Building Intercultural Ministry Churches and Teams
- Chris Holder
- Mar 17
- 3 min read
At the end of Matthew, in what is referred to as the Great Commission, Jesus charges his disciples—or 11 key followers—to “go make disciples of all nations.” At the beginning of Acts, Luke describes Jesus as telling the same group that under the direction of the Holy Spirit they will “be my witnesses to Jesusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.” In both of these, we see a movement outward, at least geographically, of the gospel of good news. While going out to new places—even nations—to share the gospel is certainly part of following Jesus. For many years now, the nations are flocking to many of our cities and communities. Therefore, we no longer have to go to reach the nations. The Holy Spirit is literally delivering them to our front door.
What then are we to do about this reality? How do we address this changing cultural realities of our communities? Despite this diversity in our communities, schools, and marketplaces, churches still tend to lack this same diversity. This is especially true in the LCMS where, according to data from the ARDA, the white or Anglo percentage is currently at 93.9% (The Association of Religion Data Archives, https://www.thearda.com/us-religion/group-profiles/groups?D=496). Despite this reality, Lutheran churches can become culturally diverse if they commit to two things.
They must be willing to fully engage their communities and offer genuine hospitality and friendship to their neighbors from other cultures.
They must commit to having different cultures represented in staff and
leadership roles.
I have been helping LCMS churches move from single to intercultural in the for over 15 years now. Last month, the church in which I serve as lead pastor—Bethel in the eastern part of Dallas, Texas—voted unanimously to call two vicars to become pastors upon the completion of their studies through distance programs at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. On the surface, this event does not seem particularly out of the ordinary. When you consider the background of these two men, you see that this actually quite the exceptional occasion for an LCMS Congregation. These men, Walker Nery and Jonas Ntagawa, were born in Brazil and the Congo and speak a combined eight languages between them.
About eight years ago, Bethel made the commitment to fully engage its culturally diverse community. This has led to two new worshiping communities in Spanish and Kinyarwanda. Vicars Walker and Jonas serve as the pastoral leaders to these communities, but they also serve on a ministry team with myself and the rest of our staff, as vicars to the Bethel community. However, this goes both ways, as I also act as the pastor to all of Bethel’s worshiping communities. This level of engagement is demanding. We don’t just occupy the same space. Rather, we act as a team working towards common goals, realising that each group offers something unique to the greater community. This is not easy. It requires a great amount of patience and understanding—coordinating the best times for things like youth meetings, VBS, all church potlucks, and the like. However, the pay-off is that Bethel’s worshiping community on a Sunday of 160 to 175 people is about 50% white versus the LCMS average of almost 94%.
Last month when we voted 100% to call Walker and Jonas to the pastoral team at Bethel, we confirmed our commitment to continue to be an intercultural church for the nations. This commitment is impossible without a commitment to train, support, and welcome an intercultural ministry team. If a 72-year-old Lutheran church like Bethel can follow Jesus in this way, so can many others. At Bethel, we look forward to later this year when we can have a joint ordination service in three languages, celebrating the work that the Holy Spirit is doing among us.
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