The growth of Newport Hills Community Church’s Mongolian membership, near Seattle, Washington is, by Pastor Paul Burnam’s explanation, a God Thing.

Believers of Mongolian descent, Mary & Egma Galsan were looking for a church home. They mentioned this to Dee Burris, Mary’s employer who attends NHCC. “I invited them to attend our little church and give it a try,” said Dee.

When Mary and her family experienced the genuine acceptance of the Newport Hills congregation, they decided to stay.

”People were very friendly and the worship was awesome,” said Mary. “What made me feel at home was that the church was mixed. We visited other churches but they were 100% American. NHCC had Asians, Mexicans and African-Americans. All of them were treated the same. This made me feel comfortable.”

Mary proved to be the doorway into an entire community of first generation Mongolian immigrants who longed to be together. “It was obvious that Mary was an evangelist with a great passion for her people” stated Pastor Burnam.

Witnessing the obvious moving of the Lord Pastor Burnam said, “We’re going where God’s going.”

That commitment opened the door to the start of an immigrant ministry. “In the beginning I never thought this would happen,” said Mary, “it is all God’s work.”

Mary began inviting her Mongolian friends to the church. Last year, nine trusted Christ and eight were baptized. The spiritual vitality has positively affected the others in the congregation. Currently, of the 160-member congregation, 25 are of Mongolian descent.

The natural thought of Pastor Burnam and his leaders was to start a separate church for them. When they suggested this to Mary and the others they declined the offer.

“People wanted to stay in the English church,” said Mary. “They liked the worship and Pastor Paul’s sermons. He is very easy to understand.”

Paul scrapped that idea. Unaware of what other churches were doing, he looked to the Lord for how to proceed.

The solution was a simulcast translation service where Mary interprets the sermon. Words in English and Mongolian are projected on two separate screens. They offer one song per Sunday in the Mongolian language. One Sunday evening per month, there is a Mongolian fellowship that provides discipleship training for the new believers.

What are the key lessons to learn from the Newport Hills story?

First.

God delights to create intercultural unity and looks for opportunities to bring it about. As He does so, God seems to look for people who will not get in the way through pride or tradition. God is pleased to work through humble people who lay aside personal agendas and yield to His.

Second.

The importance of trusted relationships. A worker asked her trusted employer about her church. An enthusiastic Mongolian woman began inviting others from her community to the church. The pastor was a humble man who welcomed any and all visitors, whether they were his “target audience” or not. In fact, the congregation did more than allow the newcomers to stay; they took intentional steps to make them feel welcome and wanted.

Third.

Don’t assume that ethnic groups want to conduct their worship services separately. That seemed the logical way to lovingly accommodate the growing number of Mongolians, but they desired to be enfolded into the whole group to draw strength and build relationships in a community and culture beyond their own.

A final insight concerns the trustworthiness of God. The Newport Hills leadership did not move down this path because of a predetermined plan. Rather, they found that God was doing a new thing among them. Along the way, the leaders discovered God’s ability to show them clearly as they sought His will and listened sensitively to each other. As helpful as books and magazines are, the ultimate teacher is the sovereign God who not only desires unity in diversity, but also knows the way any church can move in that direction.