Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church

Mandate, Commitments, and Practices of a Diverse Congregation

Mark DeYmaz

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781506463391
• eBook ISBN: 9781506463407
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

Through personal stories, proven experience, and a thorough analysis of the biblical text, Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church illustrates both the biblical mandate for the multi-ethnic church and the seven core commitments required to bring it about. Mark DeYmaz, pastor of one of the most proven multi-ethnic churches in the country, writes from both his experience and his extensive study of how to plant, grow, and encourage more ethnically diverse churches. He argues that the "homogenous unit principle" will soon become irrelevant and that the most effective way to spread the gospel in an increasingly diverse world is through strong and vital multi-ethnic churches.

Apart from ethnically and economically diverse relationships, we cannot understand others different from ourselves, develop trust for others who are different than us, and/or love others different than ourselves. Apart from understanding, trust, and love, we are less likely to get involved in the plight of others different than ourselves. Without involvement, nothing changes, and the disparaging consequences of systemic racism remain entrenched in our culture.

Surely, it breaks the heart of God to see so many churches segregated ethnically or economically from one another, and that little has changed in the many years since it was first observed that eleven o'clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in the land. Through personal stories, proven experience, and a thorough analysis of the biblical text, Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church illustrates both the biblical mandate for the multi-ethnic church and the seven core commitments required to bring it about. Mark DeYmaz, pastor of one of the most proven multi-ethnic churches in the country, writes from both his experience and his extensive study of how to plant, grow, and encourage more ethnically diverse churches. He argues that the "homogenous unit principle" will soon become irrelevant and that the most effective way to spread the gospel in an increasingly diverse world is through strong and vital multi-ethnic churches.

Apart from ethnically and economically diverse relationships, we cannot understand others different from ourselves, develop trust for others who are different than us, and/or love others different than ourselves. Apart from understanding, trust, and love, we are less likely to get involved in the plight of others different than ourselves. Without involvement, nothing changes, and the disparaging consequences of systemic racism remain entrenched in our culture.

Surely, it breaks the heart of God to see so many churches segregated ethnically or economically from one another, and that little has changed in the many years since it was first observed that eleven o'clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in the land.

II

The Seven Core Commitments of a Multi-Ethnic Church

Early research by George Yancey, published in his book One Body, One Spirit,^[1] identified general “principles of successful multi-racial churches.” Subsequent interaction with practitioners through the Mosaix Global Network,^[2] however, led to the further examination of these principles and their refinement. From this process emerged what can now be described as the Seven Core Commitments of a Multi-Ethnic Church.

In Part One, we explored the biblical mandate for the multi-ethnic church. In Part Two, we’ll consider the seven core commitments required to bring it about. Indeed, they are fundamental to the design and development of a healthy multi-ethnic church and, together with the biblical mandate, can light the way for the emerging movement—the coming integration of the local church.

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1. George Yancey, One Body, One Spirit (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003). ↵
   
2. More information is available from http://www.mosaix.info. ↵
   

4

Embrace Dependence

Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who [attempt] to build it.

—Psalm 127:1

one weekend, a cold front moved through Central Arkansas, producing ice on the roads and forcing the leadership at Mosaic to decide whether or not we should cancel our service on Sunday morning. Unlike many cities in other parts of the country, Little Rock is not equipped to deal with such inclement weather; in fact, the entire city shuts down at the slightest hint of snow or ice. So on this day, we were faced with a decision. And I know what some of you might be thinking, because we thought it, too: No service, no offering!

You know, it’s amazing how reluctant we were to make the decision or, more accurately, how a concern for church finances so competed with what we knew in our minds we should do. Still, we tried in vain to overcome our objections: We’ve got spirit, yes we do; we’ve got spirit, how ‘bout you! But in the end (in all sincerity), it was our commitment to embrace dependence that led us once again, to trust in the Lord and obey. That Sunday, we cancelled the service.

Now in those days, our average Sunday offering was about $8,000 a week. And as is true to this day, individuals contributing financially on Sunday mornings do so by placing their gifts in an offering box stationed near the front of our facility. However, on occasion, someone will leave a gift after the offering has already been counted and after most have left the building. With this in mind, our bookkeeper, Caron Higgins, sometimes checks the box at the start of her week.

