Is Multiethnic and Multicultural Ministry Enough?

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My last article suggested that our Core (Calling, Values, Vision) compels us not only to become a multiethnic national ministry, but a multicultural one. A multiethnic ministry is one where ethnic minorities are merely present and visible. In a multicultural organization, ethnic minorities are embraced, empowered, and engaged with the result that they have both a home and access to shape the identity, culture, and direction of the organization.

But as we think about advancing the Gospel of Jesus and His kingdom into the nations of our country and the world through a generational movement of laborers among those who don't know Jesus, will a multicultural and multiethnic reality provide enough for Navigators to realize our calling? What will it take to plant the Gospel so that it can grow generationally into ethnic minority families and communities across the United States?

In the African American, Asian American, Hispanic, and Native American communities there is a strong and steadily increasing expression of ethnic identity and commitment to teaching this identity to the next generation. Even a cursory reading of ethnic-oriented magazines like Ebony, Essence, Black Enterprise (African American), Hispanic: Business, Career, Politics & Culture (Hispanic), and American Indian Review, Whispering Wind, Indian Life (Native American), will reveal a significant focus on developing and instilling the beauty of ethnic identity in the current generation and then passing it on to the next.

A generational movement of insiders in ethnic minority communities and among ethnic minority people will require not only multiethnic and multicultural ministry approaches, but will also require ethnic specific ministry. To simply "homogenize" everyone into one unrecognizable cultural conglomerate will not help us see spiritual generations in the nations of the United States. It will be necessary to have some ministries, or parts of ministries to be ethnically homogeneous (such as predominately Hispanic or African American). Ethnic sociological experts tell us that only about 40 percent of ethnic minorities feel comfortable functioning in the dominant culture, and many of those 40 percent speak of the stress of functioning in the dominant culture.

Ethnic specific ministry provides important functions for those who are ethnic minority living in a majority culture, or organization. Many staff who have lived (not just visited) overseas understand experientially what it is like to be a minority. For a fuller treatment of this, see the short article, "Reflections on the Need for Ethnic Specific Ministries."