Multi-Ethnic Churches

So as I was perusing through the internet tonight, I came across an interesting movement. While looking through organic-church planting websites, I came across a conference and just so happened to look at the schedule of the events. As I was looking at some of the breakout sessions, I saw one entitled, "Multi-ethnic Missional Community: 7 Principles." This really intrigued me, and so I began to look up the name of the guy who was leading the break out session. His name is Mark DeYmaz. He is the pastor of a multi-ethnic church in Arkansas named Mosaic. In looking at the church's website, I came across this article. It's an excerpt from his book. I feel that God really led me to this website for a reason. It really broke my heart especially reading the conclusion of this article. There is definite need for reformation and restoration within the church. Read it for yourself and see what you think.




Excerpts from the book, Building A Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church by Mark DeYmaz (http://www.mosaicchurch.net/html/WELCOME/whymultiethnic.asp)

I. Introduction

While government and educational programs, together with the efforts of countless individuals, groups and agencies, have long-sought to eliminate prejudice and the disparaging consequences of institutional racism still deeply embedded within our society, is it not time to recognize that true unity - a unity that respects and celebrates diversity - cannot be achieved apart from the establishment of churches which intentionally and joyfully reflect the passion of Christ for all people of the world?

For it is not the institutions of government, nor of education throughout America that have been ordained by God to this task, but rather the local church, the bride of Christ; we, His people (John 17:1-3, 20-23; Acts 11:19-26, 13:1, 16ff.; Galatians 3:26-28; Ephesians 4:1-6; Revelation 5:9-10).

Surely, it breaks the heart of God to see so many churches - in this city and throughout this country - segregated ethnically and/or economically from one another, and that little has changed in the fifty years since Martin Luther King observed that eleven o'clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in the land.

Brothers and sisters, it should not be so.

Concerning the movement of American Christianity towards racial reconciliation in the 1990's, author Chris Rice - in his book, More Than Equals - wrote the following profound words ...

Yes, deep reconciliation will produce justice, and new relationships between the races.
Yes this will lead Christians to become a bright light in the public square. But I have
become convinced that God is not very interested in the church healing the race
problem. I believe it is more true that God is using race to heal the church.

II. The Prayer of Christ

In John 17:2, Christ clearly defined His mission. He was sent to the world to give eternal life to all who would believe. Reaching the lost is what it's all about; it remains today the passion of His heart.

So after first interceding for the apostles (vss. 6-19), He prayed for you and me. Specifically - three times in four verses (20-23) - He prayed that we would be one, or "perfected in unity." Our unity, He declared, will be a visible witness to the world of God's love for all people. Our oneness will demonstrate that He is Messiah, who alone can bring peace to men.

In John 17, then, Christ not only defined His mission, but delivered to us the most effective means for reaching the world with His message of hope. He did not tell us to write a book, publish a tract or develop a program; He called us to be one - on earth as it is in heaven - so that the world would know God's love and believe.

III. The Pattern of the New Testament Church

Have you ever wondered why you have to read eight chapters into the Book of Acts to find anyone willing to leave Jerusalem for the sake of the Gospel? Consider, too, that in Acts 10, the apostle, Peter, is challenged to explain the fact that he has converted a Roman soldier to Christianity. Again, the question is why?

It was, indeed, difficult for the early believers to understand that Christ intended His kingdom to extend beyond Jewish borders, to encompass people from every nation, tongue and tribe. Even into Acts 11, they still don't get it! For in various towns, they speak of Christ only with the Jews (vs. 19).

But in Acts 11:20, a significant step is taken when men of Cyprus and Cyrene intentionally take the gospel to a diverse city called Antioch and speak of Christ with both Jews and Greeks alike. As a result, considerable numbers there come to Christ. Barnabus is sent from Jerusalem and later, Paul, himself, makes this church home. In time three missionary journeys are launched from the church and the gospel is spread to all of Asia Minor - and into Europe, as well - making the church at Antioch the most influential church of the entire New Testament!

So why did the church at Antioch care about the world? Because the church at Antioch reflected the world? They were a multi-ethnic people with a multi-ethnic leadership (Acts 13:1) who considered it essential to send their money, their men and their message of hope abroad - to friends, family and countrymen in obedience to Christ.

With this in mind, it is not coincidental that believers were first called "Christians" at Antioch (Acts 11:26). As Jesus, Himself, made clear, He is most clearly recognized in the unity of His children (John 17:20-23).

