Worship as the Ministry of Reconciliation

by Jin S. Kim
Pastor of Church of All Nations

The following is an excerpt from an article in Call to Worship 41.2.

In January 2004, a group of second-generation Korean Americans of a historically Korean immigrant church in Minneapolis was blessed by our “mother church” to launch a multicultural community called Church of All Nations. We were chartered with great fanfare — executives from presbytery, synod, General Assembly, front page of local newspaper, congratulations from politicians, even featured in two PC(USA) videos. No one knew if 100 mostly young Korean Americans could actually become a Church of All Nations; many thought the name was a bit premature, if not presumptuous.

Today, our attendance is consistently more than 200, and we are now 40 percent Asian, 36 percent white, 22 percent black and 2 percent other. We are one of a handful of congregations in the United States with no ethnic majority. Inside each of these categories are many cultural groups
(Korean, Vietnamese, Hmong, Filipino, African American, Liberian, Kenyan, South African, Sudanese, northern and eastern European). We actually have even more denominational diversity than ethnic diversity and draw as many Catholics, Episcopalians and Lutherans as we do Pentecostals, Baptists and Evangelical Free.

Our highly visible commitment to ecumenical unity may be one reason why of the 25 new members we recently incorporated, the vast majority had no Presbyterian background. We have people from conservative Northwestern College in St. Paul (where the Rev. Billy Graham once served as president) and from United Theological Seminary in New Brighton, one of the most liberal seminaries in the country. We draw equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats, and we address politics, racism, the economy, war and peace head on. Our central mission is to do the ministry of reconciliation, and it is happening in all kinds of wonderful ways here. One little story: In January 2006, we moved from our mother church to a declining white PC(USA) congregation founded in 1884, Grace/Shiloh-Bethany Church, which had plenty of space. We rented for a few months, but then Grace Church members asked if they might merge with us. At the end of July they had a congregational dissolution, and all of the members became members of Church of All Nations (CAN), handing us the keys and the title to the building.

Incidentally, 1884 is the year PC(USA) missionaries first arrived on the shores of my home country, Korea. So we came full circle, historically speaking. Not one Grace member left after the merger — praise God! One of the key reasons for this union was that Grace members recognized that CAN is multicultural, and the surrounding population was becoming increasingly multicultural for years. Therefore, it made sense for Grace to merge with a multicultural congregation in order to more effectively reach an increasingly diverse population.

We witness many signs of growth in our midst, but the most important thing is that people are filled with joy, hope and genuine love for each other across all kinds of lines, crossing barriers erected by church and society, history and culture. In May 2007, we launched our building renovation campaign on the 50th anniversary of the dedication of the
current building. For decades now, Grace Church members have prayed that their sanctuary would be full again and that the building would be restored to its original condition. Who knew that God would answer the prayers of this typical, small, white church through a young, multicultural
church? Who knew that a new church would own a beautiful, sizable building overlooking a gorgeous lake and be debt-free within three years of its formation?

We live in the time between the “already” and the “not yet.” Our church also sees itself between Pentecost in Acts 2 and the coming kingdom in Revelation 7, when all nations, tribes and tongues will glorify God together in one voice. We feel called to be an ecumenical church that embodies the major spiritual roots of the early church — to be simultaneously rational, sacramental and pentecostal. We also are convinced that only intentional movement away from rigid denominationalism and toward visible unity will lead the global church to recover its identity as one, holy, catholic and apostolic. We are a high-risk, low-anxiety church where anything is possible, including the possibility of failure. The only poverty we fear is the poverty of imagination. We feel very blessed with God’s abundance and grace.