Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church -- Review


Mark Deymaz, Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church: Mandate, Commitments, and Practices of a Diverse Congregation. Foreword by George Yancey. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007. xxx + 206 pp.


Once upon a time the church growth gurus appropriated the missiological theories of Donald McGavran, a Disciples of Christ missionary in India, and told American churches that the quickest and best way to grow a church was to follow the principle: “birds of a feather flock together.” Always wanting to grow themselves, they latched on to what became known as the homogeneous principle, and began working to attract “our kind of people.” Already segregated on Sunday mornings, this principle of church growth, gave permission to remain segregated, and not only remain segregated but to celebrate the fact. As a result churches segregated themselves not only along ethnic and language lines, but generational and socio-economic lines as well. For a time, the principle proved its worth, and churches that so niched themselves did grow. Into the fray comes this book written by Mark Deymaz, pastor of the Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas and co-founder of Mosaix Global Network.

Deymaz challenges the conventional wisdom of the church growth people and suggests that not only is the day of the homogeneous church behind us, but he also contends that it’s not a biblical pattern to begin with. Seeing the future through a biblical lens, Deymaz responded to a challenge, by an African American woman to do something different, to build a church that was multi-ethnic and economically diverse. Deymaz, who is biblically and theologically conservative – he’s a strong inerrantist Baptist who reads the New American Standard Bible – has as his primary focus two things: “to know God and to make him known” (p. xxvi).

The primary purpose of building such churches isn’t racial reconciliation, but rather reconciliation of men and women with God. The by-product, however, of this emphasis on reconciliation with God through building multi-ethnic congregations that are more faithful to the biblical mandate is racial reconciliation.

But make no mistake—it is my sincere hope and belief that the emerging movement to establish multi-ethnic churches throughout the United States and beyond will have the effect of dismantling institutional racism within the local church through the application of long-forsaken New Testament teaching concerning its very nature and calling (p. xxvii).


Yet, while the government has worked mightily to eliminate segregation from the schools, the workplace, and elsewhere, the churches remain largely untouched by this movement. Government can’t enforce desegregation on churches, so whatever happens will happen voluntarily. With 92.5% of American congregations being mono-ethnic, that is less than 20% of the membership is other than the congregation’s majority ethnic group, Deymaz is attempting something few have tried. Yet, in this increasingly diverse nation, the future of the church requires a change of attitude and action. If the gospel is to be heard in an increasingly diverse nation, where younger people at least are crossing ethnic and language barriers with increasing frequency, then change must occur in the way we live as church.

In exploring the possibilities and procedures of establishing such congregations, Deymaz breaks his book into three parts. Part One explores the “Biblical Mandate.” Starting with the prayer of Christ in John 17, a prayer in which Jesus prays that his disciples would be united with each other, even as Jesus is one with the Father. From there he turns to Antioch, the first ethnically diverse congregation. At Antioch the church realizes that the Gospel is not only for Gentiles as well as Jews, but that the church itself should be inclusive. Recognizing that few churches explicitly turn people away, the author suggests that our attempts at welcome would be enhanced if we were more intentional about our welcome. That is, the church would not just invite people to assimilate into their own cultural context, but be willing to accommodate those from outside the majority culture. Looking at Antioch, Deymaz points out that as a result of that congregation’s intentional outreach and diversity (both among members and leaders), large numbers believed (Acts 11:21-26). Finally, he looks to Paul’s ministry of inclusion, noting that the Pauline churches at places like Corinth and Ephesus were diverse. Assuming Pauline authorship of Ephesians, Deymaz writes of Paul’s vision for the local church.
It is to be an authentic, visible community of faith where people of diverse backgrounds worship together as one, and love one another in Christ (p. 29).
In his mind, this multi-ethnic inclusivity isn’t just descriptive of the early church, it is the biblical prescription.

Part two builds on the author’s admittedly conservative evangelical reading of the New Testament, by laying out “seven core commitments of a multi-ethnic church.” To be a truly successful multi-ethnic congregation, these seven principles need to be present.

The first principle is to “embrace dependence” on God’s leadership and vision. To successfully plant or transform existing congregations, one cannot do this without depending God. It requires living by faith.

The second principle may sound like it contradicts the first, which calls on the church to wait on God. This principle requires that the church “take intentional steps” to accommodate diversity. Deymaz points out that churches will welcome diversity as long as it requires nothing of them, but if multi-ethnic churches are to come into existence, the majority must incorporate the gifts, calling, and culture of those who make up the church. An important point is made here – that even if a community doesn’t have significant ethnic diversity, a congregation can seek to incorporate educational and economic diversity.

