building a multicultural church, by john moriarty

Since the beginning of my Christian experience, I’ve always dreamed of being a member of a multi-racial congregation.  So, if I thought it would be good to be a member of a multi-racial Vineyard, just think what pleasure it has been for me to pastor an emerging multi-ethnic congregation.  I am thrilled. Vineyard has not historically been known to be significantly multi-racial although there are some signs of the big ship turning.  One example is the multi-ethnic success of the Evanston, Illinois Vineyard pastored by Steve Nicholson.  Steve said that his congregation is 35% minority.  That rather large minority is from over 30 different nationalities.  I asked Steve if there were any other significant examples of this in the Vineyard. He said, “No, but more people are talking about it.”

According to the U.S. 2000 Census, the percentage of people of color in our country’s population has more than doubled to 31% since 1960.  Between 1980 and 2000 the African American population grew by nearly 30%, the Latino population by 142%, the Asian American population by 185% and the Native American population by 75%.  The numbers show that we have 35 million more people of color than we did in 1980. 1

In the city of Columbus, Ohio which is the 15th largest city in the nation there are a number of suburban areas that have the presence of Vineyard churches. While Columbus is becoming more racially diverse, the suburbs remain predominantly white.  The Vineyard presence in the central Ohio area is now the most concentrated area of Vineyards per capita in the world. Our little suburb of Pickerington, population 13,066, has a healthy growing Vineyard that is 5 years old.  This past year, we have planted a church in another nearby suburb and have planted a church in Bangalore, India.  As our church has grown we have noticed something else growing…a multi-racial congregation!  The demographics of our suburb show that there are nearly 4% African-American living here.  Yet our congregation has 21% African Americans (which attributes to the majority of our multi-racial membership) that have gone through the membership class and have membered at the church.  What would attribute to this level of participation and growth? The following are some plausible reasons that have spawned this surprising and exciting growth at Eastside Vineyard in Pickerington, Ohio:

• Praying for a multi-ethnic congregation.
  

   

• A radio program that lasted 2 years which was on an urban station that predominantly serves an African American audience.
  

   

• Intentional inclusive sermon illustrations: I have attempted to be sensitive to include African American historical examples from wars, current events, scientific and entertainment achievements in my sermons.  For example, instead of just using George Washington, I would also mention George Washington Carver; instead of referring to just Judy Garland and Bing Crosby, I would also mention Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald. Instead of only referring to Payton Manning, Rudy Gulliani and Garth Brooks, I’d also refer to Tiki Barber, Nelson Mandela or Aretha Franklin…you get the idea. There are a number of African American websites to enhance sensitivity for the preacher desiring a multi-racial congregation.  In addition to your library filled with various editions of Chicken Soup for the Soul (the student’s soul, the woman’s soul, the workers soul etc.), try picking up Chicken Soup for the African American Soul.
  

   

• For the past 3 years, we have held a Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday. I divide up the great speech “I Have A Dream” into 10 parts and ask people of different racial backgrounds to read it.  On that day, we include special music and a message on a racially diverse theme.  Having this special Sunday ought not to conflict if you do something special for Sanctity of Life Sunday.  We simply do Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday first and Sanctity of Human Life Sunday the following weekend.
  

   

• We invite and include gifted people in the congregation who are African American to serve on the worship team.
  

   

• We have attempted to place a little more “soul” in our music.  This is perhaps the hardest thing you can do on an intentional basis.  While identifying this as something we really would like to see happen, we don’t want to go too fast so we caution ourselves regularly to not be something or someone we are not. 
  

   

• We’ve invited African American speakers to give the keynote message:  We have an African American Vineyard leader in our church who just graduated from Ashland Theological Seminary who preaches from time to time; we’ve had Ohio’s Secretary of State, J. Kenneth Blackwell speak on a number of occasions at our annual 9-11 Service.
  

   

• We have an African American mother of 3 make announcements on Sunday mornings.
  

   

• For our special annual Christmas Dinner Show, we had a predominantly African American Jazz Band (well known in the national Jazz community) perform at the dinner.
  

   

• One of our staff members is African American

John Moriarty pastors the Eastside Vineyard Church in Pickerington, Ohio.  He and his wife Margi began the plant on the eastside of Columbus 5 years ago.  Before planting this church John and Margi were part of the Vineyard Church of Columbus for 16 years.  John was Rich Nathan’s assistant pastor for 11 years with various responsibilities including evangelism and church growth, marketing, assimilation and discipleship.

1 All Churches Should be Multiracial; Christianity Today, April 2005 by Curtiss Paul DeYoung, Michael O. Emerson, George Yancey and Karen Chai Kim