Arkansas Church Pursues Multiethnic Vision Mosaic Church is a non-denominational, multiethnic congregation. Non-RCA churches like Mosaic will occasionally be featured here to share what God is doing in the wider church.  "In an increasingly diverse and cynical society, I believe people are no longer going to find credible the message that God loves all people if it's preached from segregated pulpits and pews. They have to see it and experience the love of God for all people," says Mark DeYmaz, pastor at Mosaic Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. Mosaic began in 2001 after DeYmaz left his youth pastor job at a white mega-church in the area. "Eventually you wake up one day and ask, why are the only minorities in our church janitors, in a church of 5,000 people, when the town is 40 percent African American? "The combination of knowing in my head and seeing with my eyes the impacts on perpetuating other ills of racism in our society helped me envision a church for all people." Mosaic's congregation is roughly 20 percent Latino and international, 30 percent African American, and 50 percent white.  "We don't have to say a lot to attract people to Christ, because the way we go about things is attractive in every way you want it to be--representing the love of Christ for all people of the world. "The people, whether they are believers or not, embrace and are excited that we are pursuing this kind of [multiethnic] vision." The community is starting to recognize that vision. Recently, it asked the church to host one of five main events held to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of integration at Little Rock's Central High School. The event, a town hall meeting on race and education, kicked off a week of celebrations in September. "There's so many better facilities this group [the 50th Anniversary Commission] could've chosen to use," says DeYmaz. "We meet in an old Wal-Mart; there's nothing fancy about this place at all. They picked this church for a reason. It's not because they're all Christians and want Christ lifted up. As one gentleman told us, 'We want the same spirit that is in your church to be experienced and felt by the people who come to this event.'" Learn more about Mosaic Church's journey by reading Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church: Mandate, Commitments, and Practices of a Diverse Congregation, by Mark DeYmaz. The book will be released November 3 and will be available at major bookstores. For DeYmaz, the biblical call to multiculturalism is clear. "We're not focused on racial reconciliation. That's not, in my opinion, a good, sound theological reason to pursue a multiethnic church. We pursue it because it's biblical--envisioned by God in John 17, described in Acts, and prescribed by the apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians. You've got to build on that foundation for the sake of the gospel. "If you're out to pursue this because it's cool or politically correct, or because the neighborhood is changing, or for diversity for diversity's sake--all those things are like shifting sands. A healthy multiethnic church can be established only on the firm foundation of the Word of God. "The fact that neighborhoods are changing is not a credible reason to pursue this--but it gives us context. Because the neighborhood is changing, we've got a real shot at what Christ envisioned." DeYmaz says it's key to accommodate diverse people instead of assimilating them. Newcomers at Mosaic are always welcome to suggest major changes. "Accommodation requires that we who are already here be willing to adapt and change for those who are now coming," he says. "Forms and practices that don't violate the Word of God--those that may be different from the majority's experience--are always subject to change." Posted 10/05/07
|