In the first post, I tried to answer the question, “why plant a church?” by speaking of the necessity of the Church as the possessor and proclaimer of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s worth reading my initial thoughts on that question before diving into what follows.
My aim in this writing is to answer the title question: Why plant a multiethnic church?
Church planting itself seems daunting to begin with. Strategically, launching a new church with as few obstacles for growth as possible seems wise. We want to fast track to self-sustainability after all, don’t we? We want the new church to succeed for the sake of the gospel. Besides that, a multiethnic church requires a very narrow range of potential locations. Typically, the place where multiple ethnicities reside in close proximity is the city, and more specifically, in economically diverse (and challenged) areas of the city. This creates an even greater burden and potential for failure. How can ministering the gospel to people in economic distress pay the bills? Both of these issues suggest the multiethnic church idea has a steeper road to success and diminished likelihood of sustainability.
And we haven’t even mentioned the challenges of bringing diverse people together! We live in a polarized society in which both sides seem to just keep digging their heels in deeper and deeper. Dialogue, at times, seems impossible as both sides just talk past each other. Why intentionally pursue the heartache and difficulties of inviting diverse people into the same place of worship? Isn’t it best to remained siloed off this side of heaven? Shouldn’t we just agree to disagree from a distance and do our own thing?
Well, as with pretty much everything, I turn to the Scriptures to see what the Lord has to say. And when I study the Scriptures, I’m convinced that God desires diverse people groups united under the same roof in order to worship Jesus together. So I want to touch on three texts of Scripture that have been significant in forming my thinking and burden to pastor a multiethnic church. In the next post I write, I’ll speak to why I think our American culture needs to see multiethnic churches flourishing. I had hoped to include it in this writing, but I’m too wordy to include it!
But first, I suppose it’s worth trying to define “multiethnic” a bit. This means more than just having people of different ethnicities in the same place at the same time to worship, though it certain is that. However, each culture has a unique line of sight on the Person and character of God. Our experiences, cultural preferences, historical realities, etc. all shape the way we understand and relate to God. And if we only have one dominant culture shaping the direction and worship of the church, we don’t have a multiethnic church. A multiethnic church intentionally celebrates diverse cultures and their understanding of the Triune God. It’s a church committed to learning from folks different than oneself and intentionally laying aside personal preferences for the welfare of the Body. And while of course this involves multiple ethnicities, a multiethnic church also benefits from other areas of diversity as well: economic, education, social class, etc. So hopefully that’s a helpful snapshot of what I mean by “multiethnic.” Now we can turn to the biblical foundation.
Biblical Foundation
As I said, there are three biblical texts that have helped shape my thinking on the multiethnic church. These don’t exhaust what Scripture has to say, but taken together, they make a strong and compelling case for seeing more and more churches diversify and for birthing new churches intentionally pursuing multiethnic worship and unity.
The first text is from Revelation 7:9-10.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
This is a scene of worship John the Apostle sees and records for us. Notice how large the group is…innumerable! And notice the diversity John describes for us. Every nation, all tribes and peoples and languages are present and obviously speaking, since John is able to describe all languages. Apparently diversity of worship exists in eternity! Apparently every culture and people is represented in the worship of Jesus forever!
And notice the unity as well. They’re all dressed the same (with the righteousness of Christ, whose shed blood unites a diverse people as one family) and they worship in one voice. Unity and diversity, neither diminished by the other.
The next Scripture is why I believe we should pursue this heavenly scene of worship in local churches today. It’s Jesus teaching His disciples to pray in Matthew 6:9-10.
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus came to establish the Kingdom of Heaven through His life, death, and resurrection. One of the major themes of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5, 6, 7) is that of longing for the fullness of the kingdom. It’s why the blessed ones are hungry for righteousness, why peacemakers are celebrated, why even persecution shouldn’t derail Jesus’ disciples…because the Kingdom has broken in and is coming in full authority and redemption in Jesus. And so Jesus teaches us to pray “on earth as it is in heaven.”
We’ve just seen this glorious scene of exuberant and loud worship in heaven. A great, innumerable multitude of every tribe, nation, language, and tongue is united around the thrown of King Jesus in triumphal worship. So we pray on earth as it is in heaven. We want to pursue glimpses and partial realizations of this heavenly worship scene in the here and now, because that’s what heaven will be like when Jesus comes back.
The final Scripture is from Ephesians 2:11-22, but I’ll include just a few verses from this larger text.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
I’ve underlined a few of the phrases that show the relevance of Ephesians 2 for the discussion on multiethnic churches. This text comes on the heals of Paul describing the essence of salvation in vv. 1-10. All people everywhere are by nature dead in sin and children of wrath. But God, in rich mercy and great love, makes sinners come to life in Jesus Christ by His Spirit…all of His grace. This one means of salvation is articulated in the one and only Gospel of Jesus.
Paul then moves in v. 11ff to describe how this new spiritual life (salvation) results in an elimination of ethnic hostility and a real and enduring peace with one another who are in Christ regardless of ethnicity. Paul is of course speaking of the Jew and Gentile hostilities prevalent in the first century Church. But it doesn’t take much for us to recognize our own 21st century hostilities. Perhaps they are more culturally appropriate. Perhaps we aren’t as blatant and harsh. But it remains culturally acceptable for various ethnicities to meet on their own apart from brothers and sisters of a different background and skin color. We’ll even share our spaces of worship. But we won’t intertwine our voices in the same place at the same time in one Spirit to worship the God of our salvation.
Though the dividing walls of hostility have been miraculously and eternally torn down, by and large, the American church doesn’t physically display this beautiful spiritual reality. Is it really good enough to “wait for heaven” when the world looks on and finds no compelling reason to follow Jesus if diverse brothers and sisters don’t even spend time together in worship?
Paul says that not only does the Gospel transcend culture and offer salvation to any and every person, but it also unites diverse people under Jesus Christ. So much of the NT letters were written in part to address the difficult dynamic this new unity presented for people of different ethnicities. Today, it seems we’re fine “waiting for heaven” to experience this glorious, Christ-exalting unity.
The multiethnic local church aims to unite diverse people in the worship of our God to celebrate our unity and shared salvation through diverse cultural contributions. And it aims to do so to demonstrate the unifying power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ…to provide a compelling witness to those still walking in darkness.
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