January 30, 2025
Dear Central Church,
If AI software were to summarize this newsletter, it might say, “church guy talking about church stuff.” I’m going to get nerdy, but the software might summarize the last part of this as, “pastor keeps it real.” That’s how the kids describe it when someone shares from their heart (or at least how they did in the 90s).
I’ve been privileged to lead multicultural churches for more than 15 years now in two different contexts. During that time, I’ve discovered that the most fruitful and faithful way to have a multicultural church is to strive toward something missiologists call, “an integrated approach.” Rather than the sponsoring church of the dominant culture continue to hold all the power and influence, this approach envisions different cultures sharing ministry and responsibility as equal partners.
This is the approach to which God directed our leaders when we adopted the opening 5 words of our vision statement, “We are a multicultural church…” This work is messy, but we’ve had a Hispanic Ministry and Brazilian Ministry long enough to know for sure that this work is worth it. As the African proverb says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
And so, we go together. More than 30 different nationalities are represented at Central. We are a church of immigrants, and over time, I believe we will go far! But how will we get there? The way the Church has always gone forward: in love with the Lord’s help.
I mention all of that just to acknowledge that you may have noticed increased attention on the issue of immigration in the United States. My prayer for us is that when these issues come to the forefront of our national discourse, we would acknowledge some things as followers of Jesus before anything else. A few years ago, the Church of the Nazarene issued a statement that I want to share to help focus our attention in this moment and beyond:
Treat immigrants with love, respect, and mercy.
Sacrificially participate in local, national, and global compassionate ministries to support refugees and immigrants.
Advocate for equitable laws that prioritize family reunification, legal work permits for productive immigrants, and pathways for undocumented individuals to obtain authorized status.
Fulfill the biblical mandate to love, welcome, assist, evangelize, and disciple immigrants in our midst.
I’m appreciative of the Board of General Superintendents in offering these directives. They have been a faithful “North Star” for me through the years in leading multicultural ministries. However, these aren’t just policy directives from our Global Church. There are people in our church family who are counting on all of us to live this out.
I plan to meet with our Hispanic and Brazilian congregations this weekend for prayer. It’s been a challenging week for these members of our church. I really have one message to deliver to them: on the front of our building it says, “welcome,” “bienvenidos,” and “bem-vindo.” Because the Kingdom of God does not differentiate between citizen or non-citizen; documented or undocumented; immigrant, refugee, or asylum seeker, YOU WILL ALWAYS BE WELCOMED AND LOVED. YOU BELONG HERE.
Thank you for allowing me to represent our entire church in delivering this “good news.” Let’s join together in the power of the Holy Spirit and united in love to live this out.
Until He’s Finished,
Pastor Mark
P.S. Here's an article from our Hispanic pastor, Tabita González, that shares additional insight about our posture towards immigrants. She keeps it real, too, which is why she's awesome!