Intercultural Church

Safwat Marzouk offers a biblical vision for what it means to be an intercultural church, one that fosters just diversity, integrates different cultural articulations of faith and worship, and embodies an alternative to the politics of assimilation and segregation. A church that fosters intercultural identity learns how to embrace and celebrate difference, which in turn enriches its worship and ministry. While the church in North America might see migration as an opportunity to serve God's kingdom by showing hospitality to the migrant and the alien, migration offers the church an opportunity to renew itself by rediscovering the biblical vision of the church as a diverse community. This biblical vision views cultural, linguistic, racial, and ethnic differences as gifts from God that can enrich the church's worship, deepen the sense of fellowship in the church, and broaden the church's witness to God's reconciling mission in the world. Today's church faces the challenge of what it means to be church in the light of the ever-growing diversity of the population. This may entail advocacy work on behalf of the undocumented, asylum seekers, and refugees, but the church also faces the question of how to welcome the stranger, the migrant, and the refugee into the heart of the worshipping community. This may mean changing worship, leadership, or ministry styles to embrace diverse communities in the church's neighborhood. Marzouk surveys numerous biblical texts from the early ancestor stories of Israel to the Prophets, to the Gospels and Acts, the letters of Paul, and Revelation. The stories introduce themes of welcoming strangers, living as aliens, playing host to outsiders, discovering true worship, and seeking common language for expressing faith. Discussion questions are provided to encourage conversation on this complex and important topic.

One of the Church of England’s central aims is that it should become more diverse. This book is a contribution to the debate on how the church nationally and locally might better represent the cultural diversity of the communities which it is called to serve. Originating from the experiences of one of the most multicultural dioceses in the country, it offers a series of reflections that will enable readers to consider how they might think and act with greater cultural sensitivity in their contexts. Central to the book is the theme of gift exchange. All of life is celebrated as gift where we experience diversity, the other, hospitality and God as gifts. It explores the possibilities of intercultural gift exchange in the practices of generous giving, radical receptivity and transformative thanksgiving.

This volume is among if not the first to reflect on the contemporary phenomenon of migration from an ecclesiological perspective. It sets the context of migration and cultural encounters within a global capitalist economy and expounds on the concept of interculturality employing theoretical frameworks that evidently locate cultural practices in the context of power such as those of Stuart Hall and Pierre Bourdieu. Some essays describe and evaluate metaphors for the church and ecclesiological models which have emerged in response to various migration contexts. The intercultural church is proposed as a vision and direction toward which other churches can aspire, given the right conditions.

From the contents: Leo Meulenberg: The Epistle to Diognetus - an open dialogue. - Jan Rietveld: The conversion of a missionary: reflections on the life of Martin of Nantes (1638-1714). - Arnulf Camps: The evolution, involution and revolution of the concept and reality of mission and evangelization. - Jan A.B. Jongeneel: The challenge of a multicultural and multireligious Europe. - Jan van Lin: Correlational model for interfaith prayer meetings.

What new visions of church are emerging in the United Church today? Diverse voices, each taking a line from A New Creed, explore the interplay between our call to be the church and our commitment to become intercultural. As Rob Fennell writes in the Preface, "Sometimes these voices challenge us all to see with new eyes and to love with new hearts. Sometimes they push against our comfort zones. Sometimes these voices inspire deep hope and great excitement. In every case, each writers unique theological and spiritual understandings come through." Includes a study guide for individuals or small groups.

With the development of instantaneous global communication, it is vital to communicate effectively across cultural boundaries. This addition to the acclaimed Encountering Mission series is designed to offer contemporary intercultural communication insights to mission students and practitioners. Authored by leading missionary scholars with significant intercultural experience, the book explores the cultural values that show up in intercultural communication and examines how we can communicate effectively in a new cultural setting. Features such as case studies, tables, figures, and sidebars are included, making the book useful for classrooms.

Over the last 60 years the ethnic diversity of the western world has changed dramatically as a result of successive waves of immigration. The impact of this on the church is evident in the growing number of congregations that are now multicultural to a greater or lesser extent. This presents challenges as well as opportunities to those leading these congregations. This book aims to explore this within the context of both Scripture and society. It will also consider competencies and skills that may help leaders of churches and other Christian organisations unlock the potential that this diversity offers. Malcolm Patten has been a Baptist Minister for over twenty years and this book combines his congregational sociological research and his years of experience as a Pastor in multicultural churches. He will also be interviewing others who are involved in working with multicultural churches across the denominations (Anglican, Methodist, URC) as well as drawing in expertise from BME networks, the Evangelical Alliance, Churches Together and Independent churches with multicultural congregations such as Kensington Temple, Westminster Chapel and Emmanuel Church, Westminster.

Multicultural churches help us understand God's will for us to become one in this multicultural world and experience a heavenly gathering in advance. This book, based on case studies of four multicultural churches, provides insights and knowledge regarding minority-dominant multicultural churches in the United States. Many multicultural churches in America are mainly concerned about racial reconciliation between the white and the black. On the other hand, resources concerning minority-dominant multicultural churches are scant. With the special attention on Korean immigrant churches, this book contributes to the body of knowledge regarding minority-dominant multicultural churches. Specifically, this book provides a model transition process, called the Windmill T-process, to facilitate the movement of monocultural/monoethnic churches in taking steps towards acquiring the characteristics of multicultural churches. In addition, this book touches on the issue of evangelism in the multicultural church. Although there is limited insight, the book describes what factors first draw different racial/ethnic people to a church and what factors cause them to stay there. All in all, this book will guide you to a deeper understanding on multicultural churches and its practices for all nations beyond ethnic/racial identities.