In our church we have (currently) three different language services (Swedish, English & Swahili) and so that makes us a multi-lingual church. We are a multi-ethnic church & multicultural church because there are many people from many different nations who are a part of our church family.

And those things, by themselves, are things to be thankful for. When Jesus gave his disciples a mission to the ends of the earth I think he expected a church with followers from the north, south, east & west. It’s a joy to me to be able to see that diversity represented each and every Sunday in the church. We have South Africans (can’t go much further south) & Swedes (not much north of here), Chinese (not much east) and Americans (not much west of there) all singing to Jesus next to each other.

We will continue to champion Grace Church being a church for and from the nations of the world. I believe this reflects the unfolding purposes of God that He would adorn his favoured Son with a multicoloured robe.

But.

There’s some ways to go. We are at the foot of the cultural mountain looking up not at the summit looking down.

There are much deeper & more challenging tasks ahead. Our leadership teams primarily operate from a western mindset & there is much to do to first recognise & then release leadership from Asian & African cultures.

We have work to do to cross linguistic barriers. Meaningful friendships are almost impossible to build & sustain without communication. So, for example, there’s work to be done to help our Congolese brothers & sisters learn Swedish.

But what happens when they do? Visiting each others homes works completely differently. My wife visited one of her Congolese friends and after two hours had somewhere else to be, her friend was disappointed because the visit was so short. Pastry & coffee in one home; ugali, buckets of rice, stew, beans & chicken in the other. With no regard, I might add, to previous meals that may have been foolishly eaten just before a visit. Individual and community cultures.

Or to take another example. Our worship is culturally segregated. Our international service worships in a western way, our Congolese in an African way. For many westerners the peak of worship is eyes closed, hands up, feet still. For our African friends the peak of worship, is feet dancing, eyes bright, arms waving. Northern and southern cultures.

There are no projectors with words at the Congolese service because not everyone reads, the songs are simple, repeated often and learned by heart. Without written words in the international service, even if it’s a song we’ve sung a thousand times, people are lost by the third line. Oral & written cultures.

Take evangelism. Our African friends are all for taking loud speakers, guitars & microphones down to the beach areas to have an open air service because that works well in Africa. Our Swedish friends are horrified by the idea and the damage this would do to the reputation of the gospel as the church rocks up & proceeds to ruin everyone’s afternoon at the lake. Who’s right? I don’t know.

Or what about a thorny issues like money (which is often connected to power). When it comes to money it feels like a marriage between a rich woman & a poor man (or vice versa if you prefer) where the one who is rich retains veto rights. They earn more, they’re contributing more and so they get to decide (‘I’m not sure they really need more speakers’). It’s hard to create genuine trust & partnership if you’re worried whether they’ll spend the money according to your list of values. Then again, you think, it is your money they are spending. And that’s the problem, it’s not yet their money too.

There’s not one right or wrong way forward here, or at least I don’t think there is, but these are just examples of the differences & dynamics that are present that we need to be constantly alert to.

Proverbs 27:17 famously says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” the challenge is not for us to sharpen them but to find the ways in which they sharpen us.

That I think is route up the mountain that involves walking together, listening together, asking questions of each other, thinking through together what it means to be differing cultures, groups, to pray together about what it means to spur one another on towards love and good deeds.

But it’s hard to sharpen iron without creating sparks.