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Leadership in a Multicultural Church

Esther Ritchey — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 09:00:00 +0000

Home > Blog > Leadership in a Multicultural Church

June 10, 2020

Leadership in a Multicultural Church

By New Churches Team

Serve Where God Calls You

Bernard Emerson grew up as the son of a pastor. His father told him, “You don’t have a choice to who and where God calls you. He just may call you to people who can’t afford your salary, but that doesn’t mean you don’t serve.” And Bernard found that to be true in his own life.

When he started a church, the church couldn’t afford to pay him a salary. So, he worked as a bivocational pastor. When he wasn’t at church, he worked as a garbage man. He used that as an opportunity to connect, counsel, and disciple his coworkers and grow the Kingdom of God. As he did that work, he also pastored a predominately black church in California. Several years ago, while attending a Bay Area clergy cohort meeting, he was challenged to reimagine the system. He and another pastor, who led a predominately latino church, felt God leading them to merge their churches to create a multicultural church. Tapestry Church in Oakland, California, was born.

Create an Atmosphere for Growth and Discussion

At Tapestry Church, they are rolling out three programs to help address the topic of racism within the church.

To read the rest of this article, and to watch the entire video training, click here for the full videos and post.

These videos are part of Plus Membership. To get full access to them, and much more, I encourage you to become a Plus Member. Click here to see all the benefits of becoming a Plus Member.

Source: Leadership in a Multicultural Church

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What Would Jesus Disrupt and Other Articles Church Leaders Should Read

Patrick Bradley — Sat, 21 Oct 2017 13:00:25 +0000

by Dave Travis: Here’s a collection of interesting, thought-provoking articles from around the web from recent weeks. For more links, check out our Flipboard magazines: Leadership Network Today, Leadership Network Deep Trends, and Ideas to Implementation to Impact, where we curate the best in innovative ideas for church leaders.

Multicultural Churches are Addressing Racial Divides in Trump’s America (Thinkprogress.org) As widespread reports of racial harassment and white supremacist activity continue across the country, the small, but growing, number of racially integrated churches are organizing. They’re organizing workshops, serving immigrants, and vowing to stand in solidarity with Muslims. In this difficult political climate, they contend that they are uniquely qualified to foster dialogue about race and advocate for marginalized groups?—?and bring diverse groups of Americans together in faith.
The Large Parts of America Left Behind By Today’s Economy (Axios.com)U.S. geographical economic inequality is growing, meaning your economic opportunity is more tied to your location than ever before. A large portion of the country is being left behind by today’s economy, according to a county-by-county report released this morning by the Economic Innovation Group, a non-profit research and advocacy organization.

The Extraordinary Case of Mr Yamazaki (Medium.com) What happened when a Japanese headteacher imported his ‘Hitaisho’ teaching method to a rural Cornish primary school?

It’s Not a Problem to Solve It’s a Polarity to Manage (Organizationalphysics.com) As a leader, being able to discern the difference between a problem and a polarity will help you to build a culture that makes the right decisions about the right things. This is true even if, from an uneducated eye, those efforts can sometimes appear to be in support of “old” ways of thinking. But they are not old ways of thinking! You are just boosting up an aspect of a polarity that is needed in your organization at this period in time. Later on, you may boost up “new” ways of thinking, depending again on what’s really needed. Let’s see how to do that…

Life In a Fishbowl Survey Gives Voice to Pastors’ Spouses (Religionnews.com) The vast majority of U.S. Protestant pastors’ spouses say ministry has had a positive effect on their families but many report being isolated and under financial stress. A new LifeWay Research survey, released Tuesday (Sept. 12), finds that most spouses are directly involved in the work of their churches, with 1 in 5 holding a paid position and two-thirds serving in unpaid capacities.

What Would Jesus Disrupt (Bloomberg.com) “The most successful startup in history!” Of the parable of the talents, in which two servants are lauded by their master for turning a profit with money he staked them: “The first recorded instance of venture capital and investment banking in history!” Of ancient business elites: “A church is the oldest marketplace in the history of the world.” Of the promised land of angel investing, where divinely inspired entrepreneurs dwell: “Because God creates things, too!” Mark Burnett, the producer of The Apprentice and Shark Tank, shows up to remind everyone that “the Bible is full of merchants and people doing work.”

