Pastoring a multiethnic multicultural church is like being a parent for the first time. When my son turned 19 and went off to college I said to him, “Son you have never been an adult before and I have never been the father of an adult before. We have to learn some things together. You have to be patient with me because my tendency is to father you like when you were ten and eleven and twelve and give you all of the answers to all of the problems you are going to have.” I have learned that I don’t have all the answers. But I learned to be quiet.

I find that the work I do is something like that I have never been down this road before and our church has never been down this road before. And there are not a lot of other people but a handful in our country that are doing what we are doing. So we are learning together and struggling. We have a made a number of mistakes and we have had a lot of wonderful victories.

Our desire is that our church family reflects the makeup of our diverse immigrant community. We work in 10 different languages under a unified purpose statement which is, “to know Jesus Christ personally and to carry on His ministry”, a unified ministry strategy and a unified worship service using a simultaneous language translation of our service. Our language ministries are motivated to share the Gospel by Acts 2:6, which states that, “Each heard them speaking in his own language.”  The Day of Pentecost was a miracle of the Holy Spirit; at Willingdon we have the miracle of technology, which allows each to hear the gospel in his own language.

The purpose of our language ministries is the same as every other ministry in our church. We want to accomplish four things in the life of every person at Willingdon Church through our four-part strategy depicted by the word LINK.

Lead them to commitment to Christ.

Include people in covenant community.

Nurture their completeness toward spiritual maturity

Kindle their calling towards ministry and missions

The structure of our language ministries. Our language ministries are not separate churches or congregations. We do not promote separate worship services on Sunday. We have one congregation with distinct language ministries like we have other age group ministries. We want Sunday morning to be a celebration of the entire church family. When you have a separate preacher you build a separate congregation and subsequently you build an ethnic church.

The origin of our language ministries. Our language ministries were born in the heart of people who felt a need to reach their countrymen. Each language ministry, like all of our ministries, has the freedom within the general direction and policy structure of the church to develop the programs and tools they need to accomplish the ministry goals God has called them to fulfill. One of our immigrant pastors said it this way, “Our purpose, our strategy, our core values provide the main ingredients for ministry but each group is allowed to cook using their own spices.”

Our simulcast translations. The teaching staff provides a complete manuscript of the message on Fridays. Translators have time to review and prepare for the service. Translators sit in a sound room listening to the message with headphones and rebroadcasting it into the language of the people. Listeners use wireless systems with an ear bud and a radio receiver tuned into the frequency of the language of their choice. We have spent a great deal of money to make this work but we have found that the rate of return in building community is well worth the investment.

What we have learned.

Be Biblical.  The key to reaching different cultures is really simple build a biblical church.  The Bible is supra cultural it will work in any culture.  We are to “become one new man”, a new culture of becoming a follower of Jesus.

Develop a clear sense of purpose. If your multicultural ministry is to co-exist you will miss the whole purpose. Work together toward a vision or purpose that pulls all cultures to worship and serve together.  Our strategy, LINK reflects our purpose.

Develop an understanding of who lives next door.  Who are your neighbors? What do they look like? How do they talk? What do they eat? What do they celebrate?  Why are they here? Are they here because they are running from bad government, pursuing business opportunities, or to provide their children with a good education? This awareness will aid you in serving them.

Meet their needs.  Our best platform to interest our community in the Gospel is our building. We host British Columbia Institute of Technology’s graduation services, 5-6 thousand graduates a year with parents, grandparents and siblings in attendance. Over 60 community groups use our facilities. People come into our building for a community function only to return to the church when facing life issues.

(This article is an excerpt from a workshop delivered by Dr. Kroeker at the Multi-cultural Local Church Conference at Biola University, October 4,5, 2002.)