MOSAIC: Moving from Mono-cultural to Multicultural
"Just becoming who we were created to be." Galatians 3:28 (TM)

The United States and Canada continue to become more and more diverse. In spite of this well-documented fact, congregations in the Church of the Nazarene continue to lag behind the national trends of cultural and racial diversity. In fact, the Church in the US continues to be one of the most segregated institutions in American culture when compared to other areas of living.

As a church in a diverse community, our passion is to reflect our community, ethnically, racially, culturally, politically and economically--to become a mosaic of the metropolitan area of Northern Virginia. Mosaic is a rich word with broad connotations. It is the coming together of people from different cultures, spiritual journeys, and economic backgrounds through the power of the Holy Spirit into one body of Christ. The path to fulfilling John's vision (in Revelation) of God's kingdom here on earth is to become ONE church.

In order to move from MONO- to MULTI-Cultural the church must address five questions.

MISSION -where are we going?
To move from MONO- to MULTI-Cultural... the church has to exist in and embrace a diverse community.

The question of where we are going must be answered if we are going to arrive at the desired destination. Churches move from monocultural to multicultural on purpose. Embracing and becoming like its community's cultural makeup has to be a driving passion and value of a church's leadership and body. The mission of being a multicultural church has to be reflected in all aspects of the church's identity, brand, leadership and ethos.

MESSAGE -what's being said?
To move from MONO- to MULTI-Cultural... the church's message has to be one of truth, justice, but NOT the American way.

We must unlearn some church-norms in order to move from monocultural to multicultural. Words and ideas like truth and justice become important in a multicultural setting. Our American ideas of politics and economics are challenged in a multicultural community. Mosaic is not the natural ethic of USAmerican society so the church has to be the proverbial voice crying in the wilderness. How we deal with current issues such as immigration, crime and punishment, poverty, and race become important markers as to whether or not our values of diversity are merely aspiration or actual.

MINISTER -who's on the stage?
To move from MONO- to MULTI-Cultural... the church leadership has to be diverse.

The makeup of church leadership is important in the move from monocultural to multicultural. People like to see "themselves" represented in the church. Nothing sends a louder message about commitment to a multicultural value than the faces on the stage. A church trying to be more inclusive needs to re-evaluate the makeup of their staff, lay-leadership and Sunday morning ministry teams. The old adage "what you see is what you get" holds true as you move from mono to multicultural.

MELODY -what are we singing?
To move from MONO- to MULTI-Cultural... the church has to sing one message through many styles.

Churches looking to be diverse need to offer a main musical style that has crossover potential. The main style serves as an entrée while leaving plenty of room for other musical flavors. As different cultures are represented in the congregation, those musical styles can be added to the main course of music.

MONITOR -what's the cost?
When moving from MONO- to MULTI-Cultural...church leaders will have to deal with critique, loss of reputation, and deep-seated tradition.

When church leadership decides to move from monocultural to multicultural in order to reflect the diversity of its community, there will be those who are more interested in keeping things monocultural--members may give aspiration assent but not necessarily actual agreement. The move from mono to multicultural will cost a church and its leaders. However, as the church embraces this mission, their neighborhood will see what God can do through His people--the living reality of the Kingdom of God on earth through the reconciliation of race, culture and creed.

Chris Rice in his groundbreaking book, More Than Equals, wrote the following: "Yes, deep reconciliation will produce justice, and new relationships between the races. Yes, this will lead Christians to become a bright light in the public square. But I have become convinced that God is not very interested in the church healing the race problem. I believe it is more true that God is using race to heal the church."

Let's Get Moving!