The American Pastor

Your character

You’ve been trained for ministry through a robust paradigm that’s been in the process of constant improvement for generations.  As a result, you are well-educated, organizationally skilled, and (by global standards) well-paid.

You’re likeable, and you’re good at what you do.  You have fair to strong skills in preaching, interpersonal relationships, and organizational management.

Being raised in the Western systems of critical thinking and time management, many of you are good at launching new initiatives, troubleshooting existing ones, and managing your time efficiently. Many of you are over-committed to ministry programming, and in some level of burnout.

Most of you are seeing the greying and decline of your churches.  You know clearly that you’re not alone.

Most of you are aware of immigrant churches around you, but you’re not sure what that might mean for your church. 

Your challenges 

Most of you are monocultural.  That’s not a bad thing; most Americans, especially of our older generations, are quite monocultural.  Because most of those with whom you interact regularly have the same cultural background, you may not even be aware of our American cultural distinctives.  Like a fish swimming in water, it’s just “the way things are”.

Monocultural Americans aren’t aware of how much we talk. It’s been drilled into us since first grade to speak up and voice our thoughts. Most global cultures were taught in elementary school and beyond to be quiet and always agree with the teacher. Expecting an immigrant friend to be as outspoken in individual or small group conversations as your members isn’t likely to work.  You’ll need to cultivate the skills of asking good questions and becoming comfortable with pauses in the conversation to truly befriend many global peoples.

Monocultural Americans see tasks from the position of efficiency. Efficiency in itself is a good thing, but most global cultures prioritize relationship over efficiency. You’re more likely to build a strong relationship with an immigrant partner through meals together than through beginning your relationship with discussions of theological and strategic alignment. Your partner is a human being with a family and feelings, not just another task on your to-do list.

It may be difficult for your people to highly esteem the spiritual giftedness of immigrant pastors who don’t have your high level of education, income, organizational aptitude or pulpit skills. You’ll need to remind them that New Testament criteria for elders do not include Bible school degrees, salaries, buildings or bylaws. Your congregation needs to hear that you esteem immigrant pastors as your peers and not some sort of “lay pastors”.

Your calling

Here’s an important passage for American Christians to live out: Romans 15:7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. God has brought people from around the world to your neighborhood, and many of them are devout Christians. You have the honor of welcoming them to your community.

God is changing the Body of Christ in North America from monocultural to multicultural. That makes it vital for you to understand the world of your new Christian neighbors. Here is the key theme of my book The Cross-Cultural Partnership Survival Guide.

The line in the sand between success and failure in forming a healthy cross-cultural church partnership is the determination of an American pastor and an immigrant pastor to embark on a relational and ministry journey together.

I know you have time pressures. The ministry programming you share with a partnering immigrant church doesn’t need to be time-consuming.  But you do need to commit regular quality time to engaging with an immigrant pastor as a highly esteemed peer.

For your church to thrive in ministry in America’s increasingly multicultural environment, it must have some kind of cross-cultural ministry.  Because the majority of your people will lobby you to keep providing the style of preaching, music, and style of worship they deeply love, it’s not likely that most of your churches will transition to multicultural. But you can partner with one or more churches of another culture. And independently or together with that partner church, you might launch a new multicultural small group, worship service, or daughter church.

Don’t worry if most of your people are quite disinterested in ministry together with a church of another culture.  Your partner church’s people typically feel the same way. It only takes a handful of committed people to make a significant Kingdom impact.

Because you’re not preparing for overseas ministry, you’re not looking for the same level of anthropological and sociological training that missionary service requires. You’re more likely to want short bursts of training such as blogs or videos, as opposed to college courses. And you’ll want to be able to share your insights with your congregation without using professional jargon. You instinctively know that using terms like ethnocentrism or diaspora from the pulpit won’t resonate with your people.   

Here are some of the resources of Immigrant Ministry Connections you may find particularly useful.

• Subscribing to our weekly blogs will keep you current on what’s happening in North American cross-cultural ministry.
• You can expand the base of members open to local cross-cultural ministry by learning the basics through our engaging 7 Day Cross-Cultural Challenge.
• The principles that form the core of our resources are contained in our short book The Cross-Cultural Partnership Survival Guide.
• Our directories of training agencies can be helpful to your church in designing new programming such as teaching English, refugee resettlement, international student ministry, and more
• If you’re engaged in local cross-cultural partnerships, experiencing growth pains, and are ready to take your skills to the next level, it’s wise to consider membership in The Merging Streams Coalition.