The Turquoise Table Movement Wants You (Christianitytoday.com) As she sat outside every morning praying, she began to meet people she had lived next to for years. “I started learning the difference between entertaining and hospitality,” Schell says. “Entertainment… you can’t do all the time, you can’t do that at every opportunity. Hospitality is a way of life. It’s not what we’re doing; it’s who we are.”

Survey Spotlights American Views On Sin (Bpnews.net) As America becomes more secular, the idea of sin still rings true, said Scott McConnell, executive director of Nashville-based LifeWay Research. “Almost nobody wants to be a sinner,” he said. The survey question about sin was inspired in part by an exchange McConnell witnessed on his way to a Nashville Predators hockey game. A religious group of protesters began preaching at people on the street outside the hockey arena, calling them sinners, McConnell said. That led a few people in the crowd to embrace the title with enthusiasm. “I wondered how many people really think of themselves as sinners,” he said.

What the Single in Your Pew Needs From You (Christianitytoday.com) Singles are on the rise. Here’s what forward-looking churches need to know.

Life.Church Digerati Ship-It Week (Medium.com) To create an atmosphere that welcomes people, that meets people right where they are, you have to inject a little human-ness into a website, and they did that through a ‘blue button.’ It’s a chat-like integration that allows team members or volunteers to talk with people, answer questions, and pray with people in real time. They even created a set of custom premade interactions that…

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Source: What Would Jesus Disrupt and Other Articles Church Leaders Should Read

The post What Would Jesus Disrupt and Other Articles Church Leaders Should Read appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Challenges to Becoming a Multicultural Church

Patrick Bradley — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 09:00:08 +0000

By Ed Stetzer: One of the biggest issues in our culture is race relations. I write about it often, and the latest #Charlottesville incident reminds us of the brokenness we face in this area.

One of the biggest knocks on the Church is that 11:00 on Sunday morning is still the most segregated hour in America. There is no reason to argue it. Neither should that fact cause us to change everything we do to make it untrue. I’m not defending the reality, and I do understand that there are many reasons for it. But it is also encouraging that many churches are trying to overcome that history.

However, I also know that there is a strong movement to help us not be defined by ‘white church’ and ‘black church’ labels. There are many good people reaching across ethnic and color lines to help the Church become as diverse as the many types of people God created. There are challenges for sure. But these challenges can be met and dealt with successfully.

When we talk about churches becoming more multicultural, I’m not here to shame anyone. I get that many Anglo churches are filled with angst because they are “too white,” but that can be good or bad. The fact is, some churches are in communities that are not very diverse. A church is not primarily responsible for how multicultural its neighborhood is, but it is responsible for how kingdom-minded it is. So what does it look like to make a healthy cultural shift away from who you are to who you can be?

Notice the Neighborhood

The goal is not to meet a quota.

It is to meet the expectations God has for us. In some ways, that expectation varies from local body to local body. But it seems fair to suggest that the Church should have a goal to reflect its local community—not because it has to, but because it wants to. So, as we go forward, it is important to understand that the move to multicultural Christian community is not something we achieve because we are forcing it, but because we realize the force in it.

It starts with a church being like its neighborhood. But, if possible, it is good to be morediverse than your neighborhood.

It affirms the value of the diversity God has created. It says that we are not satisfied to simply be around people like ourselves. We expect missionaries to engage in partnerships with various cultures. Well, our mission starts in our communities. So we should ‘go’, even if the going is in Jerusalem.

Push beyond what naturally occurs, and watch what God will do.

Become a Welcoming and Understanding Community

One of the things we should recognize is the dynamics of a congregation or gathering of people.

What is a person thinking, hearing, or seeing when he or she walks into a church? The first thing most people do when they walk into a church and look around is ask, “Is there anyone like me here?” That is a natural human question.

