First benefit is the most obvious. Growing up in a church that contains people of many different backgrounds has given me tremendous exposure to the beauty of differing perspectives on life. I watched a video where a woman says that a culture is basically a perspective. By coming to a multicultural church on Sunday and getting involved in multicultural connect group and campus ministry, I become less and less ignorant of people and their background, their histories, their understanding of how things work, etc. I know from experience how to approach a Chinese, Japanese or Samoan person. Church as helped me with that.
Second benefit is the opportunity to learn different languages! Languages have become my passion, and each and every Sunday I can come to church and ask a Filipino brother-sister how to say something in their language. Not only do I do it just for the enjoyment of learning, but I believe it will help me in forming friendships with people from that culture. It makes you more approachable. If I was in a country where I didn't know the language very well or at all, I would much rather talk to someone who speaks at least a little of my language as well as their own. Language skills are in high demand, and my involvement in a highly multicultural church family can support me in that.
The third and I think the most important benefit is that the church being immersed in multiculturalism makes it a lot easier to reach out to people of different nationalities and belief systems. Jesus tells us in the Bible to go and make disciples of ALL nations. If people of a certain cultural background are members of our church, that can encourage other people from that same basic background to come and connect with our ministry and hear the gospel. It makes it that much easier to fulfill the Great Commission. I hope we never lose touch with Te Reo Maori and that more and more people in NZ will appreciate it. However, I'm also very glad that English is widely spoken here too because it is one the most international languages in the world. This opens up the door for all kinds of people to come and bring their world into OUR world and you never know how God will use that to advance His kingdom on earth.
Karl Urbahn
#PeopleMatter #Multicultural #DifferentRaces #DifferentFaces #OneGod