Building Multicultural Churchesنموونە

The case for multicultural churches

A major turning point in the early church was when Gentiles first started to become whole-hearted followers of Jesus. Luke describes how this was clearly instigated by God in the book of Acts. First, Cornelius in chapter 10, and then many other Gentiles in Antioch (chapter 11). We then see Paul and Barnabus building churches amongst Gentile communities. This resulted in churches that had both Jews and Gentiles, presenting the early church with a challenge.

An ethnic challenge has already been described in Acts 6v1, a conflict between Hebraic and Grecian Jews. The Apostles quickly deal with it. Now we have a greater challenge. The church now includes Grecian and Hebraic Jews and Gentiles from different nations. A council was called to discuss and resolve the challenges this caused. We read what happened in Acts 15.

There were three possible solutions.

1. The conclusion, advocated by many, was that Gentiles had to become Jews before they could be saved. See 15v1.

2. Another possible solution was to have separate churches for Jews and Gentiles.

3. The final option was for integrated churches that honoured and respected differences.

The council chose option three, arguably the most difficult of the three. Many of the letters Paul wrote would not have been needed if the council had come to another conclusion.

We, as the modern church, still have these same options before us as we seek to build communities in a multicultural world.

There is the option of including people from other ethnicities if they become like us and adapt to the majority culture. We can have separate churches for different ethnicities and cultures. Or we can seek to build integrated churches that value ethnic and cultural distinctions, seeking to learn and respect those who are different from us.

In practice, most modern churches have chosen to go with one of the first two options. That is the easiest way to go, however, the question we need to ask is this: is this in keeping with the teaching of the New Testament? Shouldn’t we rather seek to overcome the obstacles, learning from the early church experience, and so build multicultural churches? We’ll be building on this in the days to come.