“This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” – Jesus Christ (emphasis added)¹

In this article…

• Answering objections
• It is God’s will
• Now, but not yet

Answering objections

I can vividly remember a conversation I had several years ago with a friend who was a national director of a large ministry.  We were talking about their organization and how they planned to address the increasing amount of ethnic diversity in the locations where they were active.  He explained how they were creating separate ministries for each ethnic group in those locations in order to “most effectively reach them with the Gospel” because “most people want to be with their own ethnicity”.  When I asked if they had plans to eventually try to bring the different ethnic groups together into a multi-ethnic group he explained that they did not because it would “create an extra barrier to the Gospel” and then stated emphatically, “There is no biblical mandate for bringing people together of different ethnicities.”  Do you believe that is true?  How would you respond?

In our conversation, my friend stated several of the most common objections to bringing Christians together of different ethnicities:

• It is more effective to reach people with the Gospel through culturally-homogenous groups.  This is also known as the “homogenous growth principle”.
• Most people feel more comfortable around people of their own ethnicity.  If we form multi-ethnic Christian organizations it will create an additional, unnecessary obstacle to people coming to Christ and getting connected in these groups.
• The Bible doesn’t teach that people of different ethnicities should come together.

For answers to these and other objections which are often raised to the idea of multi-ethnic Christian community, I encourage you to see the large and growing section of resources on our website.  For example, Chapters 6-8 in United By Faith and Chapters 1-3 in Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church do an excellent job of addressing these objections and presenting the Biblical basis for building multi-ethic Christian community.

It is God’s Will

I believe the most persuasive reason for pursuing multi-ethnic Christian community is simply this: it is God’s will.  Discussions about things like… whether homogenous or multi-ethnic groups are the most effective in advancing the Gospel, the implications for cultural retention, or the potential impact on race relations in our country are important and helpful.  But, ultimately, if we are convinced that God’s will is for us to build multi-ethnic community then we should do it regardless if it “makes sense” to us.  Did it make sense for Abraham to leave his people and travel to Canaan?  Did it make sense for Moses to lead the Israelites up against the Red Sea?  Did it make sense for Jesus to die on a cross?  Did it make sense for the early Christians to form multi-ethnic communities in very racially segregated cities?  No, but they did it anyway because they were convinced that it was God’s will — and we are still reaping the enormous benefits of their “senseless” obedience.

How can we know that it is God’s will for Christians to come together as a unified, multi-ethnic community?  Here are three of the dozens of reasons we could give:

1. The pas ethnos theme in the Bible: In the original Greek, the phrase pas ethnos (which is usually translated "all nations" or "gentiles") can be found in many key passages including: Matthew 24:14, Matthew 25:32, Matthew 28:19, Mark 11:17, Luke 24:47, Acts 2:5, Acts 10:35, Acts 15:17, Romans 1:5, Galatians 3:8, 2 Timothy 4:17, and Revelation 15:4. In his article, "Unreached Peoples: The Unique and Primary Goal of Missions", Dr. John Piper provides a thorough analysis of pas ethnos and concludes that it is best translated as all people groups or all ethnicities.  With this in mind, we can see that God has always intended to bless people of every ethnicity through Christ (Galatians 3:8) and bring them into a community of faith where they would worship him (Mark 11:17), be discipled (Matthew 28:19), and go out together to reach the world (Romans 1:5).
2. Jesus’ life, teachings, and prayers: Jesus took radical, counter-cultural steps to reach out and build relationships with those of other ethnic groups around him — see his interaction with the Samaritan woman in John 4 for an example. He taught his disciples that the kingdom of heaven was not just for the Jews but also for the multitudes "from the east and west" (Matthew 8:11). He gave them the "great commandment" to love one another (John 13:34-35) and the "great commission" to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20).  And, just hours before he went to the cross, Christ prayed that all who would come to know him (that includes Christians of all ethnicities) would "be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." (John 17:23)
3. The early Christians were led to form multi-ethnic communities: In the Book of Acts we can see how the Holy Spirit led the early Christians to build and sustain multi-ethnic communities. In Chapter 2 the church is born as a community of people from "every nation under heaven" (Acts 2:5) who "devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." (Acts 2:42) In Chapter 6 the new community of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem work through challenges related to their ethnic differences (Acts 6:1). In Chapters 8 through 11 we see people of many different ethnicities welcomed into the Christian community — Samaritan (Acts 8:14), Ethiopian (Acts 8:27), Roman (Acts 10:1), and Greek (Acts 11:20-21). Then, in Acts 13:1-3 we can see that it was a multi-ethnic group of leaders in Antioch that sent off Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. It is obvious that the first Christian communities were multi-ethnic.

In Revelation 7:9-10 we are given a glimpse into the type of community that we will experience in heaven:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” ²

It is obvious that in heaven we will not be segregated into various ethnic groups but rather serve the Lord together as a unified, multi-ethnic community.  As Dr. Wayne Grudem points out in Systematic Theology:

If the Christian church is faithful to God’s wise plan, it will be always in the forefront in breaking down racial and social barriers in societies around the world, and will thus be a visible manifestation of God’s amazingly wise plan to bring great unity out of great diversity and thereby to cause all creation to honor him.³

Now, but not yet

There are many aspects of the new birth in Christ (John 3) that are "now, but not yet". We experience them to a degree now but must wait to experience them fully in heaven. For example… Through faith in Christ we are immediately blessed with a new relationship with God (Romans 5:6-11) — but it can be challenging to maintain and experience that relationship on a daily basis. Through faith in Christ we immediately receive salvation from our sins (Ephesians 2:1-10) but, "All that is known of salvation now is but a preliminary and foretaste of the fullness of salvation which awaits the fullness of the kingdom at the parousia of the Lord.”⁴

Similarly, all that we know and experience of the New Culture (multi-ethnic Christian community) now is "but a preliminary and foretaste" of what we will experience in heaven. So, does this mean that it is not worth pursuing now? The apostles and the early Christians didn’t think so! They believed the New Culture was something to be worked towards and enjoyed on this side of heaven, and so should we! There are enormous benefits and blessings that come with even a foretaste of the New Culture — just as there are enormous benefits that come with even a foretaste of the salvation and relationship with God we will experience in heaven. As Christians we are never called to sit on our hands and wait until everything "gets worked out" at Christ’s second coming. We are called to pray with Christ, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) and then roll up our sleeves and get to work helping to see it accomplished.

Footnotes:

¹ The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Mt 6:9-13

² The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Re 7:9-10 (emphasis added)

³ Grudem, W (1994). Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine . Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

⁴ Wood, D. R. W., & Marshall, I. H. (1996). New Bible dictionary (3rd ed.) (1050). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.

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