Practical Wisdom for Multiethnic Ministry

For our congregation in the Chicago suburbs, multiethnic ministry seems like it just happened.

For years our community was predominantly Caucasian. But then, about eight years ago, things began to shift. A neighboring Spanish-speaking congregation had to leave their building and asked if they could share ours. We said yes. After two years we joined our ministries and became one church. At the same time we had an influx of diverse people who started coming to the church—African-Americans, Filipinos, Indians, a lot of first-generation immigrants. We did not necessarily go out of our way to reach them; God just brought them to the church, partly through our growing commitment to community involvement and holistic ministry.

I'm biracial, so I understand the joys and tensions of spanning multiple cultures. My dad was Asian, my mom was Caucasian. I'm a blend of cultures and genetics. Growing up, I saw racial reconciliation in the home, as the different ethnic groups in our family came together. So, for me, the DNA to have unity and diversity was there from the beginning, though I didn't realize until much later how important it would be for my ministry.

Right now, about 55 percent of our church is Caucasian. Ten to 15 percent are Filipino (mostly first-generation). Another 10 to 15 percent are African-American. And a remaining 10 percent or so are first-generation Italians, Indians, and Latinos. As different kinds of people joined our congregation, we loved and accepted them. But as they began to get settled and become involved in ministry, we realized that we needed to think about how to do multiethnic ministry well.

Diverse challenges

Multiethnic ministry can be difficult. It's difficult enough to maintain unity and purpose in a congregation where everyone looks just like me. But in a church where there are African-Americans and Filipinos worshipping and serving next to Caucasians, a lot of issues arise.

Tensions surface over cultural misunderstandings in a small group. Handling conflict (when one culture values directness and another values patience and "saving face") is tough. Worship and fellowship events become tricky as you try to accommodate everyone. Decision-making becomes complicated as you have to determine who calls the shots. Cultures need to be preserved, yet unity needs to be real. And if the leadership is not careful, the focus of the church can become about more about diversity rather than the glory of Christ.

It takes a lot of time and energy. But for all the possible pitfalls, the payoffs are infinitely worth it. We have a Lord and Savior who draws the whole world, and we can be a community that reflects what he desires. As a pastor I'm overjoyed when I see African-Americans worshiping and ministering right next to our Filipino families. Or when I see a Latino brother and a Caucasian enthusiastically partner for evangelism.

It is a powerful testimony to our community to say that we don't have to be divided along racial lines, but can be united in Jesus. As the United States becomes more diverse, Christians have a wonderful opportunity to be at the forefront of racial reconciliation, to tell—and show—the world how unity comes through Christ.

The vision is beautiful, compelling, and well worth working for. But that doesn't diminish the challenge for those of us leading local churches. I understand these challenges because our church lives them. I don't pretend to know everything, but here are three things that I'm learning:

Be humble

Sure, this principle is true for every ministry, not just multiethnic ones. But in a diverse congregation, it becomes absolutely critical. Often in a multiethnic church, one particular ethnic group calls the shots. In our church, the Caucasians tend to be the decision-makers. If you are a Caucasian, this is not a problem. But for those in the minority, it matters greatly. They attend the church yet often feel like they are on the outside—that their voices are not important.

One African-American woman has been attending our church for six years. She is a mother of two children and grandmother to eight. They're faithful attendees and involved in many ministries. She's an important part of our church, but several years ago she said "this is y'all's church."

My first reaction was to become defensive. Wait a minute. You are attending this church too. This is your church also! But after chatting with her, I realized that her comments were not about her commitment to the church; it was about her not feeling fully accepted by the church. I am not referring to relationships. We love her. She is part of the church. She is involved in ministry. But full acceptance to her meant that she could share ideas about the vision and ministry of the church, and that we would hear them. She wanted her voice to matter. Yet, as an African-American, she felt the Caucasian leadership was not interested in her opinions. Even though this was not true (leadership was very much interested), it was her perception.

This prompted me to look at our decision-making. So we began to make changes, and asked people from our different ethnic groups to serve in more leadership roles. This decision was the easy part.

The harder part was embracing the different ideas and approaches to ministry that everyone brought. We had to become more flexible with childcare because most other cultures are less rigid than Caucasians. Songs that we normally wouldn't sing became regular parts of worship. Start and end times for fellowship gatherings became more flexible—such as an all day picnic with a Latino organizer.

