One of the most significant developments in church life in the UK over recent decades has been the growing presence in our churches of those from differing ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Particularly in the larger towns and cities, but also in regional and rural areas, the diversity of our congregations has increased. In London, for example, the English Church Census of 2005 revealed that only 42 per cent of church goers were white, while 44 per cent were black and 14 percent from other non-white backgrounds.
This can be hugely exciting, bringing fresh impetus, growth and life into your church. However, it can also be frustrating and difficult, giving rise to conflict, language difficulties and an uncertainty about how to proceed. Often the joys and frustrations come along hand in hand and the challenge for church leaders is how to shape and steer this new development in such a way as to reflect heaven on earth, creating a healthy, integrated, international community of Christians in the here and now.
THINKING BIBLICALLY ABOUT MULTICULTURAL CHURCH
Early on in Scripture we find that God affirms ethnic diversity. In Genesis 10, we find that 70 nations are the product of Noah’s three sons and that these are all offspring of Noah himself, thereby facilitating a sense of common humanity.1 Old Testament scholar Claus Westermann states that ‘God is the creator of all humankind… the human race, which exists today as a multiplicity of nations, is the humanity created by God’.2 And so when God calls Abraham (Genesis 12), it is with the promise that not only would he and his offspring