The third principle requires even more of a congregation. Not only must it intentionally seek to accommodate language, culture, music, but they must seek to empower diverse leadership. If the leadership isn’t diverse the church will not become fully diverse. As important as it is to create such diversity, the manner in which leadership is placed is equally important. Placing persons in stereotypical roles, such as an African American being appointed to lead worship, can work against full inclusion. With this in mind, care must be taken to broaden the leadership, and share such roles as preaching across cultures and ethnicities.

The fourth step involves the development of cross-cultural relationships. Recognizing that we tend to segregate ourselves, congregations must take steps to increase cross-cultural experiences. The goal is greater cultural sensitivity. By being with those who are “different,” understanding develops.

Fifth, congregations and their people must seek cross-cultural competencies. This builds on the prior step. As we become more aware of the diversity around us, we must pursue a competence. It begins with sensitivity, of listening to the stories of others. As this happens, for instance, one recognizes that African Americans must still deal with systemic racism (he defines racism as ethnocentrism plus hate). Whites have advantages they often don’t even think about and assume everyone is on the same level of opportunity. By developing this competency, those illusions are overcome, together with our tendency toward ethnocentrism (believing our culture or ethnicity is superior). In dealing with this issue, Deymaz lays out a helpful continuum that runs from cultural destructiveness, to color/cultural blindness, to cultural awareness, to cultural sensitivity, and finally to cultural competence. Success requires that congregations navigate this course.

As congregations seek to develop a sense of cultural competence, they must also seek to “promote a spirit of inclusion” (principle six). Welcome is defined as not just welcoming those who will conform to our way of doing things, but seeking to embrace a person and their cultural context. This involves worship, including the choice of music. There’s a need here to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. It also involves matters of food, language, pictures, how facilities are designed and used. Even the location of a church is key. For non-evangelicals, it is important to note that Deymaz encourages diversity and inclusion in all areas, but one, and that is theology. His understanding of inclusion rests on the premise that the leadership and majority of members are of one mind theologically.

Finally, in the process of becoming a multi-ethnic, economically diverse congregation, the church must “mobilize for impact. The purpose of this effort is to give credibility to the gospel witness, so that non-believers might be lead to faith in Christ. Still, while evangelism is the primary goal, a vision that includes global missions, there is the accompanying goal of spreading the message of inclusion so that ethnic barriers might be breached. The embrace of this difficult work, is, in the end a sign of God’s amazing grace.

Part three explores these seven principles in three types of church experience. Deymaz writes about how these principles were expressed in the planting of Mosaic. Rodney Woo, a Chinese American pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church of Houston shares how the principles might guide the revitalizing of an older established congregation. Finally, Kim Greenwood and John Jordan share the story of how a successful, but predominantly white evangelical congregation in Beaverton, Oregon – Village Baptist Church – was transformed from homogeneous to multi-ethnic congregation. Each process utilizes the seven principles, but each must do so in somewhat different ways.

Readers of this book will need to keep in mind the theological perspective inherent in the presentation. It is conservative and evangelical. That perspective seeps out regularly. Depending on one’s theological starting point, this might be encouraging or annoying. That being said, the principles, even if at times built on a rigid theological framework, are sound. The challenge to the homogeneous principle is timely. As a more progressive Christian, I would want to add theological diversity to the mix. Sexual orientation is another topic that isn’t dealt with here (fortunately in this case), but which will be important to those with more progressive starting points. Although mainline denominations have been at the forefront of issues of racial reconciliation, the reality is that mainline churches are still the least diverse ethnically.

I leave you with the author’s closing words:

Through the biblical transformation of our minds and wills, we will be able to emotionally engage the concept of a multi-ethnic and economically diverse local church. Indeed, we will not only come to understand the passion of Christ for local church unity, as I have described throughout this book, but we will desire to pursue it for the sake of the gospel. Yes it is Christ’s will that we become one with believers different from ourselves so that the world would know God’s love and believe. As a by-product, society will be affected, a “racial-reconciliation” will occur, and the church will be restored to a place of prominence in the minds and hearts of those outside its walls. (pp. 183-184).

This isn't a bad sense of calling to have as a church -- whatever one's theological starting point.

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