Multicultural Worship: Missional Cultural Diversity

Originally Published in Worship Leader Magazine Vol 28 No 3
By Nikki Lerner
In my work as a culture coach for churches and faith-based organizations, I am often asked this question. “Do you believe that the Church should reflect the community that it is surrounded by, and if so, does a church surrounded by a homogeneous population need to pursue diversity?”
Let’s break that down. Should a church ONLY reflect the community that surrounds it? NO! Absolutely not! Our model of the saints worshipping in Revelation Chapter 7—a beautiful diversity of all of the different types of people that God has made. The goal in both established churches and prospective church plants is that they reflect the diversity God created. A church should represent the community around it, but it shouldn’t stop there. Not now. Not in the chaotic, tumultuous days in which we find ourselves. The opportunity to reach out is endless. Why stop at just our local communities?
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I envision a world where people engage in a proactive movement toward unity and understanding relating to culture and come-from. My passion is to help you move from Monocultural to Multicultural in your work and life. I realize that so much in my life up until this point has been what I call “a divine set-up.” My story began growing up in a tri-cultural family, even though we were all from the same ethnic group. One part of my family was ridiculously multicultural, the second part was relatively monocultural, with the third coming from a rural environment.