![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7660/3739/400/negative_energy.jpg)
This came from
http://www.fatherbob.com.au/father_bob/2006/08/where_do_your_a.html
via
http://mattstone.blogs.com/eclectic_itchings/
Thanks, guys!
The blog of Revd Marcus Bull.
As a result of globalisation, migrant communities are springing up in every major
city in the world; this is as true of the UK context as anywhere else. And migrant churches are increasingly being established. Growing numbers of urban churches hold their own service on a Sunday morning, and then allow (e.g.) a Nigerian congregation to use their premises later in the day. These ethnic congregations are generally lively and missionary, reaching other members of their own community.
However, segregation is surely not appropriate in the kingdom of God. What is needed, surely, is for the inherited, established churches to find ways of integrating members of other cultures, languages, etc. Initially, this may mean regularly worshipping together with the migrant congregation. But the goal must be the establishment of one church with a diverse membership. That is quite a challenge, and will not necessarily be an easy task. But it is essential for the credibility of our message.
The multicultural church movement in the USA uses three images to speak about different types of church in a multicultural context.
The ‘melting pot’ refers to a traditional attitude that expects outsiders (from diverse cultural backgrounds) to attend American churches and fit in with American ways of worshipping.
Many immigrants are unhappy with such an approach, and are beginning to form their own congregations, and the ‘salad bar’ image refers to these separate, segregated ethnic/racial groupings.
But the multicultural church movement rejects both of these in favour of a third image. The ‘salad bowl’ type of church sensitively mixes a variety of individuals and cultures in a way that respects and values everyone.
The conviction of this movement is that many churches in the USA are declining precisely because, where their communities have become multi-cultural, the churches have not: “… while most of us experience cultural and racial diversity daily, the majority of our churches remain racially and culturally homogenous … Sunday at 11.00 a.m. is still the most segregated hour across America.”
It is evident that, as social patterns change and ethnic populations shift, churches need to be creatively embracing their neighbours. The Office of Evangelism and Racial/Cultural Diversity of the US Presbyterian Church (http://www.pcusa.org/diversity/index.htm) seeks to assist congregations as they welcome all people in a diverse society. And they find a biblical mandate for multi-cultural church:
"When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place (Acts 2.1),
no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female (Galatians 3.28),
a house of prayer for all peoples (Isaiah 56.7b),
a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people and language (Revelation 7.9),
all are one in Christ (Galatians 3.28).
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28.19)."
A (unified) multicultural church will therefore intentionally recognise, celebrate and incorporate a diverse membership in all areas of church life. The congregation will worship using different arts and languages, spiritual practices and theological expressions. The church leaders will ensure that the different cultures and ethnicities who make up the congregation are equally represented on church boards, in committee meetings, in executive positions, and in all aspects of power-sharing. And when the church engages in evangelism, it will ‘provide Good News in a cup that people recognise’ with great sensitivity and respect to their cultural and traditional backgrounds and needs.
In recent decades, the German church has suffered a painful experience of loss. Many members have left the churches, the public and social face of the church has declined, and the financial resources of the denominations have diminished. An increasing process of ‘unchurching’, secularisation, individualism and pluralism of religion is at work. Christian influence on families, schools and society in general are declining, and the proportion of the population with no connection to church is increasing (many of those from the former GDR, who grew up under atheist communism, have no religious education at all). In some of the cities in the Western part of Germany about 50% of the inhabitants belong to a Christian church, but in Eastern regions that proportion falls to around 10%, and the rate of infant baptism is falling rapidly. Church is no longer a constitutive element of life.
As a result, the ‘Folk Churches’ of Germany have been forced to restructure their work and re-assess priorities. Church buildings have been sold, more and more parishes have been combined, and the institutional future of the German church is uncertain. (On the other hand, some migrant workers in German cities have formed their own churches, which are very active and missionary by nature. But a working ecumenical relationship with them has not yet been established.)
Since the 1990s not only the evangelical free churches (which are usually mission-oriented) but most of the established church traditions in Germany have been engaged in a process of dialogue under the slogan “towards a missionary oikumene”, and with the programmatic statement “The most important task of the churches in Europe is to proclaim in word and action the Gospel of salvation for all people.”
As the churches have worked together toward this end, they have found that conflicts and disagreements between traditions have been avoided, and the focus of discussion has been more and more on those areas of agreement and convergence between churches. (Despite this ecumenical co-operation, though, many churches still focus on themselves. Critics have claimed that the new interest in mission is no more than a self-interested, self-saving programme of action, and it is true that the missionary aim of many of the German churches seems oriented towards consolidation, pragmatism and re-organisation.)
However, a number of significant initiatives are taking place:
For the German church, it is becoming more and more apparent that mission and ecumenism must go hand in hand. All of the churches are facing the same challenges, and adjusting to the same cultural changes. In their post-Christian society there is an urgency to reflect together on the meaning and practice of contextual mission, and to encourage and inspire one another in the proclamation of the Gospel.
The German cultural context has many parallels with the state of the church in the UK, where nearly 80% of the population want to describe themselves as ‘Christian’ but only about 7% attend church. Many of our denominations have been engaged in church-planting projects, and there is still some impetus for such strategies, but the rate of church-planting has been declining. There are also available in the UK a wide variety of courses offering an introduction to the Christian faith, and this process of ‘catechumenate’ has, in the last few years, had quite some impact (look at the effect of the ‘Alpha’ course). However, interest in such courses as ‘Alpha’ seems to be declining, most of those who attend the courses are already on the fringes of the church (or the ‘de-churched’ in society),and many churches are realising the urgency of reaching those who are totally ‘un-churched’ (a rapidly increasing proportion of the population).
While church-planting and Alpha-course styled initiatives may not exactly have ‘had their day’ in the UK context, it is becoming apparent that other approaches are needed. I am taken with the German concept of “locations for rejoining the church”, and I wonder if a strategy along those lines might be appropriate here? But I am also convinced that even more creative thinking must take place in their context and in ours if our proclamation of the Gospel is to be effective.