Pittsburgh Baptist Church Nurtures Start-Up Ethnic Churches Until They’re Strong Enough to Stand on Their Own
When Pastor Dan Nguyen came to Pastor Kim Grueser, of Pittsburgh Baptist Church, Nguyen was hoping to simply rent some space at Grueser’s Pennsylvania church to hold services for his own Vietnamese congregation. But Grueser, and his congregation, don’t ever just rent space to the small ethnic congregations that meet in their building.
Grueser looks at the arrangements as a total partnership; he and his church come alongside the fledgling groups and serve as partners in building their foundations until they’re ready to launch independently, despite language and culture differences. They may worship and fellowship together only occasionally, but Pittsburgh Baptist is serving as their support system, for as long as they need it.
The ultimate goal? To more effectively reach the community’s ethnic minority groups. A wide swath of ethnicities is represented in the 90,000 or so residents who live within a three-mile radius of the church, Grueser says.
“I explained to him that we weren’t interested in simply renting space,” says Grueser of Nguyen. “We wanted to partner with him for the kingdom of God, because he certainly would be much more effective at penetrating the Vietnamese community in the South Hills of Pittsburgh than I would be or anyone else in my congregation.” Keep reading
What is your church doing? Does your community have any unengaged, unreached people groups that your church might reach in this way?
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