity as followers of Jesus. They were serious about discipleship (v25-26) and devoted themselves to sacrificial good works (v27-30). This church became a model, with people of God miles away hearing of God’s grace at work (v22). It’s no wonder that these believers were the first to be mocked with a very familiar descriptor, Christian (v26). Multiethnic churches are not contemporary or seasonal. They are foundational to the very Christian experience because they provide earthly glimpses of the heavenly realities to come. Our world is only becoming more diverse in its composition. The church seeking to reach it must do so as well.
Written by Brian Crawford – Lead Pastor, City Light Church, Vicksburg, MS