Sure enough, when Caron came to work on the Tuesday following Sunday’s cancelled service, she found a single check in the box made out to Mosaic in the amount of $6,000. This unusually large gift had somehow been placed in the box between Sunday and Tuesday, over a period of time in which the city was, for the most part, shut down. We truly had no idea how it had gotten there.

But there’s more.

Later that same morning, Caron opened the mail to discover additional checks had been sent to us over the weekend, totaling some $4,000. So in the week following the cancelled service, we actually received over $10,000 in financial gifts—some $2,000 more than we would have otherwise expected to receive through the offering on a Sunday morning. At that point my partner, Harry Li, and I wondered if we should strategically cancel the service more often in the future!

In sharing such things, I am aware that others, too, from time to time, encounter the supernatural provision of the Holy Spirit in their own lives, as well as in the churches or ministries they lead. However, the point I am making is that a healthy multi-ethnic church can be established only where functioning faith is the modus operandi. Given the profound uniqueness of such a church, the inherent challenges related to diversity and, quite often, limited economic resources, there is simply no other means by which it can be built. Therefore, like George Müeller, the nineteenth-century pastor in England,^[1] who famously trusted God for the needs of orphans in his care, or the legendary Christ-centered musician Keith Green,^[2] who was known to distribute his recordings for whatever people could afford, those who would pursue the multi-ethnic church must actively embrace dependence if they expect to see their dreams become reality. Indeed, Müeller said it well:

God’s plan is that there shall be none of self and all of Christ. The very people who are doing the most for God in saving souls, in mission work, in the care of orphans, are those who are working on short supplies of strength, of money, of talents, of advantages and are kept in a position of living by faith and taking from God, day by day, both physical and spiritual supplies. This is the way God succeeds and gains conquest over His own people, and over the unbelief of those who look on His providences.^[3]

I Can’t Wait to See This!

The first time I proactively embraced dependence was in the summer of 1981. Prior to my junior year in college, I was playing baseball for Athletes in Action (AIA), an organization committed to sharing God’s love with people through the platform of athletics. One night during a game in Indio, a city of 75,000 nestled in southern California’s Coachella Valley just east of Palm Springs, I was hit by a pitch and consequently unable to throw for a week. The time off allowed me to return home to Scottsdale, Arizona, for some much-needed rest and recovery.

One week later and with my hand healed, I flew back to LAX on a Saturday night. That night, I was expecting to be picked up by one of our coaches and driven to rejoin the team. But as I departed the airplane, a stewardess called my name over the intercom to inform me that my ride would not be coming. Rather, she said, my coach had called to leave word that I should catch a flight to Ontario, California. Once there, he would come and pick me up.

Somewhat confused, I asked, “Did he pay for the ticket?” The stewardess didn’t know and so she instructed me to check with an agent inside the terminal. When I did, I found out that my coach had not.

Now remember, it was 1981 and as a nineteen-year-old college student, my options were limited. I considered taking the bus, renting a car, and even hitchhiking to Ontario; yet having only a few dollars in my pocket and without a credit card, I had no other means at the time for making such a purchase. I remember dropping my bags in the middle of the terminal at which my flight from Arizona had arrived, and standing still for a moment as a sea of people swarmed around me. With no way to get where I needed to go and not knowing what else to do, I then said to God, “I can’t wait to see how you pull this off!”

Having shared my prayerful frustration though somehow optimistic, I then did the only thing I could think of to do. I walked outside and headed toward another terminal at LAX where flights were scheduled for departure to Ontario. Perhaps, I reasoned, my coach had purchased a ticket on one of the competing carriers. But about half-way to my destination, I unexplainably looked back over my right shoulder. Somehow my eye had caught a man sitting alone on a bench, reading a Bible that lay open on his lap. And I immediately turned toward him like one desperate for water!

“Excuse me, sir,” I said. “Are you a Christian?”

“Yes, I am,” he answered back; sensing my predicament, he asked, “What seems to be the problem?”

With nowhere seemingly to go, I sat down and told him my story and for the next two hours, we talked. I learned, among other things, that he was a “Jewish Christian”^[4] and that he had arrived in Los Angeles from Miami two hours earlier than expected. But what was even more amazing to me was how quickly he responded to my need. “Listen, I don’t have any cash,” he said, “but I do have a credit card. And when my ride comes, I’ll be glad to take you to the next terminal and buy your ticket to Ontario.”

