As far back as the late 19th century, critics noted that the Sunday morning Protestant worship hour was the most segregated time of the week.
In 1952, Helen Kenyon, a leader with the National Council of Churches, labeled 11 a.m. on Sunday as “the most segregated time” in America, a lament Martin Luther King Jr. repeated in sermons and speeches throughout the Civil Rights era.
Everything began to shift around 2000.
In that year, sociologists Michael Emerson and Christian Smith published their now-seminal work Divided by Faith. Their research showed that only about 7.5 percent of all American religious congregations, across all faith traditions, had at least 20 percent diversity in their Sunday morning attending membership.
At the time, this threshold was emerging as the sociological benchmark for defining a multiracial church. Still, the American church, though faithful in many ways, remained deeply segregated by color, class, and culture, reflecting patterns shaped more by past experience, personalities, and preferences than by the reconciling power of the gospel.
Against that backdrop, when the Mosaix Global Network first championed the vision in 2006 of seeing 20 percent of churches become multiethnic by the year 2020, the goal sounded audacious, if not naïve. How could centuries of racial separation inside the church possibly give way to such dramatic change in just two decades? The skepticism was understandable. The challenge was enormous.
Yet it happened.
As Emerson later observed, “By 2019, that figure had increased to about 18 percent, a growth of 240 percent. Such congregations remain the clear minority but this is a substantial change over a 20-year period. Among evangelicals that change has been even more dramatic. In 1998, less than 5 percent of conservative Protestant congregations were multiracial, but by 2019, more than 20 percent were racially diverse, an increase of more than 400 percent.”1
By 2024, when broken down by Christian tradition, growth in multiethnic congregations followed a similar upward trajectory:
- Catholic: 17 percent (1998) to 22 percent (2024)
- Mainline Protestant: 5 percent (1998) to 17 percent (2024)
- Evangelical: 7 percent (1998) to 24 percent (2024)
What once appeared impossible has, by God’s grace, become measurable reality. Emerson concludes, “The first quarter century of the Multiethnic Church Movement produced a demographic miracle… We should shout it from the mountain tops. God is working!”
That language is not merely sociological. It is doxological. Gratitude is the only faithful response to what God has done.
But gratitude alone is not enough.
But Now What?
Every movement that survives its first season eventually faces a defining question. Success creates new responsibilities. Momentum demands maturity.
While the American church has made real and measurable progress toward demographic diversity, it has not advanced nearly far enough toward shared power, justice, or deep unity. Research consistently shows that many diverse congregations avoid difficult conversations about race, inequality, and injustice in the name of “keeping the peace.” In practice, peacekeeping often becomes conflict avoidance, and conflict avoidance becomes a barrier to transformation.2
Emerson and others, such as Korie Little, have named this dynamic with painful clarity. Too often, Emerson notes, we have “dressed up white churches in brown face,” achieving diversity without structural or cultural change. Diversity without equity. Presence without voice. Belonging without influence.
This reality forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth: demographic diversity, while essential, was never the destination. It was the on-ramp.
From Integration to Maturity
If the first 25 years of what I believe to be a 100-year movement brought initial integration, the next 25 must bring the movement to full maturity. Churches that meet demographic benchmarks will need to move beyond assimilation – integrating individuals into a dominant culture so that differences are minimized or eliminated – and toward accommodation, adapting structures, practices, and expectations where difference is not merely absorbed but genuinely sustained and empowered. Only then can people of every color, class, and culture foster authentic relationships, practice mutual advocacy, and together engage their communities at the bridge of Christ’s humanity.
To do so, pastors and ministry leaders, churches, networks, and denominations alike will need to set aside lingering fears and embrace faithful interaction with all people, not just some people, for the sake of the gospel and the glory of God.
Mosaix and Exponential NEXT define a healthy multiethnic church as one in which people of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds will themselves to:
- Walk, work, and worship God together as one
- Recognize, renew, reconcile, and redeem broken relationships
- Establish equitable systems of authority, leadership, governance, and accountability
- Advocate for justice, mercy, and compassionate engagement in the community
- Embrace the tension between sound theological reflection and real-world application in an increasingly complex society
These commitments do not emerge naturally. They require intentional leadership, theological clarity, and spiritual courage. They also require churches to confront intrinsic fears: a fear of loss, fear of conflict, fear of offending donors or members, and fear of change itself.
