Mul·ti·cul·tur·al Church

I walked up the dirt driveway towards the tent as I could hear the singing in the church.  It was a discipline to make myself come this morning & be the only white, English speaking person in this sea of Swazi faces speaking SiSwati.  A discipline to focus during another morning where I would maybe understand a few of the words of a couple songs, be elated when they sing a song in English, and wonder if I should have just stayed home so that my friends don't have to translate for me to understand what is going on in the service.  It would be easier for them & they would be finished earlier if they didn't have to cater to me.

Yet, I go...because "all the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name." (Psalm 86:9)  In those moments when we are all singing Hallelujah, I find myself thinking that the line between heaven & earth is a little blurry in that moment & I can imagine eternity a little more clearly.

In some ways living multi-culturally is so difficult, yet at the same time, it's easier than any of us want to admit.  I have been part of several communities that want to be multi-cultural, bilingual, ethnically diverse, etc.  Yet very few are actually doing this well and as I live as a minority in another country and reflect on this, I want to share a few things that I've learned with those of you in the US.  I think we're making it more complicated than it is, but also it is complicated by our lack of understanding of true hospitality as believers, specifically in America.  Here are a few tips on building a multi-cultural congregation, just from my observations as an outsider in church in another country:

~  If you aren’t multi-cultural throughout the week, your congregation isn’t going to be on Sundays.  MLK said that Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week, but honestly, a lot of our lives are segregated.  We don't hang out with people different from us - racially, economically, educationally, so why would we expect our Sundays to be any different?  But if we are intentional about building relationships with people of all walks of life throughout the week, it's more likely to carry over to the church.  And it destroys the division brought about by sin & the fall.

~ Practice Hospitality 101 - Encourage your congregation to greet people (even if you don’t speak their language) & model this.  If you aren't greeting everyone who does speak your language, you're not going to greet those whom you have to cross a language or cultural barrier to greet.  There is an older lady in the church here who speaks ABSOLUTELY no English & barely understands my Siswati greeting, yet every Sunday that she's at church, so makes it a point to come and shake my hand and smile at me while speaking to me in Siswati.

~ Practice Hospitality 102 - If you have someone who speaks the language that your guests speak, translate.  Yes, it may make some people uncomfortable or it may make the service last a few minutes longer...but it speaks volume about your values (everyone needs to hear the Word of God, everyone is welcome here, we recognize you & see you as an individual, it's more important for you to hear the Word of God than for me to catch the football game after church so I don't mind staying an extra 15 minutes so that the service can be translated).  As someone who has sat through several church services in various countries that aren't translated, I really respect the ones that do translate -even if it's just for one person.  Many weeks, I am the only non-Siswati speaking person in church so there isn't a need to translate everything from the front, but they make sure that someone who can translate is sitting next to me & they translate the sermon into my ear. 

 ~ Be ok with people not understanding things.  If you don't translate everything, don't stress out about it.  Don't feel like every song has to be in two languages or that every announcement must get translated.  It speaks about the importance of the Word of God that it is the thing that gets priority in translation.  

~ Stretch those who do speak the other language to bridge the gap & applaud their efforts in doing so.  Know who in your congregation is bilingual, and use their gifts & experiences to build up the church.  Recruit bilingual people to be part of your leadership & greeting teams so that there is a bilingual presence throughout the worship time.  I love that the children of the church here can tell me their names & greet me, even if it's one long sentence saying "Hello.  I am fine."  They are making an effort & it makes me regret not attempting to use my Spanish more with the people who came to church speaking Spanish. 

~ Recognize that if a parent doesn't speak English, their young children won't either, so it's important to have nursery & Sunday school teachers who are bilingual to reach those children.  

~ Thank people who are a minority in your congregation for coming & admit to them you don't have it all figured out but we're in this together to figure out multi-culturally what multi-cultural looks like lived out.  Encourage them that they aren't a burden & it is a pleasure to worship with them because from their experience & background, they have different facets of the character of God that we need to learn from in order to have a fuller understanding of who God is.  And through them stepping out of their comfort zone to come to this church that is different than their background, we are all getting to experience a little taste of what heaven will be like with people from all nations worshiping together. 

"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" "

Revelation 7:9-10