MAY 14, 2007

CONGREGATIONS

Multicultural congregations multiply – intentionally

Despite a lot of rhetoric about diversity, racially segregated worship is still a reality in most congregations. One study found that only 8 percent of Christian congregations in the U.S. are considered racially or ethnically “mixed,” meaning no one group makes up more than 80 percent of the congregation.

At the same time, multicultural congregations are growing in number and prominence, for several reasons. There is a growing trend toward planting new congregations that are intentionally diverse racially and culturally. Some existing congregations are working at diversifying their membership because they believe they should reflect their communities or because they are trying to survive and thrive, or both. And immigration has increased the percentage of ethnic minorities in this country and the number of areas where they live, from big cities to small towns and rural areas.

These multiethnic congregations are pioneering new ways of doing worship, fellowship and community outreach that reflect their diverse memberships.

For more sources, see these previous ReligionLink issues:
• Race and religion in America
• Church planting is top priority
• Guide to Hispanics and religion
• Guide to African-Americans and religion

Why it matters

Young people today have grown up in a racially and ethnically diverse world. They expect their houses of worship to be as multihued as their schools, their workplaces, the coffee shops they visit. Families are changing too, through international adoptions and with relationships across racial and ethnic lines producing children who don’t clearly identify themselves as being of only one race. If racial reconciliation is possible within a congregation, some contend, that can be a sign to the world that divine reconciliation may be possible as well.

Click the map for interview sources in your state and region

National sources

• Michael O. Emerson is a sociology professor and director of the Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life at Rice University in Houston. He wrote People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States, and he co-authored Against All Odds: The Struggle for Racial Integration in Religious Organizations, both published within the last two years. Contact 713-348-4448, moe@rice.edu.
• The Rev. David A. Anderson is senior pastor of Bridgeway Community Church, a nondenominational, intentionally multicultural church of more than 2,000 in Columbia, Md. Anderson also is president of BridgeLeader Network, a nonprofit group that trains congregations, colleges, companies and other groups in multicultural work. Contact 410-992-5832, david.anderson@BridgeLeader.com.
• Scott L. Thumma is a professor of the sociology of religion at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research at Hartford Seminary. He has done research on megachurches and can speak about the role they play in developing multiracial and multiethnic congregations. Contact 860-509-9571, sthumma@hartsem.edu.
• George A. Yancey is an associate professor of sociology at the University of North Texas in Denton. He is the author of One Body, One Spirit: Principles of Successful Multiracial Churches. Contact 940-565-2179, gay0002@unt.edu or gyancey@unt.edu.
• James W. Lewis is executive director of the Louisville Institute, a program for the study of American religion at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. With funding from the Lilly Endowment, the Louisville Institute has sponsored research on multiethnic congregations. Lewis can connect reporters with scholars and pastors who’ve studied multiethnic congregations. Contact 502-992-9341, jlewis@louisville-institute.org.
• Erwin Raphael McManus, a native of El Salvador, is lead pastor and cultural architect at Mosaic, a diverse Southern Baptist church in Los Angeles. Mosaic is packed with a multiethnic mix of artistic young adults; McManus describes Mosaic as a cosmopolitan congregation serving the post-modern, post-Western, post-Christian world. McManus is the author of An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church God Had in Mind and, most recently, Soul Cravings, which was published in 2006. Contact 562-908-2200 ext. 105, alisah@mosaic.org.
• Kathleen Garces-Foley is an assistant professor of religious studies at Marymount University in Arlington, Va. She is studying the efforts of Protestants and Roman Catholics to create multiethnic churches and is the author of Crossing the Ethnic Divide: The Multiethnic Church on a Mission, released in January 2007. Contact 703-284-5721, kathleen.garces-foley@marymount.edu.
• D. J. Chuang is working with Leadership Network to assist churches that are trying creative approaches to reach Asian Americans. Leadership Network, based in Dallas, works to nurture innovative leadership and church growth by connecting and equipping church leaders. Contact 800-765-5323 or 214-969-5950, dj.chuang@leadnet.org.

ISLAM
• Ihsan Bagby is associate professor of Islamic studies in the department of modern and classical languages, literatures and cultures at the University of Kentucky. He can speak about racial diversity in American mosques, based in part on research from the 2001 study “The Mosque in America: A National Portrait.” The Council on American-Islamic relations, a co-sponsor of the report, has posted on its Web site a summary of the ethnic background of American Muslims, based on that report. Contact 859-257-9638 (office), 859-257-3761 (department), iabagb2@uky.edu.

JUDAISM
• Gary A. Tobin is president of the Institute for Jewish & Community Research, a nonprofit think tank in San Francisco. He formerly directed the Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University and is the co-author of In Every Tongue: The Racial and Ethnic Diversity of the Jewish People. Contact press@jewishresearch.org.

