Books on Leading Multi-Cultural Churches. # 36 29/06/2021
Welcome. I hope you find this blog useful. Do you know of clergy or theological students who you think it would be helpful to forward it to?
Books on Leading Multi-Cultural Churches – A Survey.
This blog aims particularly to be of help for those in leadership or those preparing for it.
The Top Three.
1. Leading a Multi-Cultural Church – Malcolm Patten – SPCK – 2016 (164 pages)
This is the essential read on the topic. Malcolm Patten, a Baptist minister, has written a warm-hearted and sure footed account of the theoretical and practical ground to help clergy ‘navigate with greater confidence and wisdom’(p 7) the issues that a multi-cultural society draws our attention to. He shrewdly notes the twin challenge to attend to both racial justice which ‘starts with the problems of the past and works forward’ and multicultural ministry which ‘starts with a vision of the future and works back’ (p 11).
The first half on ‘Laying Foundations’ has chapters on ‘Thinking biblically about multicultural church’ looking at Old and New Testaments in considerable detail, using a wide range of sources and presumably drawing on his PhD material. Subsequent chapters look at ‘multi-culturalism in context’ and ‘overcoming prejudice’.
The second half is on ‘Working it out in practice’. The chapter on worship makes a variety of suggestions for worship to cover a wider cultural range. On pastoral challenges he notes the inevitable and right place of ‘discomfort’, rightly saying that multi-cultural congregations can be ‘both the best of places and the worst of places’ (p 7). He notes the importance of finding friends of other backgrounds to turn to for advice. The book benefits greatly from his hard-won experience, especially his readiness to thoroughly raise and explore issues of race and culture with church members. Rather than making big, abstract statements he concludes that ‘Success in developing a healthy multicultural environment will come not so much from a few big changes but more likely from a great many small ones, reflecting a subtle shift towards being an instinctively inclusive congregation’ (p 149).
A couple of points about context. Firstly all the author’s experience (like mine) has been in London. This makes it readily transferable to other cosmopolitan metropolises (Birmingham, Berlin, Barcelona); less so for towns with substantial settlements of just a few ethnic and religious minorities (Burnley, Blackburn, Bradford). Secondly, it was by coming from Hartlepool to study at Spurgeon’s college that Malcolm’s interest in multi-cultural ministry began through friendship with a black fellow student (he later married his sister). By and large Anglican colleges to our detriment, have not provided ordinands with the same ‘equal status contact’.
2. Multicultural Ministry – David A Anderson -Zondervan – 2004 (201 pages)
Anderson is a black American who planted a church in Baltimore. This is short and readable. A running theme is indicated in the book’s sub-title is ‘Finding your church’s unique rhythm’, which helpfully shapes its approach, namely the interaction between minister and context so that there is no simple routine to follow but rather a constantly fluid, creative, improvised, and usually joyful interactive dance at the heart of our ministry.
He has a gift for quotable illustrations. He compares diversity in worship with when he and his Korean wife invite friends for a meal. Serving full-on Korean food would be too much, but spicing up the meal with a few Korean side dishes (where it won’t matter if they are not to everyone’s taste) adds to the occasion, so whilst worship needs a central core that is generally accessible you can nonetheless risk enhancing it with a few culturally specific embellishments. On African Americans disappointment with too cerebral and restrained teaching sermons, he refers his wife’s dismay when, after taking him to a sophisticated, tasteful, superbly presented French restaurant, he wanted to stop for a hamburger on the way home. He hadn’t had the nourishment he needed.
He concludes with a 16-page ‘Six Session Racial Reconciliation Curriculum’ which could helpfully feed into the thinking of those drawing up the sort of courses recommended by From Lament to Action.
(He has also written Gracism: The art of Inclusion - IVP/USA, 2007)
3. Where the Nations Meet: The Church in a Multicultural World – Stephen A Rhodes -IVP/USA -1998 (240 pages)
Rhodes is a pastor in the United Methodist Church in Virginia. The main chapters look at specific characteristics of multicultural churches:
· fulfillment of God’s promises;
· under the lordship of Jesus Christ;
· empowered by the Holy Spirit;
· accepts God’s gift of being ‘born again’;
· affirms cultural identity; is a contrast community;
· emphasizes evangelical wholeness;
· both conflictual and conciliatory;
· a community of perseverance;
· composed of God’s pilgrim people;
· eschatological.
