Planting multiethnic churches isn’t a fad – it’s the future.
In fact, most major cities and regions are already incredibly diverse. Yet, very few of their churches are multiethnic, and even fewer are intentionally started to reach the “vibrant variety of people,” (as Fuller President David Goatley calls them) that live in these cities. What is most concerning is that right now very few planters or church planting networks realize the urgency to start churches made up of people from many nations, tribes, and languages (Rev. 7:9).
A couple quick caveats before we jump in: First, if your church plant is located in an area with little to no ethnic diversity, you’re missing out! No seriously, it may not be possible to start a diverse church where you currently live. Second, even if your context is multiethnic, there is a critical role that immigrant and ethnic-specific churches play in reaching people with a common language and/or a shared cultural background. For example, Mandarin-speaking churches are absolutely necessary to communicate the gospel to Chinese immigrants, and predominantly Black churches play a crucial role in the spiritual, cultural, and economic well-being of their communities.
That said, let’s now look at three key reasons why there’s an urgent need to plant multiethnic churches: 1) the massive demographic shifts, 2) the beauty of the whole Body and 3) the evangelistic witness to a watching world.
1. The Demographic Reality: Rapidly Diversifying Cities
Have you noticed how many ethnicities are represented and languages spoken at your local school? Our cities are rapidly diversifying, primarily through immigration. As recently as 1980, Whites comprised 80 percent of the U.S. population and, by 2020, Whites made up only 60 percent of the U.S. population. This shift is most pronounced on the coasts. So for instance, in my home state of California, the racial makeup as of 2022 was 40 percent Latino, 35 percent White, 15 percent Asian, 5 percent Black and 4 percent Multiracial.
Where is this growth coming from? According to Pew, the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S. from 2000-2019 (on a percentage basis) is, somewhat surprisingly, Asian Americans with an 81 percent growth rate. The second fastest growing group in that same time period is Latinos at 70 percent. And by 2044, just 20 years from now, there will be no majority ethnicity in U.S. As planters and network leaders seeking to reach people for Christ, how will we respond to this increasing diversity?
Some in our country have responded with xenophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric. But the gospel has always been about crossing boundaries as an expression of God’s missional heart. In Acts 10, God demonstrated that the gospel was much bigger than Peter imagined. The Holy Spirit stirred in Peter to cross ethnic, religious, and cultural boundaries in order to reach out to, evangelize, and accept Gentiles like Cornelius. The Spirit led Peter to do things that he would never have dreamed in a million years: eating non-kosher foods, entering the home of a Gentile, and ultimately sharing the gospel and baptizing Cornelius’ entire household.
Are we, as Peter did, “realizing how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation the one who fears him” (Acts 10:34-35)? Are we recognizing that the Spirit is at work in our diverse populations and immigrants to prepare them to respond to the gospel? And will we respond by planting intentionally multiethnic churches to reach the vibrant variety of people in our cities?
2. The Beauty of the Whole Body
A second reason to plant multiethnic churches now is that we are missing out on experiencing the beauty of the whole body of Christ, particularly parts that have felt excluded or under-represented in many of our church plants.
Consider that Jesus always made space for the outsider – whether that was a Jewish tax collector, a Samaritan woman, a Roman centurion, or a Syrophoenician woman. Just the diversity among the 12 disciples alone was significant – including fishermen and tax collectors to live, travel, and minister side-by-side was huge.
And when Jesus assembles his motley crew together, scripture calls us his bride, his body, his church. Paul speaks at length about the interdependence of the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12 and, in particular, he mentions that “if one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it (1 Cor. 12:26). Parts of Christ’s body are suffering and atrophied because they are not experiencing the interdependence that Christ designed.
Planting multiethnic churches gives great parts of the body, particularly leaders of color, the opportunity to display the beauty of that part of the body of Christ. Whether it is co-planting with two planters of different racial backgrounds or building a core group that represents the community it’s reaching, these are ways to create diverse teams of people to reach diverse communities for Christ.
This is not about reaching DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) quotas. It is about realizing the incredible beauty that God has built into the whole body of Christ. Because the body of Christ is like a multi-faceted diamond. Worshiping and working together for the Kingdom is an opportunity to see the beauty and brilliance of other facets of the Body and to recognize afresh our deep need for the gifts that other people and cultures bring.
The church I planted six years ago here in Pasadena and currently lead is a beautiful mix of ethnicities – primarily of Asians and Whites with some Blacks and Latinos. My small group includes immigrants from seven countries. During our weekly sermon Q&A time, hearing our diverse congregation’s perspectives on the gospel, their experience of persecution, and reflection on race and American Christianity helps us grow and bears witness to the power and beauty of the gospel.
3. The Evangelistic Witness of Racial Unity
The third reason we need to plant multiethnic churches now is to serve as a sign and embodiment of the reconciling power of the gospel in a time of deep polarization in our country around race and the politicization of race. The racial unrest in our country, which climaxed in the killing of George Floyd in 2020, has not abated nor been fundamentally addressed by the church. And many in our culture see the evangelical church as being part of the problem of racial division rather than part of the solution and healing of it.
Furthermore, in their book The Great Dechurching, Jim Davis and Michael Graham note that many people of color have recently left predominantly White churches, leading to less diverse churches in a time when we should be going in the other direction. The book notes that the main reason that people of color ages 18-39 left the church was that they “struggled to fit in or belong in church.”
For many of today’s youth and young adults, for whom racial diversity is the expected norm, churches that don’t embody and address issues of racial reconciliation and justice are simply not relevant. Planting multiethnic churches with multiethnic leadership teams cannot be another church growth strategy. It must first and foremost be a demonstration of the transforming power of the gospel to bring the necessary healing, reconciliation, and justice that is required to experience authentic unity.
Jesus prayed in John 17, “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
Jesus, of course, foresaw the factors of globalization and immigration that have greatly diversified our country today. And he prayed that all of us believers today would be unified – to the very degree that he and the Father are united! That speaks to an incredible level of connection and mutual deference that Jesus desires for us as his body. And the intended purpose of this radical unity would be so that the world may believe that the Father sent Jesus.
Planting intentionally multiethnic churches shows the world that God sent Jesus to break down the dividing walls of hostility (Ephesians 2) and that “through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” Unity is not just visual diversity (having diverse attenders), but genuine boundary-crossing conversations, interaction, and mutual discipleship. This becomes a signpost of the gospel’s power to transcend our natural sociological tendencies to think, act, socialize, and vote like others in our same racial group.
The Church We Hope For, an intentionally multiethnic church plant in LA that was planted by Inés Velasquez-McBryde and Bobby Harrison, seeks to be “a beloved community moved by the Spirit to follow the life, love, and justice of Jesus.” They include diverse stories and testimonies in worship, and they disciple the congregation to know and listen to one another and to the needs of the community and world. These are ways we can be witnesses to the unifying power of Jesus Christ.
What Now?
What does this all mean? God is calling a new generation of church planters to plant or co-plant multiethnic churches. These planters are going to need resilience and strong intercultural skills to reach our rapidly diversifying and secularizing communities. Church planting networks and denominations need to identify, recruit, and train many more Latino planters and Asian planters to reach those growing populations, and they need to equip White and Black planters with the ability to understand and minister to people from a wide range of cultures.
Are we ready? God so loved the world so much that he gave his only Son. Do we love the people that God has brought to our doorstep enough to plant churches for and with them?
