Could the Multi-Ethnic Church Be the Key To Revival?

Last week I pointed to the shifting demographics and the growing diversity of America. I asked about the impact that this shift would have on the church. This morning, I was reading Tim Keller's The Reason For God. Keller is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and he is having quite an impact by reaching urban professionals. Keller, writing about belief and skeptism in his ministry, says,

As soon as I arrived in New York I realized that the faith and doubt situation was not what the experts thought it was. Older white people who ran the cultural business of the city definitely were quite secular. But among the increasingly multiethnic younger professionals and the working-class immigrants there was a lush, category-defying variety of strong religious beliefs. And Christianity, in particular, was growing rapidly among them.

This is fascinating and I don't know why I have not thought about it before now. Christianity is growing all over the world. In Asia, Africa, and Latin America, Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds. The only place that Christianity is not growing is in North America and Western Europe - basically, every place that has been affected by the modernism that was birthed by Enlightenment thought.  Could it be that God is using the immigrants of the world to come to America to revamp the spiritual landscape? When immigrants from the Third World encounter America with all of its churches and all of our religion, what will the result be?

I have come to believe that the best witness that we can give to a world torn by ethnic strife, pluralism, and competing ideologies, is a church that is one in the midst of its cultural and ethic diversity. This reality is a gospel and missional imperative. It is no longer something that is just an option for the few courageous souls who might attempt it. 

Comments

[David Rogers]

Alan,

Thanks for your continued emphasis on this. I am looking forward to your book.

In Spain, there is no question but that what you describe here is already happening. I wrote a post about it here:

http://loveeachstone.blogspot.com/2006/11/immigration-and-church_6451.html

I agree with you that it is only a matter of time before we see something similar in the US. And it is already happening, to some extent.

[David Rogers]

Alan,

Thanks for your continued emphasis on this. I am looking forward to your book.

In Spain, there is no question but that what you describe here is already happening. I wrote a post about it here:

http://loveeachstone.blogspot.com/2006/11/immigration-and-church_6451.html

I agree with you that it is only a matter of time before we see something similar in the US. And it is already happening, to some extent.