wfn.org | When Cultures Meet at Church

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
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Note 389 by UMNS on Oct. 15, 1997 at 16:46 Eastern (4277 characters).

CONTACT: Thomas S. McAnally			  577(10-71B){389}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470	Oct. 15, 1997

Churches confronting
cultural differences

by United Methodist News Service

	The confrontation of cultures is making a profound change in American
churches today, according to a faculty member at United Methodist-related
Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta.
	In a new book Embracing Difference: Leading Multicultural Congregations, the
Rev. Charles Foster presents a how-to guide to help pastors and lay people
deal with diversity.  Foster, a widely known Christian educator who once
served on the staff of Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville, has been studying
multicultural congregations for several years.
	Urging more than lip service to cultural diversity, he encourages his readers
to "take seriously the radical differences that exist between generations,
races, genders, social classes and cultures that affirms the integrity and
value of each."
	Increasing numbers of immigrant groups throughout the country are making
familiar notions of toleration or assimilation seem out of step, he says. "In
congregations that embrace diversity, difference is affirmed as a gift and a
resource.  The reality is that if these congregations are going to continue to
be a community they have found they must embrace diversity to survive."
	While the book is full of practical suggestions, Foster stresses that there
is no set formula for success.  "Almost every pastor with whom I talked
emphasized that most of what they learned about leading congregations, which
embrace difference occurred through trial and error," he writes in the books
introduction.
	In many instances embracing diversity means people suspending expectations on
everything from language and style of music to how to deal with latecomers. 
Foster said he had to learn a different concept of time while teaching a
childrens Sunday school class in a culturally diverse church.  "In some
cultures time is more related to being ready than to a specific hour," he
explains.  Instead of structuring the class around being "on time," Foster and
his co-teacher, a woman from Liberia, began helping children join the learning
process when they arrived.
	One strategy suggested by Foster is congregational conversation.  "When you
begin with the affirmation of difference, then the ways we talk to each other
have to be taken seriously," he says.  "The most difficult struggle we face is
learning how to talk to each other about even the most obvious and simplest
things."  Topics such as how to greet one another or how children are nurtured
or taught become part of the "curriculum undercurrent"  that Foster says
support or undermine the formal practices of worship, teaching and meeting.
	In some churches, even conversation is difficult.  Foster cites one church
with 17 nationalities in its midst that took six years to start conversations
about how children should be reared.  In most instances, he says,
"conversation begins when something occurs that has to be talked about."
	True conversation means the willingness both to speak and listen, says
Foster.  "Conversation involves a willingness to acknowledge when your words
and actions are misunderstood and a readiness to attempt to restore bruised
relationships."
	Foster wrote Embracing Difference because he is convinced that multicultural
congregations are part of a grassroots movement that affects an increasing
number of churches across the country.  But for all the vigor and growth that
multicultural congregations are experiencing they are volatile, he says.
"Almost anything that happens can be a point of coming together or breaking
apart."
	Ultimately, in the midst of ongoing conversation and mutual respect and
sharing, Foster says "there comes a point when people begin to share the pain
and joy of their lives across cultures and differences."
	Churches are one of the most difficult places for the embrace of diversity,
according to Foster, because church life is so cultural.  At the same time, he
says churches may be among the best places for embracing diversity because the
larger mission of the church involves embracing the diversity of Gods
creation.
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