Intercultural Church 

I love looking around the church and seeing lots of nations represented. Isn’t it wonderful to live in such a diverse world?  

Barnaby and I have been talking about how encouraging it is to see this growing. As a part of my time as a student, my dissertation addressed the idea of churches becoming more intercultural (where each culture contributes to the life of the church).  

One of the main points of my dissertation was taken from a wonderful book called Multicultural Kingdom by Harvey Kwiyani. He said this: ‘The kingdom of God encourages all cultures to coexist... The kingdom of God finds its fullest expression in intercultural mutuality.’ We should be encouraged that this is what we’re seeing. 

Here are some of my reflections from my dissertation that Barnaby asked me to share.  

1. Every nation: Revelation 7:9 (one of my personal favourites), encourages us that more people than we could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, will one day be stood before the throne crying out “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”. What a encouraging thought, that we get a foretaste of that in our church. 
2. Anyone can be in Christ: Galatians 3:28 says, ‘there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.’ This a wonderful reminder that there are no racial, social or gender distinctions in accessing the Kingdom of God. Though these distinctions do exist between us, they are not hindrances to being in Christ and should not be barriers in the Christian life.  
3. God’s heart for all nations and the body metaphor: We might consider the story of Abraham, where God chooses one nation to be uniquely his, but we should be encouraged that God’s heart is unwaveringly concerned with all the nations and people of the earth and we can see this in our church. Isaiah 52:10 reminds us of this, ‘The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.’. Also, Paul’s body metaphor in 1 Corinthians helps us to recognise ourselves as one body, where unity is to be present among all people, regardless of race or culture so that all can coexist together as one. 
4. A sense of belonging: The need to belong has been described as among the most basic and essential of human needs so it is important to ensure that all individuals feel as though they can be involved and have a place within the community. There are many changes that someone has to make when they move to a new country and people can feel as though they have to conform to a certain way of life. This might be appropriate in some instances, but there are things such as hospitality that can be done in many different ways to ensure that everyone feels seen and included.  
5. Take time: We can learn about other cultures and help others to feel included by taking the time to get to know one another. We can’t possibly get to know everyone overnight, but it is encouraging to see people getting to know each other and taking time to learn about each other's backgrounds.     

Though there are always challenges that come with growing and adapting, I am encouraged that we are already seeing so much of this in our church. I pray that those who join us, wherever they are from in the world, would be encouraged by this too.