Each of these decisions involved humility. We had to approach each individual and group humbly. We had to affirm that their voices mattered to us and the church. Then, we had to show them their voices mattered by implementing ideas that fit within our vision. We had to go beyond tolerating differences for the sake of multiethnic ministry to saying—humbly—that we all are equally part of our church, so let's do ministry together.

Maturity matters

One temptation in multiethnic ministry is to embrace diversity at the expense of spiritual maturity. We faced this dilemma. We wanted to have more shared leadership among different ethnic groups. Many people were willing to serve in leadership. But our existing leadership made an intentional decision to prayerfully discern their spiritual maturity before asking them to serve in a leading role. After all, diversity is an important consideration for leadership. But it is not the primary one. Spiritual maturity is.

It was important for us to maintain biblical qualifications for leadership, regardless of a person's ethnicity. Honestly, it would have been easy for us to promote someone to leadership without evaluating the possible consequences.

Like I mentioned earlier, our church is about 10 percent Latino. We're working to grow our Latino ministry as the Latino population in our community grows. Two years ago we asked a Columbian to be an elder. For us, it was important to have someone on the board to provide wisdom and cultural insight. He was widely respected in the church. After praying about it, he accepted the call. Our congregation sees him first as a godly man and second as a Columbian. The benefits have been tremendous.

He's led us in rich discussions about our ministry to Latinos. He's blessed us with Christ-centered perspective and insight. Because he loves the church, he partners with us in cultivating multiethnic ministry. We chose the right man for the role.

I can only imagine though, what might have happened if we had appointed an elder without considering that person's spiritual maturity. Would he feel a need to represent his ethnicity over and above the needs of the church? Would a faction form if he represented strictly cultural perspectives rather than biblical ones?

Have patience

In a multiethnic church, decisions take longer, relationship-building requires more time, and ministry strategy gets more complex.

For years, I have been exposed to mainstream church growth models. In many cases, I tried to implement them. But in a multiethnic church they don't really work. The premise of these models is that you choose a particular type of person you want to reach (socio-economic or racial) and then build homogenous ministries to reach that type of person.

But when you are striving to be a church for numerous ethnic groups, you obviously can't just target one particular group. As a result, outreach strategy becomes more like casting a net rather than fly fishing for salmon.

Several years ago we made the decision to worship in English and Spanish. During service, our songs are projected in both languages, so that both groups are able to praise God together. The intention is to cultivate one body through bilingual worship.

When we first posed this idea to the congregation, there was a lot of pushback. Surprisingly, it was our congregation's immigrants who resisted the most. They stated, "We had to learn English when we came to the United States. Why should we accommodate the Latinos?" While I understood their point, my response was that we are called to be the Church, not the state. I felt language was one area where we could accommodate to try to win others for Christ.

In time, everyone supported the decision. Besides the evangelistic benefit, the Latinos felt affirmed. They expressed joy in being able to worship in their own language. But, it required a great deal of patience. Just to implement this one change, the elder board met to discuss the matter. We held a congregational meeting. I explained to the church why songs in both languages fit within our vision. In order to maintain unity, we had to wait for our congregation to support it.

And every week it takes a lot of time. We have to translate songs into Spanish. The presentation takes longer to put together. The bulletin inserts need to be bilingual. At times, I ask whether it is worth it—we have not seen tremendous numerical growth in Latinos attending the church. But in those moments, I step back and remember that our passion is to see people from every tribe and tongue worshipping together. Numerical growth is not our goal. Multiethnic ministry that glorifies God is.

Let the gospel lead the way

Over the years, I've found some great resources on multiethnic ministry. But I've also read many articles that seem to embrace multiethnic ministry for multiethnic ministry's sake—simply to be in vogue in society, or on the "cutting edge" of ministry.

Now don't get me wrong—I want to be relevant to society. And I passionately believe the church should be on the forefront of multiethnic issues. But I want the gospel to permeate and frame our vision and practice of multiethnicity, not vice versa.

For me, this vision requires a great deal of humility, maturity, and patience. The journey is challenging but the destination is hopeful—to contribute to that vision of restoration where people from every nation worship as one before the Lord Almighty.

Kevin M. Gushiken is teaching pastor of Harvard Avenue Evangelical Free Church in Villa Park, Illinois.