This week, Pastor Matthew continued on with our Take Me To Church series with part two of becoming a multi-ethnic community.

We want to be a multi-ethnic people. We are better when we learn from and do life with people who are not the same as we are. It’s a beautiful thing when we are joined together in unity (which is not the same as uniformity).

Becoming a multi-ethnic community is Biblical. We see it all the way from Genesis to Revelation; God created different cultures and there’s beauty in their diversity and their differences. This type of multi-ethnicity will not simply happen, it takes intentionally, patience, courage, and passion.

As Christians we are tasked with the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:14-21), and Pastor Matthew suggested four practical steps as a starting place:


Practice remembering. This includes remembering America’s history of racial oppression and slavery experiences. Our nation is founded on centuries of racial oppression, and the residue of racial inequality still runs deep within our communities. We can’t understand our present reality without an honest recognition of our past. Our refusal to look at the dark history of the United States often reveals the idolatry in our hearts, and as Americans we need to remember where we come from so that we do not repeat the sins of our past.
Practice listening. We need to be deeply committed to listening to others for the purpose of truly hearing and understanding them. Our levels of offendability when it comes to race conversations often reveals our levels of immaturity, as we have a tendency to reduce people to their worst belief. To truly listen to people requires us to take up our cross and walk the way of Jesus daily – leaving what is familiar territory, and making space in our hearts for a different narrative. To listen like Jesus requires three movements; leaving our world, entering into somebody else’s world, and allowing ourselves to be formed by others. Reconciliation requires being vulnerable to another culture, which is impossible if we believe that other cultures are better or worse than our own.
Practice of lament. We don’t need to be sorry for people, we need to feel sorry with people.
Practice of reconciling prayer. We are not going to get anywhere with reconciliation unless we give ourselves to prayer. We need to be people who pray, and we will be changed if we give ourselves to prayer and fasting.

These practices are all aids not to help us do more, but to help us become more like Jesus.