Multi-Ethnic Churches
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Summer 2015 MULTI-ETHNIC C H U R C H E S [email protected] | www.9marks.org Tools like this are provided by the generous investment of donors. Each gift to 9Marks helps equip church leaders with a biblical vision and practical resources for displaying God’s glory to the nations through healthy churches. Donate at: www.9marks.org/donate. Or make checks payable to “9Marks” and mail to: 9 Marks 525 A St. NE Washington, DC 20002 For any gift of $300 ($25/month), you’ll receive two new 9Marks books published throughout the year as well as advance copies of new 9Marks audio. All donations to 9Marks are tax-deductible. 2 Contents Editor’s Note Jonathan Leeman Page 6 RACISM AND RACIAL RECONCILIATION How Do We Respond to Cultural Crises Over Race? There are few responses to hurting more hurtful than silence. By Brian Davis Page 8 Racial Reconciliation, the Gospel, and the Church In order to understand what gospel-grounded racial reconciliation is and what it means for the church, we need a better understanding of race. By Jarvis Williams Page 12 Racism as Favoritism Find freedom from anxiety and fear, and celebrate the unifying, favoritism-destroying power of the gospel. By Trillia Newbell Page 17 Don’t Be Color-Blind at Church Christians should be both colorblind and color-conscious. Why? Because that’s what God is like. By Isaac Adams Page 20 5 Steps to Racial Peace-Making It’s not magic, it’s discipleship. By Russ Whitfield Page 23 Why the Race Conversation Is So Hard As a White man, I don’t want to join the “race conversation” in America today. By Jonathan Leeman Page 26 3 MULTI-ETHNIC CHURCHES Re-Thinking Homogeneity: The Biblical Case for Multi-Ethnic Churches Does the Bible support homogeneity? Or does Scripture set forth a different vision for the local church? By Aubrey Sequeira Page 37 Building a Multi-Cultural Ministry on Gospel Doctrine Robust truth will keep churches and friendships together amid their diversity, whereas lowest-common-denominator theology promotes strife and feebleness. By John Folmar Page 44 Pastor’s Forum: Can You Reverse-Engineer a Multi-Ethnic Church? Can you manufacture a multi-ethnic church programmatically, pragmatically, or consumeristically? By John Onwuchekwa, Greg Gilbert, and Andy Davis Page 48 Lessons Learned from South Africa about Multi-Ethnicity in Churches Here are 7 suggesionts for pastors so that they might shepherd God’s flock more faithfully in light of the diversity of his sheep. By Gustav Pritchard Page 52 Does the Asian-American Church Need an Adjusted Gospel? Many say, “The ‘white Western gospel’ needs to be adjusted, or it will become obsolete.” Can this possibly be true? By Jeffrey K. Jue Page 56 One Example of Reaching Your Multi-Ethnic Neighbors Once one understands the place of the local church in God’s eternal plan, it’s worth re- thinking both ethnic-language church planting and ethnic-language ministry in general. By Juan Sanchez Page 63 4 THE JOYS AND CHALLENGES OF MULTI-ETHNICITY The Joys and Challenges of a Multi-Ethnic Church The joys and the challenges of pastoring a multi-ethnic congregation are mostly two sides of the same coin. By John Smuts Page 67 Why White Churches Are Hard for Black People These aren’t true for every white church or for every black person, but the hope is that they lead to graceful and authentic conversation, to prayer, to action, and to joy in our Lord. By Isaac Adams Page 70 Being Asian American in a White Church There is no singular Asian-American experience. But for many, navigating the differences between their two cultures brings about difficulty—even in the church. By Tim Chiang Page 75 Helping Asian Churches Become Multi-Ethnic So, how can a church with a particular ethnic identity strive to become more multiethnic? Here are eight principles to consider. By Patrick Cho Page 79 BOOK REVIEWS Right Color, Wrong Culture, by Bryan Loritts Reviewed by Sam Lam Page 84 Reviving the Black Church, by Thabiti Anyabwile Reviewed by Jemar Tisby Page 88 United by Faith, by Curtiss Paul DeYoung Reviewed by Russ Whitfield Page 91 Bloodlines, by John Piper Reviewed by H. B. Charles Page 97 5 Jonathan Leeman Editor’s Note Satan has always loved to exploit the lines of ethnic division. Think of how the Egyptians in Exodus hold the Jews in contempt. Or how the brand new Jerusalem church, price sticker still on the backseat window, divides in Acts 6 between Greek-speaking and Hebrew-speaking Jews. So churches today too often mimic their host culture’s ethnic rivalries, whether in South Africa, India, or America. Or at least, too often they forget they possess a resource