In the United States, currently, 48.3% of children under 5 are minorities; 1 in 7 marriages are interracial; and a growing number of families are adopting cross-culturally. Yet sadly, 92.5% of all churches are segregated by race and class, and eleven o'clock on Sunday morning remains the most segregated hour of the week. Nevertheless, our increasingly diverse population, and the diverse families its producing, is already reshaping conventional wisdom concerning local church planting, growth and development.
Indeed, the credibility of a message of God's love for all people will be increasingly tied to the ability of Christ-followers to embrace and establish local churches that reflect the heart of God for all people on earth as it is in heaven; that is, local churches in which people of varying ethnic and economic diversity quite naturally walk, work and worship God together as one for the sake of the gospel. For it is long past time to address the question, "If the kingdom of heaven is not segregated, why on earth is the church?"
Are you ready, then, to fellowship, break bread, pray, sing and study, alongside those who are not like you in your own local church? To what biblical truths must we be committed in order to build healthy multi-ethnic, economically, diverse churches of Christ-centered faith? What are the obstacles, how can we overcome them and, more importantly, why should we even try?
Join multi-ethnic church pioneer, Mark DeYmaz, for this engaging hour of discussion with church planters, pastors, researchers, educators and other ministry leaders blazing the trail today throughout North America and beyond.