If the person is young, he or she is probably looking for young people. If he or she is a parent, they are likely looking for families. If he or she is a person of color, they are looking for people who look like them. You may say that doesn’t sound very spiritual. I’m not saying it is right or wrong. I’m saying it is true. And we all do it.

Years ago, I visited a very large all-black church. I looked around out of curiosity, “Are there any white people here?” There weren’t. But what was great was someone came up to me and said, “Listen, the pastor makes sure we welcome all kinds of people. We want to welcome you.”

At that point, I knew a bit how African-Americans feel when they visit Anglo churches, though there are many other issues at work when it is reversed.

So, as we realize how people are wired, it becomes important for us to not create an environment that is naturally off-putting. If we want to minister in our community, it is a good idea to look like our community so people in the community feel at home when they enter our church. Part of this happens when your church enters the community. Build relationships with people across the diverse lines in your neighborhood.

Hire Leadership Who Reflect Your Values

If you want to be diverse, it’s important to build a multicultural team. If your church is not large enough to hire staff, you can still develop a diverse group of leaders.

What you celebrate, you become. If you celebrate diversity in your leadership, it will be reflected in your pews. So hire well.

But don’t bring someone on just because he or she is the right ethnicity or color. It takes a lot more than that. And some people, Anglo or people of color, just don’t want to work to be in a multicultural setting, and they won’t help you—you need people who value that diversity and want to work for the kingdom value that a multicultural church expresses.

Look for bridge builders who are willing to learn to relate to people of different cultures and contexts.

You need leaders who value diversity, but not just that, they have to value reconciliation, which helps us undergird diversity.

One final note there: It is also important to remember that many minority-majority churches are so because they can’t become multicultural. Sometimes it’s a choice that those of us in the majority need to respect.

It’s not like most African-American churches are sitting around wishing they had more white people in their lives. Many enjoy a historic spiritual and cultural heritage in their church because, for many years, that is where their community has been enriched, empowered, and educated. It is where their leaders were recognized and appreciated. This is true in several minority communities. Many do not want to lose that heritage by trying to become more diverse. Many also live their lives in majority culture and need a safe place where they can express the sides of themselves that don’t get affirmed in the broader culture. Or else they may lose those valued parts of their culture and identity and history.

That’s worthy of our respect even as we seek to become more diverse.

Always Focus on the Big Mission

There are many dynamics at play when it comes to growing in cultural diversity within a church. None of these factors should overwhelm the mission of the Church, which is to be God’s reconciling agent in a fallen world. But in that reconciling of humans to God, there should always be a part that is focused on reconciling human to human. In a way, it is the natural outcome of a renewed human.

This movement to open up the Church to a multicultural face is the visual expression of what happens in the heart when God heals our land. It should not be used to beat down those who are less diverse. Rather, it can be a great way to build the family and reach the lost. After all, if the redeemed can reach across the gulf to reconcile with the lost, certainly we can join hearts and arms with those who have a little more or less melanin than we do, right?

Source: Challenges to Becoming a Multicultural Church

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Church Planting across Ethnic Lines

Patrick Bradley — Thu, 22 Jun 2017 09:00:09 +0000

by Joel Kurz: Nine years ago, my wife and I (both of us white) moved into a neighborhood where we were an ethnic minority. We wanted to plant a church. Over the years, our idealism has been crushed, we’ve hit rock bottom, experienced a rebirth of vision, and have slowly made progress. God has been incredibly kind as he has formed a diverse church in our neighborhood. The immediate context is mostly African-American, yet we’re three blocks from a historically white neighborhood. Our church is about half black, half white, and maybe two percent Asian.

BIBLICAL BASIS

First and foremost: it’s biblical and right to do cross-cultural ministry. God does burden individuals from one culture to share the gospel and invest in another cultural setting. God burdened my Korean-American friend, Dan, to plant a church in a historically poor white neighborhood. God burdened my African-American friend, Marty, who grew up in the inner-city, to plant a church in the suburbs. God called a man named Paul, who wanted to work among his own people, to leave and take the gospel to the Gentiles. When God burdens a preacher for a people group, a neighborhood, or a block, it’s right for that preacher to go and become all things to all people so that he might save some.

