Anglo-Other cooperation

We attended an ethnic church in South Philadelphia yesterday. This is an interesting situation where a historic stone church with stained glass windows is still surviving amid the continual melting-pot stirring of an ever-changing mixed-race neighborhood. A remnant of an Anglo congregation still meets here, but they have had the graciousness (or courage) to open their building to multiple ethnic congregations representing the surrounding community. Presently, a Hispanic congregation, a Cambodian congregation, and a Laotian/Nepali congregation all share their facility.

Our contact is with the Laotian/Nepali congregation. The Laotian man serving as pastor has taken courses at our denominational seminary here in the Philadelphia area. When Bill first visited them in January, the group was mainly Laotian, with a few Nepalese. Since then, word has spread in the Nepali community, and they are now overwhelmingly the majority group. This mixture resulted in a very interesting trilingual service, with everything being translated into English, Laotian, and Nepali and songs in all three languages. The children sang a special song for Father’s Day – in Nepali and English. We were told that the children all learned English in refugee camps before arriving. A young person from the host church organized a children’s church (in English) for the kids. Those attending the service were really pleased to see the short video we presented of Bill’s time in Nepal in March.

As I was sitting toward the back of the group during the Sunday School and church services watching this ballet, I was asking myself: what kind of relationship can our American churches have with these rapidly multiplying ethnic churches in our towns and neighborhoods? How can we all work together to demonstrate the Oneness of the Body of Christ?

The answers need to be more than spiritual theory or lovey-dovey feelings. These are some ideas for concrete cooperation that came into my head:

1- Offer them a place to meet. It is unrealistic to think that first-generation immigrants and refugees can always just automatically integrate our services. We do things SO differently than what they are used to! And they do need to be able to express their faith and their concerns in their heart language. Besides, when you are half-a-world away from your culture, it is important to be able to meet with those who know and understand who you are and not have to always be on your guard about doing things the way the host culture expects. There is really no way they could ever acquire property for a separate church meeting place. So, being given access to a recognizable church building is important for them.

2- Establish a genuine pastor-to-pastor/leader relationship. I think this is important whether or not the ethnic group has a formally-trained pastor. Whoever is leading it is going to have to handle pastoral needs and concerns, and contact with the pastor of the host church as well as with other pastors in the area provides an essential network for support and accountability. For instance, the pastor of the host church came in at the end of the service yesterday to participate in special prayer offered for the military son of the Laotian pastor who is leaving this week for Iraq. I think working on this point is the key to carrying out numbers 3 and 4, below.

3- Ask them what they need. Perhaps it is English classes for adults, or tutoring for school children, or clothing and household goods for newly-arrived families, or information on local healthcare and social services. Immigrants often don’t know “how things work here”, so they need someone to whom they can talk safely and ask questions which they might be afraid “sound dumb”. We can help in many ways to let them feel more comfortable among us.

4- Find out if their pastors/leaders, children’s workers, and other volunteers would like training. There are so many resources available here that they do not have in their home countries. Most of this training could easily be provided by local pastors and people in our churches. It doesn’t have to be terribly formal. It can be just one-on-one.

5- Accept their invitations and their gifts. They have much to offer, and they are very pleased when we accept it with gratitude. In this way, you can participate in some really fun festivities and eat some really good food! It is also a very down-to-earth way of showing respect, acknowledgement, and acceptance for other brothers and sisters in Christ.

Will you friend me?

One thing we have learned in moving around the world is that being a Christian can provide you with an automatic list of people who welcome you and quickly become your friends. No matter how strange the situation or the culture, we have had the privilege of being cared for and helped by other believers. When you feel like you have “lost control” because you have no idea how to evaluate what is happening around you in a new and strange place, it is reassuring to be in the company of national believers that you trust, who know the “code”, and can guide you around.

Is that always true? Recent conversations have led me to realize that is not always the case. When I was helping in the language school in Cambodia, one of the students was a Korean woman who was trying to learn English. She was moving to California in a few weeks and was very nervous about living there. I was flabbergasted to learn that she had previously lived in the US for 6 years and had not learned English during that time. When I tried to find out how that had happened, she replied: “I tried to talk to Americans, but they didn’t want to talk to me, so I just stayed with my Korean friends.” She was not a pushy person, very timid, and was easily discouraged when rebuffed.

The other conversation was with a young European who has lived in the US for several years. He speaks English fluently so I was surprised when he looked straight at me and asked, “How do you make friends in America? “ When I suggested he look up American students who had some overseas study experience, he replied, “It is well known that American students are more interested in texting their friends back home than in talking with the people around them.” Since living here, he has tried various ways to make friends but has been frustrated by the lack of interest of Americans his age in actually connecting with someone “different”, albeit in rather minor ways. He also feels rebuffed.

Sadly, both of these people are Christians who have not found companionship in Christian communities in the US. In one case there was a language barrier, in the other case a cultural perception difference. It is not EASY to reach out to those from other lands who are among us, but it is important. The leading pastors of the churches we worked with in both Cambodia and Nepal became Christians because a family member had found the Lord while living in the US. Someone here did go to the trouble of reaching out to a foreigner and the results are being multiplied hundreds of times over.

We recently read that 80% of the foreign students who come to the US for schooling return to their country without ever having seen the inside of an American home!! This is a chasm that Christians – every local church -- could be rushing into with world-changing results. I realize that it isn’t EASY to voluntarily move out of our comfort zone and invite those who are not like us, but it is vital.

So you don’t know what you would talk about with someone from a different background? Just ask them to tell you about themselves, their families, their homeland, their studies, their travels, their questions about American life, their goals… All you really have to do is be welcoming and listen. If you would like some ideas, zip us an email and Bill and I would be glad to give suggestions. For us, it would be a very small payback for all the care that other Christians around the world have generously bestowed on us.

Who is living in your town right now and needs to have you friend them?