IV. The Pauline Mystery

From the beginning, the church at Ephesus included both Jewish and Gentile converts (Acts 19:17). And when Paul writes later in his letter to the church at Ephesus, “For this reason, I too, having heard of your faithÉand your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you“ (Ephesians 1:15-16), it is appropriate to ask to whom is Paul referring and why such inclusive language? It is my belief that Paul has in mind the multi-ethnic nature of this church-a community of faith in which both Jewish and Gentile converts walk, work and worship God together as one.

Beginning in Ephesians 2:11, Paul turns his attention to the Gentile community within the church. According to Paul, understanding of this mystery had not been granted to past generations but had only “now been revealed to the apostles and prophets by the Spirit“ (Ephesians 3:5). A common error is to assume that the mystery Paul is speaking of is, simply, the mystery of the Gospel-the good news message of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, his atonement for sin. Yet this is most certainly not the case! For in verse 6, Paul makes clears that the mystery of Christ is something altogether different: “To be specific, the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel“ (Ephesians 3:6).

Now at this point, it’s appropriate to recall why Paul’s imprisonment began in Jerusalem. Acts 21:27-36 informs us that a mob had been incited by the false accusation that Paul brought Gentiles into the temple. In addressing the crowd, Paul offers a defense by telling the story of his conversion. And near the end of his remarks, he says something most interesting: “Then the Lord said to me, Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles“ (Acts 22:21, NIV). Notice the crowd’s response: “The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, "Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!“" (Acts 22:22, emphasis mine). Indeed, the crowd listened to Paul up until the time he spoke of his calling to the Gentiles. It was only then, as he declared “the mystery of Christ,“ that Paul became its ambassador in chains (Ephesians 6:20)!

In Ephesians 3:7-10, Paul tells us that he was called not only to proclaim the mystery of Christ among the Gentiles but also “to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church“. In other words, Paul had not only been granted insight into the mystery of Christ but also insight into how, in a practical way, the mystery is to be lived out through the local church.

V. Conclusion

In their book, Divided By Faith, sociologists Michael Emerson and Christian Smith find that evangelical churches may actually (though unintentionally) be perpetuating systemic (institutional) racism throughout America.

Not only did their research confirm (to no one's surprise) that most American evangelicals attend an ethnically and/or economically segregated churches, but more significantly, that we spend 70-80% of our time relationally (i.e., time outside of work, school, sports, etc.) with those who attend our same, local church. Thus, they conclude, evangelical Christians are not only racially segregated from one another, but relationally segregated, as well.

So how does this perpetuate the system?

Apart from ethnically and economically diverse relationships, we cannot understand others who are different from ourselves, develop trust for others who are different than ourselves, and/or love others different than ourselves, etc. Apart from understanding, trust and love, we are less likely to get involved in the plight of others different than ourselves. Without involvement, nothing changes; and, the disparaging consequences of systemic racism remain entrenched in our culture.

A brief update

It’s so cool to see how throughout the Bible Jesus uses parables to explain the hidden things. In Matthew 13:34-35 it says, “Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables. This fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet: ‘I will speak to you in parables. I will explain things hidden since the creation of the world.’”

When the disciples asked why Jesus used parables he said, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. That is why I use these parables, ‘For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.” (Matt 13:11-13)

There is something about story-telling that is powerful. For those who pay attention and hear, they will hear the deep secrets and lessons that were meant to be heard. For those who are just going through the motions, the story may sound good, but it will go right over their heads. The same thing goes for us when we read through Scripture. We cannot merely just read with our mind. We must ask that God daily reveal himself to us through His Word. Jesus builds us up through the revelation of who He is in the Scripture.

Lately, God has been revealing that truth to me once again. I have been going through one of the most difficult times of my life in terms of experiencing so much attack on my personal identity and validity as a person. My mind has been a constant battlefield in which doubt, lust, and evil imaginations have been warring. It’s been hard. It’s been painful. It definitely has not been fun. But yet, in the midst of all that God has been reminding me that my identity is found him. My validity cannot be shaken. And my destiny is secured.

In the past couple of weeks, I have gone back to the place of understanding once again that it all begins and ends with intimacy with our Savior. Evangelism is overflow. Pray and missions are intimately married. But without knowing the goodness of Jesus, we have no place to begin. In the next post, I want to talk about God’s heart towards us. I want to talk about what Evangelism really means, and where it all begins. It has been a rough season, but I am daily being renewed and reminded how deep, wide, and high the love of Christ has been.

