Shouldn’t every church be multiethnic? Is there a place for ethnic-specific churches or are they unbiblical?
SOLA Editorial Board member Daniel K. Eng interviewed Pastor Rick Hardison, who completed a PhD on this important topic, and his dissertation is called, “A Theological Critique of the Multiethnic Church Movement.”
Here are 10 highlighted points that Rick Hardison makes about this topic from the interview. Please note: It has been edited for ease of reading. You can watch the entire interview, along with read the transcripts, below:
1. The Bible Never Commands All Churches to be as Ethnically Diverse as Their Communities
It’s just not in the Bible. It’s not a mandate, therefore churches are free to pursue [being ethnically diverse] in the same way a church is free to pursue a prison ministry or a couple is free to adopt someone. It’s a matter of Christian freedom. We should not elevate it to a mark of a healthy church.
2. New Testament Passages about Jew-Gentile Divide (Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:11, Ephesians 2:14) are Not about the Makeup of a Local Church
There’s not a direct correspondence between Jew/Gentile and Black/White [in Ephesians 2]. There was a strong soteriological context that governed why Paul was writing Galatians. In his argument, Paul is trying to show that Jews and Gentiles alike bear the spirit and enter the kingdom the same way.
When people go to Ephesians 2 to defend the multiethnic mandate, what they’re doing is they’re making God a racist. You have to say, who built the [dividing] wall? It was God. God wrote these passages that said [that] in Israel when, you’ve married Gentiles, you need now to repent of that and get divorced. That was God’s plan. And so we need to make sure that we’re not putting God on the hook for our bad exegesis.
3. People in Different Churches are Not Necessarily Hostile or Divided from Each Other
When people say, “Why all the division?”—Babel was God’s idea. He divided humanity into lots of different pockets of people. The body of Christ in America has distinct ministry focuses in different places, but it’s not primarily because of racism. I think it’s because of cultural preference.
It’s sort of like saying, “Why is Paul divided from the Romans when he wrote it in from Ephesus?” His geography separates people. If geography can separate people and [they can] not be a part of the same church, then culture also separates people.
I think that the assumption that division is bad is pretending to know the heart behind people. And that’s just not a charitable posture toward everyone else.
4. The Church Is Not Called to Be Like Heaven in Every Way
There is simply discontinuity between the new heavens and the new earth and the local church in America. The church in America has married people in it. In heaven, we won’t be married. The church in America has pastors, I’m not sure we’ll need pastors.
We see things related to ethnicity happening in Revelation that are not happening in America right now. For instance, in Revelation 7, [there’s] that scene of myriads gathered around the throne, and it’s multiethnic for sure—they will pray praising God with one voice. So evidently, this white kid from Macon, Georgia, one day is going to speak two languages…[But] when someone prays to receive Christ, they don’t all of a sudden learn a new language. The multiethnic mandate is an over-realized eschatology.
5. “Loving Your Neighbor” Does Not Necessitate Having a Church that is Multiethnic
Let’s love one another, and let’s be hospitable. But let’s not pretend that we are falling short of the biblical standard of love if we happen to be loving someone that looks similar to us.
For me, showing love to a Chinese neighbor might mean, “Where would this person most thrive spiritually?” And if that’s sincerely in my church, I should invite her into my church. If that’s sincerely in a sister congregation, then I should try to connect that person with them. To me, that’s the most loving approach.
6. Are We Always Called to Be “Uncomfortable”?
We’re called to pick up our cross and follow Jesus, for sure. But doing that means that we follow the clear commands of Christ. So the question “shouldn’t we be uncomfortable?” just assumes that there’s a clear command of Christ that we should be multiethnic in our churches. For instance, does that same person refuse to have air conditioning in their church [to be uncomfortable]? Probably not.
7. In a Significant Way, the Multiethnic Church Mandate Does the Opposite of What the New Testament Does
Basic missiology is that we want to give the gospel to people in their written Scriptures, in their preached word, and in their first tongue. The Holy Spirit evidently thought that was a good idea as well at Pentecost.
The gospel inherently crosses cultures. But who’s crossing the culture? Is it the missionary? Or is it the person we’re trying to reach?
What the multiethnic mandate tells people who are outsiders is: “You have to cross the cultural gap. You have to come to me in this hodgepodge of cultures.” I find that to be the opposite of what the New Testament does. The New Testament says the missionary is going to cross the cultural gap so that you don’t have to cross a cultural gap to hear the gospel.
8. The Multiethnic Church Mandate Misunderstands New Testament Contextualization
The biggest problem I find with the multiethnic mandate [is that] it’s a misunderstanding of contextualization. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, “become all things to all people so that by all means, I might save some.” But the multiethnic mandate tries to become all things to all people at the same moment. But that is not how Jesus ministered, and that is not how Paul ministered. When he was with the Greeks, he was like a Greek. When he’s with the Jews, he’s like a Jew.
The multiethnic mandate kind of lives in this illusion that you actually can contextualize to all people at the same time. But the very meaning of contextualization is that you are absorbed in the context. But if there are multiple contexts, you just become a melting pot of some other kind of culture, not actually anyone’s own culture.
Contextualization is not just a missionary principle. It’s not just something for people who get on a plane. The church in Corinth is supposed to contextualize their message. We try to remove the boundaries that oppose the gospel, so that the gospel is left shining like this beautiful jewel people can see and understand.
9. A Church Often Ends Up Preferring One Culture Over Others
We can get in the habit of thinking that this is really a conversation about music or language. But when you step back: When does your church start? How long are the services? What is the dress code of the preaching pastor? Do you have a choir or do you not? These are all culturally-informed issues.
Once the preacher stands in the pulpit and is wearing an outfit—he’s not going to change clothes mid-sermon—he is preferring one culture over another culture by his dress. Once the church says we’re going to start at this time, you’re preferring one culture over another.
[I] implore pastors to understand that we’re all situated in a particular culture. And it is an act of humility to recognize that I’m going to naturally be more effective in one particular group of people than another.
Korie L. Edwards describes her study in the book The Elusive Dream; she found that successful multiethnic churches looked exactly like Anglo churches. It does grieve me that in order to be successful, minorities have to conform to an Anglo majority in these churches.
10. We Can Celebrate How Different Churches Do Things Differently
I would encourage [people], particularly if you’re part of a majority culture, to go to an African American church and go to a Chinese church just once. And you’ll probably have an experience that helps you realize, “Oh, they do things differently.” And maybe, when I thought I was doing things biblically, I was actually just doing them like a majority culture guy.
Ethnicity matters. It’s a good thing. It’s a good gift God’s given us. And we will not run from it. We will not pretend it doesn’t exist, but we should lean into it, and ask God to use it to further his mission.