Multicultural Church Sunday

March 30, 2008

This year Presbyterians of all ethnicities and cultures will gather together to celebrate Multicultural Church Sunday. Use the resources below, including theological and Scriptural material, to help interpret the multicultural church with your congregation.

Other valuable materials include a letter for you to consider as a minute for mission or bulletin insert as well as a list of texts related to the multicultural church.

Becoming a Multicultural Church

• A multicultural church is a congregation that intentionally seeks to recognize, celebrate and incorporate a diverse membership.

• Use all-inclusive music, languages, arts and theological expressions during worship.

• Offer creative and meaningful evangelism by providing the good news in a way that people recognize with great respect and appreciation for their racial and cultural backgrounds.

• Lead the worship service by consciously and willingly sharing power and resources and advocating for justice and equal representation.

Biblical Mandate for Multicultural Church

• When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place ... (Acts 2:1)
• No longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female … (Galatians 3:28)
• A house of prayer for all peoples ... (Isaiah 56:7b)
• A great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language … (Revelation 7:9)
• All are one in Christ … (Galatians 3:28)
• Go therefore and make disciples of all nations … (Matthew 28:19)

Affirmation of Faith

Immigrant Creed

I believe in Almighty God, who guided the people in exile and in exodus, the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, the God of foreigners and immigrants. I believe in Jesus Christ, a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home, who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger, and returning to his own country suffered the oppression of the tyrant Pontius Pilate, the servant of a foreign power, who then was persecuted, beaten and finally tortured, accused and condemned to death unjustly. But on the third day, this scorned Jesus rose from the dead, not as a foreigner but to offer us citizenship in heaven. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries and reunites all races. I believe that the church is the secure home for the foreigner and for all believers who constitute it, who speak the same language and have the same purpose. I believe that the Communion of the Saints begins when we accept the diversity of the saints. I believe in the forgiveness, which makes us all equal, and in the reconciliation, which identifies us more than does race, language or nationality. I believe that in the Resurrection God will unite us as one people in which all are distinct and all are alike at the same time. Beyond this world, I believe in life eternal in which no one will be an immigrant but all will be citizens of God's kingdom, which will never end. Amen.

A letter from Multicultural Ministries

To congregations interested in multicultural ministry:

As the churches in your region grow into ministry with multicultural dimensions, are you looking for additional resources to support their efforts? Well, you’ll want to know that the General Assembly Council has approved and funded a field staff program for multicultural ministries to strengthen the multicultural work that governing bodies and congregations are doing already and to encourage more creative ministry in the future. 

The five members of this new field staff team are all experienced professionals, knowledgeable about the dynamics of multicultural congregations. They are committed to achieving the General Assembly goals of becoming a multicultural church and increasing the multicultural membership to truly reflect the make-up of our American communities. Their positions are part-time, since each also has other professional responsibilities. The field staff is working in collaboration with the Office of Multicultural Ministries to provide resources to congregations and governing bodies on request, as well as to support other General Assembly Multicultural Church Growth strategies and programs.

More specifically, you may call on the field staff to provide expertise and impetus for various programs related to multicultural ministries, such as the following:

• Consultation with governing bodies and congregations seeking to be multicultural or starting a multicultural NCD

• Development and strengthening of regional multicultural networks and clusters of churches

• Planning for training workshops and development of presbytery teams

The following are now on board as field staff:

The Rev. Young Lee Hertig, M.A., and Ph.D. (southern California)
The Rev. James Lee (Texas)
Elder Sara J. Parker, M.A., Ph.D. (Virginia)
The Rev. Laura Taylor de Palomino (Illinois)
The Rev. Gustavo Vasquez (New York/New Jersey)

Their professional profiles and individual areas of interest and expertise are included with this letter on a separate page.  

I invite you to make contact with one or more of the field staff and seek ways to involve them in the conversation about multicultural ministries in your region.

Sincerely,

The Rev. Raafat Shehata Girgis
Associate for Multicultural Ministries
General Assembly Council
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
100 Witherspoon St.
Louisville, KY 40202
Tel: (502) 569-5233
Fax : (502) 569-8074   

Download this letter to print.

List of books and resources

Beyond the Ordinary: 10 Strengths of U.S. Congregations by Cynthia Woolever and Deborah Bruce, Westminster John Knox Press, 2004        

Border of Death, Valley of Life by Daniel G. Groody, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007      

The Bush was Blazing but not Consumed: Developing a Multicultural Community Through Dialogue and Liturgy by Eric H.F. Law, Chalice Press, 1996

The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel, Zondervan, 1998      

Church and Society, “Globalization: A Call to Listen, A Challenge to Respond” March/April 2006      

Church and Society, “Migration: Seeking God’s Justice for People on the Move” July/August 2005      

Culturally-Conscious Worship by Kathy Black, Chalice Press, 2000      

The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, Back Bay Books, 2005      

The Disuniting of America by Arthur Schlesinger, Norton Press, 1998      

Doing Justice: Congregations and Community Organizing by Dennis Jacobson, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2001      

Embracing Diversity by Charles Foster, The Alban Institute, 1997    

Encountering Religious Pluralism by Harold Netland, InterVarsity Press, 2001        

A Field Guide to U.S. Congregations by C. Woolever and D. Bruce, PPC, 2002   

Inclusion by Eric H.F. Law, Chalice Press, 2000      

Making Room at the Table: An Invitation to Multicultural Worship by Brian K. Blount and Leonora Tubbs Tisdale, Westminster John Knox Press, 2001        

Multiculturalism and the politics of recognition by Charles Taylor, Princeton Univ. Press, 1994        

Organizing for Social Change by Kim Bobo, Seven Locks Press, 2001

Places of Promise: Finding Strength in Your Congregation’s Location by Cynthia Woolever and Deborah Bruce, Westminster John Knox Press, 2008        

Reaching Muslims for Christ by William J. Saal, Moody Publishers, 1993

Sacred Acts, Holy Change, Faithful Diversity and Practical Transformation by Eric H.F. Law; Chalice Press, 2002        

Transforming the Mainline Church by Robert A. Chesnut, Geneva Press, 2000

The Word at the Crossings by Eric H.F. Law, Chalice Press, 2004        

The Wolf Shall Dwell with the Lamb A Spirituality for Leadership in a Multicultural Community by Eric H.F. Law, Chalice Press, 1993      

Yin and Yang of American Culture by Eun Y. Kim, Yarmouth, Maine; Intercultural Press, 2001     

Download this list to print.

For more information about Multicultural Sunday, contact Janeth Nuñez by email or call (888) 728-7228 x5252

For more information about our partner in ministry, visit the Presbyterian Multicultural Church Network.