Emerson is right to remind us that unity in a multiethnic church is not rooted in uniformity or ideological agreement. Rather, it is rooted in a shared allegiance to Jesus Christ, before whom all stand equally and from whom all receive grace.
Why the Next 25 Years Matter More Than the First
The stakes of the next quarter century are higher than those of the first.
In the early years, diversity itself was the miracle. In the years ahead, diversity without depth will no longer suffice. The credibility of the church’s witness increasingly depends on whether our congregations reflect not only the diversity of God’s creation, but the justice, love, and unity of God’s Kingdom.
Pastors Chuck Mingo and Troy Jackson rightly frame this as both a mandate and an opportunity. Ours is one of the most diverse generations in human history. Few eras have been given such a clear chance to embody the oneness Jesus prayed for in John 17 or the vision of Revelation 7, where people from every nation, tribe, and language worship together before the throne of God.
But opportunity always carries responsibility.
An undivided church is not optional; it is biblical. As such, it is central to the gospel’s credibility in a fractured world.
A Vision Worth Pursuing: By 2050…
Throughout history, entire eras of the church are often summarized in one resonant word.
For example, ask any church historian, “What was the single greatest move of the Holy Spirit in the fourth century AD that catalyzed a significant advance of the gospel?” Most will likely respond, “Constantine,” referring to the emperor’s dramatic conversion and the subsequent legalization of Christianity across the Roman Empire.
Likewise, when considering the 16th century, many will say, “Reformation.” They’ll point to Martin Luther’s courageous posting of his 95 Theses to challenge ecclesial corruption, or to William Tyndale’s English translation of the Bible, which ignited a passion for biblical literacy across Europe.
Now imagine…
If the Lord has not yet returned, and believers 500 years from today look back and ask, “What was the single greatest move of the Holy Spirit in the 21st century AD that catalyzed a significant advance of the gospel?” what do you suppose they’ll say? What will be the resonant word?
While we can’t know for certain, still I’m convinced that the word, whatever it is, will testify to this: in the 21st century…
- Men and women of diverse ethnic, economic, and cultural backgrounds willed themselves to walk, work, and worship God together as one, beyond the distinctions of this world that otherwise divide.
- Across the Western world and into the East, followers of Jesus bore credible witness to the reconciling power of the gospel by refusing to remain segregated by color, class, or culture in congregations designed for sameness.
- A systemic shift from prayerful longing to intentional, tangible expressions of Christ-centered unity took place and sparked a movement not centered in any one person, event, or institution, but grounded in incarnational practice among everyday believers.
Toward that end, a new audacious goal emerged at the Mosaix Conference in 2025. As articulated by Troy Jackson and Chuck Mingo, and embraced within the broader movement:
By 2050, eleven o’clock on Sunday morning is no longer the most segregated hour of the week, but the most undivided hour of the week in the United States.3
That vision intentionally reverses past lament and dares us to imagine a church that finally lives into its calling. A church whose unity is not superficial, but sacrificial. Not performative, but powerful.
The first 25 years proved that change is possible.
The next must prove that maturity is inevitable. Indeed, we must will ourselves to walk forward together… grounded in humility, strengthened by faith, and convinced that God is not finished with His church.
For the sake of the gospel, then, remain prayerful, persistent, and convinced: it shall be done.
NOTES
1. Emerson, Michael O. and Smith, Christian. Divided By Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (Second Edition: Oxford University Press, 2025).
2. From an article written by Michael Emerson, published by the Mosaix Global Network in its Mosaix Conference magazine, Lift Up Your Eyes. (November, 2025)
3. From an article written by Chuck Mingo and Troy Jackson, published by the Mosaix Global Network in its Mosaix Conference magazine, Lift Up Your Eyes. (November, 2025)
