RESOURCING THE CHURCH FOR ECUMENICAL MINISTRy A ...

Being a Multicultural and Inclusive
Church in an Era of Radical
Individualism and Diversity
Daniel Lee Kyung-min
Rev. Daniel Lee Kyung-min, born in Korea, came
to the United States in 1974 and currently serves as the pastor
of a new Korean-American Christian Church in Sunnyvale,
California.
When I had heard the words “multicultural and
inclusive,” I asked myself whether or not I am
in a position to talk about this. I asked this because
I am not serving a church like that. My church is for
Koreans and Korean-Americans because our
primary language spoken is Korean. Thus, our
gathering reflects a mono-cultural church with
some generation gaps.
But I wonder whether or not a local church should
include or desire to have other ethnicities and races
with them. I heard an African American sister
asking a White sister whether or not her church has
any non-White members. What does it mean, and
what does the conversation refer to? Should a
church have other races and ethnicities in the
worship service? From time to time, someone
might ask me whether or not we have an English
Ministry, meaning service in English. Well, eventually
we will need to have one but not right now.
Even if we had one now, what is my church? Is it
really a multicultural church when a local church has
people of other cultures? What sort of identity
should these local churches have? I have seen on TV
that some mega-churches have audiences consisting
of people of color. Is that multicultural church?
Maybe. I could be wrong, but I feel that there is an
invisible demand or a push toward churches that
they should include other cultures. I am not against
the beauty of the gatherings of different backgrounds,
cultures and traditions because that is the
eternal plan of our God through Lord Jesus Christ.
And with Him all things are possible. But I believe
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it should come about by the flow of the Holy Spirit.
Personally I will tend to keep my church as a monocultural
church because of our own identity. My
church wants, or shall I say it is I who want, to keep
our Korean-American culture as we share our
relationships in Christ. It is because identity and
culture go together.
When I hear this question of becoming a “multicultural
and inclusive church” which was asked by
the central culture, I hear something else. I hear
their humility, I hear their compassion for
embracing, and I hear their willingness to share.
Humility, embracing, and sharing are the words of
the Servant of love which surpasses all. The question
itself possesses the quality of transcendence, and I
agree it should. I also agree that leadership should
acquire that quality, for when you are at the bottom,
then you will be able to see above. No wonder our
Jesus himself said that whoever wishes to be a leader
must be a servant first. He said that he did not come
to be served but to serve.
A servant has an identity. In order to serve, one
should have an identity first, and the only way one
can have identity is when one becomes a being.
Therefore, when the question was asked by the
central culture, I have to say respectfully that there
must be a willingness to be a cultural being in order
to become a multicultural church. What I am talking
about is a lot of sacrifice. I wonder whether or not
this is the sort of sacrifice we learn from our Lord
Jesus Christ. Among other things, He sacrificed His
own comfort. He couldn’t direct our lives from
above but needed to come down to be one of us.
Therefore, becoming among us tells of His
humility.
I think I am confusing you, but I want to go back to