I had the privilege of helping to found Kentwood Community Church (KCC) in the fall of 1979. At that time this Southeast suburb of Grand Rapids, Michigan was 98% Anglo, predominantly of Dutch descent, and the church reflected its community. In August 2005 I sat in the Leadership Summit and listened to Bill Hybel’s talk about “holy discontent.” In the reflection time that followed I felt God saying to me, “Wayne, are you interested in reaching the whole community for Christ, or just the portion that looks, acts and thinks like you?” While our community was now blessed to be wonderfully diverse (58 languages spoken in nearby households), we were still 98% Anglo as a church. During my last four years as Senior Pastor (August 2005 to December 2009) KCC became about 15% ethnic minority, and then I had the privilege of passing the leadership baton to Kyle Ray, an African American who was KCC’s Outreach Pastor since 2006 and is now Lead Pastor. Here’s what we learned along the way:
Some things can’t be delegated
Several years before 2005 I had sensed the need for us to become a multiethnic church, and delegated it to wonderfully capable people who had the benefit of much more experience in multiethnic settings. I delegated the transition to a valued pastor on our team and he worked with a Diversity Task Force. But the team had to function without my active involvement, and I learned that some transitions are so significant that it takes the Senior Pastor’s personal investment in the process.
You can’t be half-hearted
When God placed this holy discontent in my life, I followed Hybel’s advice – “with everyday discontent, you try to remove it…with holy discontent, you feed it so it grows and become inescapable.” In the fall of 2005 I dug into God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation, and nurtured the biblical conviction that in a community like ours, God would only be fully glorified if we reflected our community and heaven (Revelation 7:9). Before “going public” with the whole congregation our staff and church board built our resolve that God was leading us this way and we would obey no matter how rigorous the journey. Motives such as political correctness or capitalizing on a fad won’t cut it – and since this change was not driven by crisis or the need to survive (which is the case for many congregations) it had to be a change driven by conviction.
You need “safe” people and places
I had little background in multiethnic contexts and few relationships with people of other ethnicities, and this was true for most of our leaders. To enlarge our “cultural competence” required “safe” conversations – I was blessed to have several people of color who knew my heart and were not offended by naïve questions as I sought to move from Unconscious incompetence → Conscious incompetence → Conscious competence → Unconscious competence.
You need diverse leadership
Based on insights from the book One Body One Spirit by George Yancey we began to intentionally diversify our Board, Staff and Ministry Area Leadership Teams (worship, youth, children’s, etc.). This inclusion of ethnic minorities at decision-making, ministry-shaping levels signaled we were not just interested in “cosmetic” diversity (so we looked like our community in public gatherings) but authentic diversity that involves the sharing of power out of a mutual reverence for Christ. We found that our intentionality invited God’s intervention by miraculously providing leaders we needed, beginning with just a few but many more coming as momentum built.
You need an overarching goal
Again, the book One Body One Spirit counseled us to connect the commitment to become multiethnic church to an overarching goal. Our mission statement, based on the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) and the Great Commandment (Mark 12:29-30), gave us prevailing mandate. In a community that was nearly 40% ethnic minority, it would be impossible to fulfill the Great Commission or “love our neighbors as ourselves” without becoming a diverse church.
Gratefully, the journey continues as increasing numbers of Anglo KCCers share the conviction and invest in becoming more culturally competent, experiencing the benefit that comes from fellowship and worship in a diverse congregation. And God continues to draw to the church those from “every language and nation” for His glory!
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I was and remain part of this church and movement. I am grateful to Pastor Wayne for listening to God’s call. It is indeed a small piece of heaven!
The multi-ethnic church and the homogeneous principle are not mutually exclusive. But Americans like to treat them that way. That is because we llive in an either/or world of our own creation. The homogeneous unit principle was born out of the context where everyone was expected to worship in one language (usually English), whether the participants knew that language or not. In Grand Rapids where a multi-ethnic church is functioning, what happens to the immigrants whose first language is not English and especially those who do not speak English at all? Do they need to learn English in order to worship? If so, they might find themselves worshiping in a language in which half or more of what is said is outside their vocabulary and understanding. How many Anglos would continue to attend a service where they could not understand half or more of what is spoken? Or does it not matter that worshipers only get half of what God is saying on a Sunday morning. Is anyone in a multi-ethnic congregation taking the time to learn the languages of the ethnic groups where people do not speak English. It is highly unlikely that a multi-ethnic congregation will be conducted in any language other than English. The assumption of many Anglos is that if people are willing to learn “our” language (English) then we can all worship as one big happy family. That is the arrogance that the promoters of the homogeneous unit principle were attempting to address. Does anyone know of a multi-ethnic congregation where a large number of Anglos have taken the time and effort to learn someone else’s language? My guess is that they most likely gravitate to a congregation where people speak their own language (which is their own homogeneous group in terms of language). Much is may sound disconcerting, when everyone has to know the same language, then that is a homogeneous unit that excludes people who do not speak that language.
Glen I advocate a church model that is inclusive of the native majority group language and the immigrant language. I call it the Hehogenous model. Heterogenous on the majority language group (multi-ethnic) and homogenous on the immigrant groups where immigrants can be ministered to in their language and cultural context. To avoid segregation congregants are encouraged to attend the service of their choice. Some immigrants desiring to assimilate more quickly will opt to attend the majority group language, while a few native born will attend an immigrant service to learn the language of that group. One advantage to this model is that second and subsequent generations of immigrants can also attend the same church with their immigrant family members albeit they will attend the majority group language service which has become their heart language.