MULTICULTURAL CHURCH... Over the past year, I have engaged in extensive research in the area of multicultural church ministry. I have discovered that most denominations are not really focused on crossing the racial and cultural divide that exists is our churches. I would like to recommend two books. One is called Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith. The second is United by Faith: The Multicultural Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race by Michael Emerson and Curtiss DeYoung.As I mentioned in my very first blog, I have the privilege to serve as the founding pastor of the Crossroads Church of Pittsburgh. We are a intentionally multicultural congregation. I believe that God has given us a vision to be a multicultural lighthouse in the city of Pittsburgh. We believe this is the example given to us by our Lord.
In reference to the works above, Emerson states,
"Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah from the Hebrew Scriptures to announce and declare the purpose and passion of His ministry. He stood in the temple area and proclaimed to all who would hear him what He understood to be the culmination of three years of preaching, teaching, healing, and ministering along the highways and byways of greater Palestine, 'My house shall be a house of prayer for all the nations.'"
Another writer captures the thought beautifully when he says,
"Jesus is a preacher of multicultural worship. He envisioned a future that was radically different from the one espoused by the temple leadership of His present Jerusalem. The temple presided over a world where non-Jewish ethnicities were condemned and demonized. Mark's Jesus offered a counter kingdom proposal: He foresaw a time when every people of every nation would call God's Temple their house of prayer."
I pray daily that many more churches will become "houses of prayer for ALL NATIONS. Currently, a very small percentage of evangelical churches (less than 3%) are reaching out to the diverse population of America. I can't help but ask, "Why do we want our churches to be so far removed from what heaven is going to be like?" Hear the words recorded in Revelation 7:9, "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation, and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne..."
STAY OFF THE PAVED ROAD...Craig
1 comment:
A MULTICULTURAL CHURCH is a good idea. It is great you are trying to do this. I just hope your church is culturally sensitive. I think it is ignorant for churches to preach that the color black is sin. My husband is Black. One day my son came home with a salvation bracelet from Sunday school and told me that the Black stands for sin and White means you’re pure. It greatly bothered me. It was like subconsciously breading racism. I have left that church and I am looking for a church that is truly multicultural. One that is culturally affirming to everyone’s God given race.
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