for overcoming racial or ethnic strife that the world does not have: the gospel. Most evangelicals recognize that possessing the righteousness of Christ means “putting on” that righteousness in every-day decisions. Yet the same is true of the reconciliation we share with one another in the gospel (see Eph. 2:11-22). We are to “put on” that reconciliation. If we do not put on that righteousness, and if we do not put on that reconciliation, we call into question whether we have been declared righteous or “one new man.” The blood-bought reconciliation that believers share with one another in the gospel, ethnically and otherwise, does not require any one of us to participate in any one form of reconciling work, as in, “If you don’t carry that picket, you’re not a Christian!” But it does require all of us to undertake some sort of reconciling work. Those who have been made one new man work as one new man. It’s just what they do. Consider this Journal 9Marks’ way of inviting you into that work of ethnic reconciliation. Don’t you want to see churches in South Africa, India, America, and everywhere not lagging behind their neighbors in this area, but pushing out ahead? What a witness that would be to the power and glory and goodness of the gospel! Most of the articles have been borne out of the American experience, but hopefully the lessons will translate into any national setting. Brian Davis begins very much in the moment of cultural crisis and walks us by the hand out of it. Jarvis Williams then explains the relationship between the gospel and racial reconciliation. Trillia Newbell exposes the symptoms of racism in our hearts where we might not 6 have recognized them. Isaac Adams and Russ Whitefield point us to some unexpected lessons of humility as we approach the topic. Turning to multi-ethnic churches, Aubrey Sequeira provides a substantial and foundational theological piece. John Folmar, Gustav Pritchard, Jeffrey Jue, and the brothers in the pastoral forum advise us on how you may or may not go about building a multi-ethnic church. Juan Sanchez and John Smuts offer a couple of case-studies from their own situations. Isaac Adams and Tim Chiang provide a couple of the more challenging pieces for White readers in White churches, while Patrick Cho gives advice for predominantly Asian-American settings. My own piece, let’s just say, is a bit experimental. Here’s the key: it’s more about the power described in the second half than the logic employed in the first half; and it’s more for White readers than minority readers than you might at first think. Friends, even if you don’t have time to read anything, stop for a moment now and pray for Christ’s churches around the world: that they would increasingly fulfill that promise first whispered to Abraham of a multi-national blessing and a multi-national people. Pray that our boast would not be in our skin color, our music style, our parentage, our manner of expression, whether we say “pastor” or call him by his first name, or anything that tends to divide one ethnicity from another. Instead, pray that our boast would be in Christ alone, and our love would extend one step more broadly today than it did yesterday. 7 By Brian Davis How Do We Respond to Cultural Crises Over Race? Is there anything proactive we can do in response to current cultural crises involving racial issues? What I mean by “cultural crisis” is the tornado of racially charged events that have been happening in our country as of late, events that have taken these issues from other places and brought it, in God’s providence, to everyone’s attention. Mike Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner in New York City, Walter Scott in South Carolina, Freddy Gray in Baltimore. I want to start by saying something that’s obvious, but still needs to be said: All African Americans are not the same and many African Americans are very hurt. That said, there is a variety of viewpoints even in the black community—there are Voddie Bauchams and there are Thabiti Anyabwiles, and they disagree how to feel. It has been my experience, though, that the vast majority have been hurting in some ways, especially in the past year. So, what should the church do? What can the church do? I want to look at a passage of Scripture that I think helps us as we consider these difficult questions. In 1 Peter 3:8, Peter writes to his elect exiles in the church and I think he has words for us, too. The passage reads: “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” UNITY OF MIND I’ve heard it said that “the gospel creates ethics.” I think that’s right, but I haven’t heard many people talking that way about racially charged issues.