An apostolic vision of multi ethnicity is about reaching every corner of a campus or city.
[This is part of the series “Multi-Ethnicity in the Missional Church”. Read the other posts here]
By Eric Rafferty
When multiethnic ministry is an expression of our apostolic calling it becomes something more than another value to care about. It is the benchmark of mission; the people of God sent to every culture. Apostolic multiethnicity is more than getting different colored people in a room together; it’s a diverse community of disciples being sent to every corner.
A heart for all people
– The Sign of Jonah
As I (Eric) have soaked in the Gospel of Luke for the last year there has been one idea that has grabbed my heart more than anything else. Four obscure words have become for me the thesis of Luke’s Gospel, the basis for an “every corner” vision, and the summary of all that I want my life to be about: The Sign of Jonah.
What? Isn’t the sign of Jonah just that Jonah was in a fish for three days and Jesus was dead for three days and those are kind of similar? In Matthew’s gospel, yes, that’s how the sign of Jonah is used. But in Luke, the sign of Jonah is much bigger.
29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.– Luke 11:29-30
The sign of Jonah is that the Ninevites drew near to God while Jonah was faithless and that the Queen of Ethiopia traveled far to hear God’s wisdom while Israel’s ears were closed. We see the sign of Jonah in Jesus’ ministry as tax collectors and prostitutes drew near to the Kingdom of God while religious leaders stood on the fringe and criticized. The poor and the crippled, women and children, even foreigners and outcasts clamored to get around Jesus and to hear the words of life!
The sign of Jonah is that Jesus came for the far off. And when the furthest out and most underrepresented people draw near to Jesus in the community of the Spirit we see the sign of Jonah today.
The sign of Jonah may well be that barriers of race and class that close and divide so many other communities are torn down in this community of the Spirit. [i]
An apostolically rooted vision for multiethnicity is one that reveals the sign of Jonah. We don’t pursue multiethnicity because it’s fun to get different colored people in a room (though it is!) but because we long for every people group on our campus and in our city to draw near to God!
God’s longing for our campus is that Black students and White students, Asian Americans and athletes, fraternity brothers and sorority sisters, education majors and atheists would encounter the love of God and draw near to him.
Does your ministry reach beyond one ethnic group? How can you take steps to build relationships and partner with other ministries to see the sign of Jonah revealed in your context?
Attractional vs. Missional
When vision for multiethnic ministry is rooted in God’s love and desire for all people there is a natural shift from attracting people in to being sent out. Don’t get me wrong; multiethnic community should be an attractive thing to our cities. Gathering diverse groups of people to work on reconciliation is beautiful and of the Kingdom. And while multiethnic churches are embarrassingly rare, genuinely reconciled communities are even more difficult to find outside of the Church. When we offer a picture of the Kingdom of God in multiethnic community it should attract attention and draw people in.
But most people are not looking for multiethnic community and most people are definitely not looking for Christian community. Most people will not take the initiative to come to your thing. When we are multiethnic just for the sake of multiethnicity then we are trying to get different colored people in a room and that is a hard vision to sustain. It’s costly and awkward and you have to constantly remind people why we care about multiethnicity. If you’ve been in a multiethnic community like that then you know it’s exhausting.
But when we are multiethnic for the sake of mission then we are about something much bigger. We’re connecting with the heart of God for all people! We’re dreaming God’s dream for the Kingdom and following him on the adventure of making it reality. We’re no longer calling people to a value. We’re inviting them along on the mission of God for every corner and every culture.
Yearning for the Sea
Leadership people say that vision leaks. And we think that’s true. But when a vision for multiethnicity is apostolic, rooted in the mission of God and our sent-ness to all people, then it leaks a lot less. People can forget why we should care about one value or another, but it’s hard to forget God’s love for all people. And that is the basis for an apostolic vision of multi-ethnicity. We’re sent with a message of love to every corner and every culture. That’s a vision to fall in love with!
I love how the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery put it:
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
We all know how to drum up the men and give orders. We know how to sell our vision in a thousand different ways to continually fill the leaky vision bucket. Instead let’s teach people to yearn for the Kingdom of God! Let’s teach them to long for all nations to fall in love with Jesus! Let’s build communities that are multiethnic because we long for God to draw every tribe, tongue, and nation into relationship with himself.
[i] Gonzalez, Luke, 150.
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