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Multicultural Ministry requires self-examination. It starts by understanding who you are and moves on to looking outward.

Start by defining your own congregation. What cultures are already present? What talents, resources and experiences can they bring to your outreach ministry?

When you’ve answered these questions, begin to look outside your church community.

Define Your Neighborhood

The word “multicultural” can mean many things.

• It can include subcultures of American Society — any number of ethnic groups and racial identities.
• It also includes social status — working class, students, divorced, public or private school youth, aged, homeless, wealthy, disabled, etc.
• It can include gender and sexual identity
• It can be generational: Boomers, Generation X, etc.
• It includes immigrants and natives.

All of these have their own “culture.”

Your congregation must define what it means in your community. 

Here are some questions to consider:

• What cultures are present in your neighborhood?
• Which live in closest proximity to your building.
• Which are well established? Which are newcomers?
• Which groups are transient? (Students, seasonal workers, snowbirds or summer residents)
• What are their needs?
• Is Christianity part of their culture or is the “Good News” brand new?
• What languages do they speak? Are they also proficient in English? Will you have to find leadership to facilitate communication?
• What are their cultural expectations? Dress, food, interaction.

Consider the Cultural Expectations of the Groups You Hope to Reach

The last item on the above list of questions may be the most important and hardest to implement if you want to create a “welcome space.”

Dress in some cultures is dictated. In America, we’ve adopted a “come as you are” dress code. If your congregation expects to welcome people from the community who come from a more formal culture, you may as a group have to consider “dress.”

For example:
One family made a project of welcoming foreign students into their home. They hosted several before they ran into difficulty with a male student from an Arab country. They just weren’t connecting. They voiced their concerns to a friend who had spent time in Arab countries. The friend pointed out that the problem was partly how the females in the family dressed. “Your spaghetti-strapped tank tops are fine in America,” she told her. “But to your guest, you are naked. He will not be comfortable in your home as long as you dress that way.”

Food can unite or divide. If your neighborhood hopes to minister to Asian communities, it may have to make sure rice is a staple at your pot luck dinners. Pork and bacon can also cause problems.

If your congregation is serious about multicultural ministry, you may have to change congregational customs. Dismissing children from worship may not be an attractive option to newcomers and will create a separation among your youngest members which could take time to overcome.

Allow people to choose their seating. Some cultures divide men and women. Many will want to observe from a distance as they become comfortable. Don’t rope off seats to force people to sit closely. Let them create their own space.

Plan on Evaluating Your Progress Often

There is a lot to consider. Take the time to think things through and reconsider frequently — weekly if necessary — as you learn about one another. Mixing cultures means being willing to adapt and correct the inevitable faux pas. When you make mistakes, correct them quickly. It can be humbling — but isn’t that part of being Christian!

Network to Find Help

In your Social Media Ministry, consider all these things and create content which addresses the concerns of the cultures in your community. Your congregational blog and web site should address the topics which arise from your answers to the above questions. Create content that the various cultural groups in your neighborhood will find and follow.

Look for help. Identify agencies which serve the groups in your communities. Study their web sites. Introduce yourself. Invite them to meet with your leaders. Link to their sites. They will probably be very happy to work with you.

Be hospitable. Offer space to operate a program — such as an after-school program or a well baby clinic.

Multicultural Outreach will soon give your congregation a plan. Follow it!

As we began to share in our previous post, Redeemer was moving in a promising direction. We had new leadership and new members. The national church heard about our mission outreach and requested information. Report on Swahili Ministry.

We were stunned to run into trouble with our regional body. They had an image of our congregation that didn’t include multicultural ministry.

In their mind, we were on a timetable for closure. They were waiting for the right moment. And then we grew! Five-fold! But they couldn’t shift gears!

We had attempted to share our successes. They responded to nothing: not phone calls, not letters, not emails. They were waiting for us to die.

At last, a synod staff person shared, “It doesn’t matter what you do, the bishop intends to close your church.”

Months passed and our church continued to grow. At last, a meeting with our bishop was arranged. We took the ministry plan we had worked on for many months. It included our membership list, budget, and stewardship report and a thorough analysis of our current and planned ministry.

We also brought a resolution to call a pastor who had agreed to serve us for five years under the payment terms we offered.

Early in the meeting it became clear that the bishop’s view of our ministry was that we were very few in number and had come up with phantom new members as a way to block closure. She asked everyone to share how long they had belonged to Redeemer. She was visibly surprised when the answers began: “Ten years,” “Seven Years” “Nine Years,” etc.

The tone of the meeting changed. But the image of our church as being ripe for closure was difficult to shake. She asked for our membership list, which we happened to have with us. There were about 70 names on the list. She scanned the list and said, “A lot of these names look African.” She added, “White Redeemer must be allowed to die. Black Redeemer . . . we can put them anywhere.” The old ideas kept creeping back.

We were offended at the attempt to divide our membership along racial lines, but we directed the discussion toward our strengths. At last, the bishop relaxed and things started to go in a positive direction. She told us we could work with synod’s mission director. She asked for a bit more information, including our mailing list, and we agreed to supply it. Our members left this meeting in song, confident that progress had been made.

But four months passed with no communication. We felt in limbo. Then we received a letter in the mail declaring us closed.

That was almost four years ago. The issue has been in the courts for three years.

The point of our story is that Multicultural Ministry, while a stated goal of the Church, is not something the Church knows much about. Preconceived notions about our ministry overruled reality.

We found that church leaders can follow a separate but equal mindset — people of other cultures meet at a separate time apart from the rest of the church, with their own leaders and their own budget — perhaps even their own government.

Our ministry didn’t happen that way and it threw the regional body for a loop!

Multicultural Ministry is bound to require flexibility and open-mindedness. You must make allowances. Other people do things differently and if you think people of other cultures are going to flock to your doors and automatically become cookie-cutter Christians  . . . well, you may be in for a surprise!

We’ll talk about the many positives that we experienced and that we believe await congregations willing to exercise creativity and patience in multicultural outreach. But we thought it honest to share up front that the our experience, while overall positive, was not without trials.

We hope you will share your experiences. If you’d like to share a story or guest blog, leave a comment below.