Timely proposal for a multiracial church

One Body, One Spirit: Principles of Successful Multiracial Churches George Yancey. IVP, 2003. 189 pages.

If we believe it is God’s intention to mix the earth’s peoples together as neighbours and workmates within the same region and city, we may be provoked to read Yancey’s timely proposal for a multiracial church that can be a witness to a world on our doorstep.

Monoracial churches, once thought to be God’s principle method of winning the nations to Christ, are becoming increasingly irrelevant in neighbourhoods saturated by peoples from a rich mix of cultures, languages and nationalities. Yancey not only argues for the multiracial church that can reflect and speak into the real multiracial, multicultural world of its attendees, but offers understandable help for churches wishing to transition.

His awkward intermingling of terms such as race, ethnicity and culture is forgivable, yet those involved in intercultural ministry may contend his suggestion that race rather than culture or ethnicity provides the most intense social barriers in today’s North American society. The reader is drawn by Yancey’s vision of a church that can reach multiracial communities, pursue racial reconciliation, demonstrate racial unity as a witness of God’s love and offer a life together as obedience to God so clearly laid out in Scripture (Acts 11, Ephesians 2, Revelation 7).

The greater portion of the book is dedicated to seven general principles for building multiracial churches: inclusive worship, diverse (and representative) leadership, the establishment of overarching goals (not necessarily racially driven), a passionate intentionality, the development of interpersonal cross-cultural communication skills, capitalizing on the location of the church-gathered, and embracing the ability to adapt quickly to rapidly shifting demographics within the community and church.

Yancey’s target audience includes pastors, church planters, and congregational leadership teams, but denominational leaders and those involved in cross-cultural ministry will enjoy this book and refer it to their friends.

Ken Peters is lead pastor of Killarney Park MB Church, Vancouver, an Intentional Intercultural Church.