Invisible barriers to becoming an intercultural church
At WBUR, Boston’s National Public Radio station, a very interesting testimony appeared three years ago titled “A Dual Degree from Oxford. A Medical Degree from Harvard. Neither Protected Me from Racism.” It’s from Tafadzwa Muguwe, a Zimbabwean-born Rhodes scholar and Harvard-trained physician. Back in the U.S., an early memory from medical school was seeing a…
Beyond cosmetic diversity
In early 2000, when I first stepped into the sanctuary of Willingdon Church in Burnaby, B.C., I was astounded to see the music team’s diversity. A variety of races and ethnicities was represented, singing a chorus praising God. This Mennonite Brethren church would become one of the biggest megachurches in the Greater Vancouver area, known…
The hopeful demise of ethnocentrism
Perhaps you remember the 2000 box office hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It tells the story of a young Greek American woman, Toula Portokalos, falling in love with a non-Greek WASP, Ian Miller. Her family struggles to accept him while she struggles to come to terms with her cultural identity. Acclaimed as a romantic…
Four models of multiracial church
In his 2003 book, One Body, One Spirit: Principles of Successful Multiracial Churches, George Yancey shares the results of a major study funded by the Lily Endowment and conducted by Michael Emerson, Karen Chai and Yancey. The researchers discuss four distinctive types of multiracial churches. Below, I analyze these types from a Mennonite perspective. 1)“Leadership…
The witness of heterogeneity
The world has become heterogeneous. We live in an era of cultural boundarilessness. Go to the nearest McDonald’s and see who is sitting there. Tune into CBC’s My Farmland, in which a Chinese immigrant family move to rural Saskatchewan. (I also know a Korean Mennonite family, farming in the barren land of New Brunswick.) In…
Revisiting intentionality
Once upon a time, there was a belief in the Canadian Mennonite church that if it welcomed new people of colour, immigrants and refugees, these newcomers would eventually join and integrate into the church. This was an illusion. The church’s initial welcome may have played as a curious gesture to get to know the new…
Three kinds of grace in the formation of intercultural church
If you are a student learning early Anabaptist spirituality, Leonhard Schiemer’s treatise, Three Kinds of Grace Found in the Scriptures cannot be missed. In his short writing, he displays the profundity of the Anabaptist way of salvation which brings a transformative and comprehensive effect on new converts. “The first grace is the general light that…
Forever hybrid
Niklaus Mikaelson, Valerie Tulle, Lizzie Saltzman, Stefan Salvatore . . . do you know who these folks are? If not, maybe that’s because they are not from the Mennonite heritage but from a supernatural world featured in the TV series, The Vampire Diaries. These beings are “hybrids,” born out of the cross-breeding of supernatural species…