In many ways, I could not believe this was happening! For instance, in no way did I even hint he should do such a generous thing. At the same time, however, I had almost expected something like this to occur. Yes, as a young man less than a year old in my faith, I just assumed this was the way it works: God takes care of his own!

Indeed, that summer I was living the life of faith for the very first time. I had raised my own financial support to be a part of AIA and was actively sharing the love of God with others. Still, I could not help but ponder the odds of such an occurrence, namely, that a total stranger would so treat me like friend. In the end, this experience showed me what Christ intends for us all to understand:

If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen, don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. (Matthew 6:30–33; The Message)

You know, I have never forgotten the lesson I learned that evening at LAX, a lesson of faith beyond reason that is, likewise, required of all those who would pursue the multi-ethnic church. For more than anything else I’ve ever done or attempted in twenty-three years of full-time ministry, the multi-ethnic church requires me to embrace dependence with a knowledge that apart from God’s direct involvement, it cannot otherwise be established. Yes in these days, the same genuine, almost naïve expectation that says to God, “I can’t wait to see how you pull this off,” daily informs my prayers, demands my patience, and inspires my persistence.

There Is No Business Plan

Once, when Jesus was approached by a man asking that his son be delivered from a demon-based illness, the man said, “I brought [my son] to your disciples, [but] they could not cure him.” In reply, Jesus bemoans “this unbelieving and perverted generation.” Seeing Jesus rebuke the demon and cure the boy, Jesus’ disciples later came to him privately and asked, “Why could we not drive it out?” Jesus then said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith . . . [for] this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:14–21).

Likewise, the multi-ethnic church is a different “kind” of church. Only men and women of great faith—individuals who fully abandon themselves to the will of God—can build it by trusting God from day to day. In other words, human effort is not enough. Indeed, any independent attempt of men to build a multi-ethnic church is bound to fail, no matter how much money, expertise, or influence they have. There are no simple solutions, then, no shortcuts or strategies for success that can otherwise accomplish what only God can do in this regard. The multi-ethnic church is a work of the Holy Spirit and of faith that cannot otherwise be attained through human means or methods.

Such thinking, however, flies in the face of all that we, as Americans, have been raised to believe. L. Robert Kohls, a man widely recognized as one of America’s leading pioneers in the study of crossing cultures, has identified thirteen values deeply ingrained in the American psyche and descriptive of most (but not all) Americans.^[5] Kohls’s list includes the following seven values:

1. Personal control over the environment

2. Time and its control

3. Individualism and privacy

4. Self-help control

5. Competition and free enterprise

6. Action and work orientation

7. Practicality and efficiency

It should come as no surprise to see such things in print. In short, Americans are fiercely independent. We value (and even reward) selfsufficiency at every level and seek in most instances to control our own lives and destiny. Yet this is not how God would have us live. In fact, such a mind-set is contradictory to Christ-centered spiritual life. Rather, we are taught throughout the Bible to recognize, There is a God and I am not him. Indeed, we are admonished repeatedly in the pages of Scripture to trust God, to wait upon him, and to seek him in recognition that he alone is both sovereign and sufficient. According to God’s Word, then, we are absolutely not in control of our lives or destiny, no matter how detached we are from this reality at any given moment.

With this in mind, the way of dependence cannot only be for us a transcendent reality; it must also be an imminent mind-set—a governing philosophy, a practical way of living and of doing church. Contrary to what we have been taught as Americans, Christ’s followers must embrace dependence for ourselves personally and in the local churches we attempt to lead.

Along this line, I’ll never forget meeting with one man as I considered the potential of planting Mosaic. He said, “Sounds interesting, Mark; I can’t wait to see your business plan.” In response however, all I could say was, “Bro’, you don’t get it . . . there is no business plan!” Sadly, I believe and for too long now, such plans have governed the business of “doing church,” particularly in the United States. But when did we a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Praise for Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Epigraph
• Introduction
• The Biblical Mandate
• The Seven Core Commitments of a Multi-Ethnic Church
• On Planting, Revitalizing, and Transforming
• Conclusion
• Afterword
• Notes
• About the Author
• Index