Reflecting on his own gospel work, the Apostle Paul wrote:

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. (1 Cor. 9:19–23)

But you ask: won’t someone from the context have a better witness?

Not necessarily. Don’t misunderstand: God calls indigenous people to reach their fellows, but the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). Additionally, the Apostle writes, “When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:1–2).

What if God called Dan to the historically white neighborhood, and Marty to the suburban neighborhood, and myself to an African-American neighborhood so that “faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God”? God may place the most unlikely vessel into a neighborhood so the only explanation for fruit might be God’s supernatural work. Man cannot do this; only God can.

MOTIVES

However, fueled by biblical support, it’s possible to rush into cross-cultural work without examining our extra-biblical motives. During my first few years, I was often questioned: “Why do you think you should plant a church here?” This initially took me by surprise as I had a lot to learn. But over time I realized that the question was a good one because it came from a place that was intimately familiar with the history of white superiority.

If you’re eager to do cross-cultural ministry, here are a few questions you should be willing to ask yourself:

1. Why am I here? Are you here because of guilt, because you think you can save the day, or because you implicitly think you’re way of doing life and church is superior?”

2. Am I willing to submit to someone of a different ethnicity? Do you have a mentor who’s familiar with this context? If not, why not? Are you willing to find one? What might they say about your decision to plant a church here?

3. Is there a need for a new church? Are there other indigenous gospel works that you might consider joining? Should you submit to another pastor in this context? Are the other churches here actually unhealthy or are they merely operating from a different set of cultural values?

Essentially, you must ask yourself, ““Have I moved to this context unaware of the racial history and dynamics of the country and the community?”

LAND MINES

With those words of encouragement and examination, please allow me also offer a few potential land mines:

Land Mine #1: Trying to Be Someone You’re Not

There’s absolutely nothing worse than a white man who changes his dialect when talking to an African American. Marty tells me of his friend of 20 years who still tries to “talk jive” to him. “Becoming all things” doesn’t mean you forget you’re white and attempt to become another ethnicity. That’s just annoying; it’s also condescending. Remember your background and recognize any tensions your presence may arouse.

Land Mine #2: Imposing Your Own Culture On Other Ethnicities

You do have a culture. Your preaching style, liturgy, and hymns—including the way you sing them—are culturally influenced. Your cultural background has shaped your discipleship and ministry preferences. Your values, politics, and the way you talk about these things, are peppered with certain cultural standards.

Don’t be like Peter in Galatians 2:11–14. Due to his fear and respect of leaders from his own culture, Peter breaks table fellowship with the Gentiles over cultural issues. Peter requires those who are ethnically different than him to assimilate in order to enjoy fellowship with him. Paul says “they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel.” The gospel doesn’t allow anyone to set their cultural norms as the standard for discipleship.

Land Mine #3: Despising Those Who Do Look Like You

An unexpected temptation for many who are working in a cross-cultural context is a subtle disdain when members of their own ethnicity join their church. My friend, Dan, told me it took him a while to be okay with the fact that he still attracts other Korean-Americans to his church. You’ll find people of your own hue attracted to your church because of you, and you’ve got to be okay with that. Don’t make cross-cultural work an idol.

Land Mine #4: Drifting Toward Familiar Spaces

At the same time, there’s another unexpected temptation, and that’s the draw toward familiarity. It’s been said that the biggest missionary challenge is to remain a missionary once on the field. You will be drawn to socialize, mingle, and connect with those who look like you and are from the same background as you. This is natural. And yet, in order to remain a missionary, you must fight against these natural tendencies and intentionally develop cross-cultural friendships; learn to appreciate the values, pleasures, rhythms, and routines of your new neighbors. Sacrifice comfort and learn a new culture. Become all things to all people so that, by God’s grace, you might win some.

CONCLUSION

I’m glad you want to serve a context different than your home culture. This demonstrates that God has torn down walls of ethnic division in your own life. As you carefully move forward in humility and with wisdom, be encouraged that God often uses cross-cultural work for his own glory.