BUDDHISM
• Choyin Rangdrol is a teacher in the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism and the founder of Rainbow Dharma, a Buddhist center in Oakland, Calif., and of the Web site RainbowDharma.com. The author of Black Buddha: Changing the Face of American Buddhism (published in 2006), Rangdrol has written about racial separation in American Buddhism. Read a fall 2005 interview with Turning Wheel magazine and an article he wrote posted on UrbanDharma.org, which addresses the question: “Are Buddhist People of Color Separate from American Buddhism?” Contact rainbowdharma@aol.com.

FAITH GROUPS
• Ronaldo M. Cruz is executive director of the Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He can speak about the involvement of Latinos in Catholic churches. Contact 202-541-3150, hispanicaffairs@usccb.org.
• The Rev. Josue' Del Risco is director of the International and Multiethnic Evangelism Team of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Contact 770-410-6344, jdelrisco@namb.net.
• The Rev. Chester Jones is general secretary of the United Methodist Church’s General Commission on Religion and Race in Washington, D.C. Contact 202-547-2271, cjones@gcorr.org.
• The Rev. Alvin C. Bibbs Sr. is executive director of multicultural church relations for Willow Creek Association and is the founder and executive director of National Compassion Network. He has developed training curriculums for congregations that want to diversify their congregations to become more racially inclusive and to become involved in compassion and justice issues, and he provides training for congregations seeking to become more diverse. Contact 224-512-1103 (office) or 708-373-3925 (cell), abibbs@willowcreek.org.
• Sherman Hicks is executive director of multicultural ministries for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Rosemary Dyson is associate executive director. Contact 800-638-3522 ext. 2841 for Hicks and ext. 2832 for Dyson, or Sherman.hicks@elca.org and rosemary.dyson@elca.org.
• Randy Lee is moderator of the Presbyterian Multicultural Church Network and associate general presbyter for new church development and redevelopment in Grace Presbytery in Texas. Contact 214-630-4502 or 800-678-4502 ext. 5602, Randy@gracepresbytery.org.
• Kathryn Kahn is director of outreach for the Union for Reform Judaism. She can speak about ethnic diversity and changing demographics within American Judaism. Contact 212-650-4230, Kkahn@urj.org.

Background

STUDIES
• Sociologist Michael Emerson and a team of researchers at Rice University conducted a national study on multiracial Protestant and Catholic denominations. They found that more than 9 in 10 U.S. churches remain segregated. They analyzed 20 multiracial congregations in the U.S. and identified seven models for how those ethnically diverse congregations came to be. Among their findings:

• Catholic congregations were three times more likely than Protestant ones to be ethnically diverse – in part because Catholic parishes are geographically larger. • Evangelical Protestant congregations tended to be more ethnically diverse than mainline congregations. • The more upbeat the worship style – the more clapping, dancing and shouting out of responses – the more racially mixed a congregation tended to be. • Multiracial congregations tended to be found in cities rather than rural areas.

• Read a Feb. 28, 2001, story from Christian Century outlining the findings of the Congregations Project at Rice University and other research studies on multiracial congregations. The article is posted by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.
• Research at Hartford Seminary found significant racial diversity among American megachurches. Thumma found that 35 percent of megachurches studied claimed to have at least 20 percent of their membership from a nonmajority ethnic group, and more than half were making specific efforts – such as diversifying their staffs or holding worship services in a language other than English – to become more intentionally multiethnic.
• Read a 2006 research report on “Racial Diversity and Buddhism in the United States” from the Pluralism Project at Harvard University.

ARTICLES
• Read a story from The Associated Press, published Feb. 24, 2007, in the Deseret News, about the efforts megachurches are making to become multiracial and multiethnic congregations.
• Read a Feb. 15, 2007, story, posted on the Web site of the Bahá'ís of the United States, about an annual Black Men’s Gathering, advertised as “a comfort zone in which to find spirituality and cultural identity.”
• Read a Sept. 28, 2006, story from The Christian Science Monitor about an increasing number of Latinos in the U.S. who are becoming Muslim.
• Read a Sept. 15, 2006, story from the National Catholic Reporter on efforts in the Diocese of Oakland to address increasing racial diversity.
• Read a May 4, 2003, story from The Washington Post, which discusses how evangelical groups on many college campuses are attracting many Asians, while many white students are turning to Eastern religions.
• Read an April 29, 2002, story from Religion News Service, published in the Baptist Standard, about segregation in America’s churches.
• Read a September 2001 story from The Commission Online about ethnic and racial diversity in Southern Baptist congregations.