The Intentionally Multi-Cultural Church

“Welcome Summer Fest 2024” is over and was a great success! Thank you to all who participated! We opened our arms wide to our community motivated by the open arms of Christ on the cross.

I loved every minute of it: the bounce house, the tie-die shirts, the corn hole tournament, live music with our own Tim on the harmonica, basketball, facepaint on every cheek, more food than we could put away, and a smiling team at the welcome table! It was awesome!

One thing that God showed me was just how diverse the community of Warrendale in Detroit is! During the last few weeks we have met precious people from Senegal, Syria, Iraq, Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, The Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Serbia, Mauritania, and more. We have been blessed to have visitors coming to our church from some of these nations as well.

For some, the intentionality of being a multi-cultural church is new. By intentionality I mean that we work to value and represent the cultures that are in our community in all we do. That will include the languages in which we read Scripture, the songs we sing with their distinct background and tone, and even the illustrations that we use in our preaching that will not be too regionally understood. We want to work on this list as we grow as a church to invite and include those redeemed of all nations, tribes, and tongues.

First, though, it is important to think about WHY it is so important to be intentional about being multi-cultural in a church. Here are my top three reasons:

#1. The diversity of the church on display reflects the beauty of God’s creative work. God did not guide one human culture only into existence. Through his sovereign hand since man began to multiply and fill the earth he has been sovereignly orchestrating the tapestry of languages, foods, and cultures.

#2. The diversity of the church reflects the invitation of God’s good news. In other words, it shows the enormity of his love. The Gospel of Jesus is for all peoples of the world. John 3:16 among many other passages clearly teach us this. We are being simply obedient to intentionally express the gospel in any languages and cultures that are in our community.

#3. The diversity of the church reflects the nature of the church as the redeemed family of God. The gospel makes brothers and sisters out of all of us. He brings us together into one body. When unbelievers visit, they should be surprised and even shocked at the love we have for one another that binds us together despite our differences.

What do you think of these reasons? What would you add to it?

Let me know by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post!