Lissa Gotwals

Cathleen Colon-Emeric, a Sunday School teacher at Reconciliation UMC in Durham, N.C., sings with Claudia and Tamara Macareno.

Crossing boundaries

While the Bible provides the rationale, the reality of building a truly diverse church depends on making genuine connections and sharing power -- an area in which church leaders have a major role to play.

In his article, “Becoming Inclusive Communities of Faith,” for New Theology Review, Dudek described a framework for churches to become more culturally and racially inclusive. In it, he described an “intercultural dialogue ladder” that “enables congregations to get beyond ethnic communities living side by side without any connection to each other.”

One step is relationship-building. It cannot be forced, but it should be encouraged, perhaps around opportunities that focus on sharing and food, he wrote. He also wrote that for newcomers to feel like they belong, the long-time church members “must not only share space and resources, they have to create them anew. The biggest danger at this point is to offer others solely what is left over or inconsistent with the in-group’s mission.”

Dudek also views storytelling as a sacred act. “There is no better way for cultures to connect than through the sharing of life stories that inspire and heal,” Dudek wrote.

Taylor de Palomino, whose congregation has been culturally diverse almost since it was started, is a member of a multicultural covenant team made up of several churches that meets every month. She is also a field staff member for multicultural ministries for the Presbyterian Churches (USA).

“I think for a church to be genuinely multicultural, the leadership of the pastor is important and the attitude of the congregation is equally important,” Taylor de Palomino said. Sometimes churches invite newcomers into their church but ask them to leave their culture at the door, she said.

That hasn’t been the case at Christ Presbyterian. The 2006 Advent celebration, for example, featured a different region of the world each week. One week, a church member from Ghana sang a carol in Twi. The next week, church members from the Philippines sang in Tagalog. Taylor de Palomino served pita bread during the week focusing on the Middle East.

Priscilla Cardoso is from Brazil and has been in the United States for seven years. She is a member of Christ Presbyterian Church, which she says is very much like her family.

For her, it doesn’t matter where other members come from or if their traditions are different from hers.

“We are Christian. We have the Bible. We think the same way,” Cardoso said. “We have a church. We can help each other.”

And incorporating immigrants isn’t just a special-occasion effort, Taylor de Palomino said. About half of the church’s deacons and elders are immigrants. Leadership positions in churches can be important for immigrants, said Ebaugh, the sociologist from Rice.

Immigrants often are “downwardly mobile” because they may not speak English well or may lack the credentials to practice their profession in the United States. So, church leadership may be an area in which they can compensate for the loss in status, Ebaugh said.

“If they come into these Christian churches and they are not allowed to be choir director or study group leader, that is a function of church that doesn’t get met for these people,” Ebaugh said.

Being a good listener and having patience are two important traits for any church leader who wants to make his or her church more diverse, said the Rev. Kevin Baker, pastor at Reconciliation United Methodist Church in Durham, N.C., where Anglo, African-American and Latino members pray together each week.

When the church opened in the late 1990s as a multicultural church, there weren’t any complaints because the people who were there knew that the church sought to welcome members from all different backgrounds, Baker said. It didn’t take long, however, for people to get set in their ways. He heard complaints about the number of songs sung in Spanish on Sundays or concerns that the church needed to do a better job of reaching out to African Americans.

As pastor of the church, Baker said he tries to help people reframe some of their complaints to tone down seemingly biting comments. Once people sit down and discuss their complaints, the issues can be addressed more amicably, he said.

Reconciliation UMC has started storytelling sessions where members are asked to share something that is unique to them as a person and to their background and culture. In each session, two people are asked to speak for about 15 minutes. The hope is that the stories will serve as introductions that will spark a dialogue between the storyteller and other church members.

“We’re hoping to create enough interest so people want to know more,” Baker said.

Sharing food, sharing stories and sharing leadership are all part of making congregations look like the rest of America -- and the kingdom of God, say those involved in the effort.

“This is our stock. This is our roots,” Schoen said. “This is our heritage and this is our future.”