In each chapter he draws together stories of members of his church from a wide variety of backgrounds, along with widely read theological illumination of the particular characteristic.
Other Books: British.
The Culturally Intelligent Leader: Developing Multi-ethnic Communities in a Multicultural Age – Hirpo Kumbi – Instant Apostle – 2017.
The author is from Ethiopia and is a church planter with the Fellowship of the Churches of Christ. Proably the only British book to give thorough attention to Cultural Intelligence,with particular attention to reverse mission leaders.
Crossing the Divide: A Call to Embrace Diversity – Owen Hylton – IVP – 2009 (182 pages)
Rooted in his experience as a black pastor of leading an ethnically mixed Pentecostal church in South London, and drawing heavily on the experiences and responses of his church members.
Ethnicity: The Inclusive Church Resource – Michael Jagessar – DLT – 2015 (112 pages)
Includes four personal experiences and then a useful section on the ‘Theology of Ethnicity’ but little on the realities of congregational life.
Building a Multi-Ethnic Church – Linbert Spencer – SPCK – 2007 (161 pages)
Written by a Salvationist who served on the Faith in the City commission, includes a useful ‘Checklist for a multi-ethnic church’.
Church in Black and White – John L Wilkinson – St Andrews Press – 1993 (249 pages)
Sub-titled ‘The Black Christian Tradition in ‘Mainstream’ Churches in England: A White Response and Testimony’, a highly original and thoughtful book that springs out of parish experience, and uses historical and theological resources to identify the tradition.
Other Books: American.
Whilst there are significant differences between the UK & the USA (see last week’s blog # 35), including church life, American books have the advantage of having addressed the issues for longer. In particular, they give greater attention to congregational specifics, and greater shared and systematised learning which British churches still have little facility for. All these books are full of practical wisdom to a greater extent than British books. And they are very good communicators.
Ethnic Blends: Mixing Diversity into your local church – Mark Deymaz & Harry Li – Zondervan – 2010 (232 pages)
Works from the experience of Mosaic Church in central Arkansas (and using blends of coffee as a running theme) it runs through ways of overcoming obstacles to ethnically diverse congregations in a very grounded (sic) way.
People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States – Michael O Emerson, with Rodney M Woo - Princeton University Press – 2006 (261 pages)
Written by a sociology professor and Baptist pastor, combines congregational experience with substantial statistical analysis.
Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church – Mark Deymaz - John Wiley and Sons – 2007 (196 pages)
After a biblical introduction, it looks at ‘The Seven Core Commitments of a Multi-Ethnic Church’ (embrace dependence; take intentional steps; empower diverse leadership; develop cross-cultural relationships; pursue cross-cultural competence; promote a spirit of inclusion; mobilise for impact); and a final section on planting, revitalising and transforming churches.
One New People: Models for Developing a Multiethnic Church – Manuel Ortiz -IVP/USA – 1996 (158 pages)
By a Hispanic pastor, well-grounded with plenty of examples.
Speaking for Myself.
My Building Multi-Racial Churches (Latimer Trust 1994, reprinted 2020; 45 pages) is available from Latimer at £4.50. Also my booklet Worship in a Multi-Ethnic Society (2018) is available from Grove at £3.95. If you email me at stjames.john@mail.com I can send you both for £7 post free.
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Add-On
The phoney-war over disadvantaged white working-class boys versus disadvantaged black boys, with the former supposedly hobbled by misuse of the concept of ‘white privilege’ rumbles on. It would be illuminating to de-racialise the issue, and re-analyse it from the standpoint of parenting, especially fathering. The Sewell Report referred to American research that ‘father absence was tied to children’s worse educational performance and emotional development and adult mental health’ (p 42), and noted that for families with children 84% of people in the top socio-economic fifth of the population were married, whereas only 45% of the bottom fifth were. Whilst poverty can de-stabilise marriage, conversely unstable parental relationships increase the likelihood of poor educational and working achievement.
Whilst racism creates additional disadvantages for minority ethnic children, family stability (as amongst South Asians or Chinese) greatly increases their capacity to transcend such disadvantage. Our society’s stubborn and wilful reticence in not recognising and affirming positive (and traditional) norms for sexual morality, marriage and parenting, and its unwillingness to recognise that unstable parenting and absent fathering are major factors in hindering social mobility, simply reinforces disadvantage for both white and black young people, especially boys.