Source: Church Planting across Ethnic Lines

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Making Our Church the Same Age as Our Neighborhood

Patrick Bradley — Tue, 16 May 2017 08:38:19 +0000

By Lee Kricher:

Our church needed to make a tough decision. In the fall of 2003, I became Senior Pastor of Amplify Church, an evangelical church in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. Weekend attendance had been in steady decline for several years and was hovering around 200 people. We were on an interest-only plan with our bank because we could not afford the monthly mortgage payments on our church building, which was deteriorating after years of neglect. But what alarmed me most was that the average age of those attending the church was just about my age at the time—50 years old.

My definition of a “new generation church” is one where the attendees’ average age is at least as young as the average age of the community in which the church meets. Since the most recent census indicated that the average age of those in the neighborhoods served by our church was 35 years old, Amplify Church was definitely not a new generation church. We could not allow the presence of a handful of young families and children in regular attendance blind us to the fact that we were one of the fastest dying churches in the city.

We decided to put our hearts into becoming a new generation church. This was not an easy decision. We knew that our approach to church had to change in many ways if we were going to lower the average age of our members and attendees by 15 years. Though our core beliefs and values would remain unchanged, everything else had to be “on the table” for possible change – every program, every ministry, every tradition and every practice.

The framework for change we employed was fivefold: adopt a new mindset, identify the essentials, reduce the distractions, elevate your standards, and build a mentoring culture. These strategies, along with specific corresponding actions, are detailed in the book, For a New Generation: A Practical Guide for Revitalizing Your Church.

First Steps

What are the best first steps to take when a church wants to get connected or re-connected with the next generation? Here are a few things that made a difference for Amplify Church:

Identify the average age of your neighborhood/community and compare it with the average age of those attending the church. Determine to do whatever it takes to close the gap.
Take key staff or lay leaders on “field trips” to healthy churches that have every generation well represented.
Regularly weave into weekend messages the importance of reaching the next generation.
Proactively engage church members in one-on-one discussions and conversations in small groups about the importance of becoming agents of change instead of blockers of change.

The Importance of a Mentoring Culture

Foundational to building a new generation church is a commitment to develop young leaders. This is not only critical for churches in decline, but also for churches determined to avoid decline! That is the primary reason that I asked a number of our key leaders to join me as participants in a Leadership Network cohort that focused on creating a Leadership Development strategy. With the help of Brent Dolfoand the Leadership Network team, we framed a document titled Leadership Development at Amplify Church (click to download). It affirms that “the primary role of every leader is to develop other leaders” and that “the leaders of tomorrow are already here.” It also reinforces the importance of shoulder tapping, shadowing and interning in order to build a mentoring culture and pave the way for “perpetual” church revitalization.

The Transformation

I was hoping that our multiple-year journey would go smoothly, but change seldom does. The concept of re-connecting with the next generation was well received, but when things started to change in order to actually reach young people, about one third of current attendees left. One of our top givers said to me, “The kids you are trying to reach don’t have checkbooks.” Then, to my dismay, he added, “If you go through with these changes, I’m leaving the church and my checkbook is going with me.”

Fortunately, most people did not respond in this manner. They began to embrace the hope that our church could more effectively reach the next generation. Their hope was realized as new people started to attend our church. Within two years the average weekend attendance doubled from 200 to more than 400 people. Within five years, our average weekend attendance exceeded 600 people. And 14 years after embarking on our journey, the average weekend attendance at Amplify Church exceeds 2,000 people. Even more significantly, the average age of those attending is just under 35 years old. Every generation is well represented for the first time in many, many years. We have been transformed into a new generation church.

As Scripture calls us: “We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders” (Psalm 78:4 NLT).

Lee Kricher is now in his fourteenth year as pastor of Amplify Church, with three locations across Pittsburgh. He is also author of For a New Generation: A Practical Guide for Revitalizing Your Church, available at foranewgeneration.com.

Original Post: Making Our Church the Same Age as Our Neighborhood

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