What Does It Mean to be a MultiCultural Church?

Earlier this month ruling elder Traci Truly spent a few days in Fort Worth with Presbyterians all over the world at the PC(USA) National Multicultural Conference. Here is a portion of Traci’s report for the session:

A multicultural church was defined by one speaker as a church that “gathers as a house of prayer for all peoples, that gathers all the nations, and makes disciples of all nations.”  A multicultural church shares power and it celebrates its diversity.  Some ways diversity can be celebrated in worship include using different languages, arts, and spiritual practices.  Several speakers suggested doing a walkthrough of your facility.  What about your artwork?  Does your church have pictures of a white Jesus on the wall in every room?  If so, maybe you could cut back on those.  Are there ways you can incorporate the artistic traditions of the other cultures represented in your church in your artistic displays and in the art you use in worship?  What about your music?  Does it always have to be the organ?  One church had its African community lead at least one of the songs during each worship service using their instruments and language.  We were reminded that we don’t have to revamp the entire worship service to be multicultural, but we can change or expand one or two elements.

Those of us in the dominant culture were told to remember that we do have a culture even if we think we don’t.  We were also reminded that each culture has its own ways of reading scripture, of doing education, and of practicing its spirituality.  We can learn a great from each other but we have to take the time to learn what those other ways are.

Being multicultural is about doing more than saying, “Welcome. We are glad you’re here. Now let us show you how to become just like us.” Dr. Dorothy Bea Akoto used the analogy of grafting.  When one kind of fruit tree is grafted onto another, some wounding occurs.  But the wound heals by bonding at the site of the graft and the fruit that results is not like either the graft or the host tree.  It is its own unique creation.

 

While there, Traci had an opportune meeting with Chip Hardwick, and he wrote about our church in his blog!

It is very exciting that FPC Garland is now a multicultural church that is already doing many things right. And as the grafting continues (yes there’s more work to be done in this area) I pray that we all may be challenged and inspired to love God and each other even more. Thank you Traci!