God has really been speaking to me through his parable of the Fishing Net in Matthew 13:47, and through the idea of just fishing in general. So I want to share a little about that journey. So be looking for that.

On a side note, I wanted to give a brief update on how things have been the past week. This past weekend, I was able to go to FRESH – it was a conference at USC. I got to hear Jaeson Ma perform is single “Love.” As usual, it was way powerful and the presence of God was there. Francis Chan gave a message on the need for anguish – the idea of what it really means to have a heart that breaks for the things that are on God’s heart. Then, we rocked out do David Crowder* Band after that. It was a super encouraging time for me because I got to see a lot of my homeys from my Epic Japan trip. It was so good to see them again. After the show, I got to hang out and meet a lot of people that are a part of the Passion Churches that started out in UCLA. It was so sweet to hang out with some of the first people who followed God in planting student churches. All together, it was a definitely a good time!

Got refilled and re-energized at the prayerhouse tonight!

Wooo! Jesus is good! I'm super exhausted right now, so I'll try to be brief. These past few weeks/months have been terrible. I have been so roughed up lately. It's been really sucky and really discouraging. I have been struggling internally and externally. Inside, I have been struggling with so much temptation, lust, and brokenness. Outside, I have been facing broken relationships and a lot of crappy situations that hurt my heart even more. To sum it all up, I have felt like a sitting duck. I'm out sitting on the water with nowhere to go, and I am just taking shot after shot, and it's starting to hurt.

But tonight, I went to the prayer room. We are in a season of 24 hour prayer for the next 30 days. Thank God! I was pretty pissed and not really wanting to be there. But I went anyway not really expecting anything. I sat there for the first hour kinda just observing and trying to press in. After about an hour, my friend Eric came and asked me if I would help him talk to a fraternity about joining a inter-Greek ministry type thing. It's really cool to see what God is doing through the Greek ministry at ASU. Anyway after that, I went back to the prayer room. It was pretty full because there was all campus worship going on. So I just stayed at the back and kind of just hung out.

After a while, one of my awesome friends Chris came up to me and started praying for me. It was so good to be prayed over. I have felt so disconnected and all over the place. Having him pray over was super-encouraging. I have struggled with my identity and validity the past few days, and I have felt really rejected and attacked a lot in those areas. But as Chris prayed for me, I felt so much better. Then, another guy came up and started praying over me and giving me a prophetic word. His name was Marco. I had kind of met him before, but he didn't know me at all, and I hardly knew him. But what he said was so right on. He basically came up to me and told me all about what God put on my heart without even knowing me or my name. The word he gave me was that I had discipleship all over me. God had given me craftsman hands and that I would know exactly how to speak into people's lives. He confirmed the apostolic passion in me. It was incredible.

These were all things that God has placed on my heart and has confirmed from time to time. But there is something about a timely word. Tonight, I definitely needed that word. As we talked, Chris went again and had Marco record the word on a digital recorder so I could keep it for the future, and so I got to hear it again. But something Chris said was really powerful. He told me "the prophetic reminds us of our identity." I have been struggling sooo much with my identity and validity. God spoke to all of those things tonight. I had been needing something sooo bad. Jesus showed up and ministered to me big time.

Afterwards, I got to talk to Marco, and we got to see that we have similar hearts. I look forward to connecting more with him in the future. Another prayer that encouraged me was a word that my friend Shaun Zajas gave me as he prayed over me. He said that I didn't have to worry about my identity getting knocked down. I was like a Red Wood tree. It is nearly impenetrable. He prayed that God had planted a seed and that now it was growing into something great and big like a redwood tree. It was so cool. He prayed that if I was a superhero my name would be legacy man because my legacy would last for hundreds of years and impact lots of people.

Ahhh!!! How encouraging is all that! Especially when I was feeling really crappy. God is sooo good! I needed a good encounter with Jesus. Being in the place of prayer did that for me, and it allowed me to get refilled and re-energized. God is good! He loves us all uniquely! Isn't that crazy. I got some good words of encouragement today. But can you believe that God has just as awesome and powerful words for you too! God loves us so uniquely that his thoughts towards us are more than the sand in the sea shore (psalm 139)!

Thank you Jesus for you love. Thank you that you love us uniquely and have thoughts for us that are more than we can even count! You never run out of good thoughts and things for us! May you remind us all that you are good and that you always show up for us in time of need!

I love you Jesus!