Enrichment Journal: The Pastor and the Multicultural Church

How does a pastor lead a church made up of people from every tribe and nation? Here are a few practical lessons I have learned while pastoring a multicultural church.

The homogenous church was the prevailing church-growth philosophy when I was in seminary during the mid-1980s. At the time, the data indicated that the fastest and most efficient way to plant and grow a church was to focus on one specific demographic. On an academic level this made sense. On a personal level, I was already part of a church that had the seeds of becoming fully multicultural. Although we were small and predominately Caucasian, we had a number of Hispanics, Asian Indians, and both African-American and Caribbean Blacks worshipping with us. I began to sense that a healthy church, unless set in a strictly homogenous environment, needs to reflect the diversity of its surrounding community. This conviction has grown through the years. Today, multiculturalism is even more pronounced than it was in the mid-1980s, especially in urban centers. Today, some of the fastest growing churches in the U.S. are multicultural.

In the late 1990s, I began pastoring a multicultural church just outside of New York City. Unlike most of the churches in the community, which were either white, black, Asian, or Hispanic, this church was already diverse with whites, blacks, Hispanics, and others worshipping together. And, over the next 12 years, this diversity increased as people from all over the globe continued to join us. Eventually, there was no racial or ethnic majority. It became a congregation with people from every corner of the world (except for maybe Antarctica).

Pastoring such a church is quite energizing. Every time the church gathers for worship, it illustrates what heaven will be like — people of every nation and tongue worshipping God. Not only that, but multicultural churches have incredible potential for growth. In a truly diverse church, no one feels like an outsider because of the color of their skin or because they speak English with a bit of an accent (or don’t).

On the other hand, people gathering from so many cultures, backgrounds, and nationalities can pose a challenge for the pastor because racial and ethnic diversity brings a diversity of expectations, cultural norms, and religious traditions. How does a pastor lead a church made up of people from every tribe and nation? Here are a few practical lessons I have learned while pastoring a multicultural church. Read more