A Cross Cultural Experience

[Ernie]

We are spending the weekend with the Hope Christian Church in Akron, OH. Hope is a new, small conservative-Anabaptist church that has also started a small inner-city school. This church interacts with Bhutanese-Nepalese and Afghan refugees.

There are about 35-40,000 Nepalese living in Akron. Another 60,000 live in the greater Columbus, Ohio area. About 10% now profess Christianity and there are about 18 churches here in Akron. Some of these refugees from Bhutan were converted in refugee camps in Nepal, by Christians who taught them the Gospel once they left the very restricted country of Bhutan. Others became Christian after coming to the US.

You can learn more about how this church got started in Akron here. https://churchplantersforum.org/finding ... rust-belt/

Yesterday afternoon we helped prepare food for a memorial service for a man who battled cancer for the last 8 years and was one of the first Nepalese Christians to move into the area. Funeral services last a few days.

Yesterday and the day before, food was needed for about 150 people, and it was prepared in a church family's garage.

And believe it or not, once the food was made, we, along with about 150 Bhutanese-Nepalese, packed into the widow’s 1650 sq. ft. home (about 3/4th the size of ours) for the evening service. Except for narrow paths throughout the house, basically every square foot, including the bedrooms, had people. (imagine the 300 shoes on the porch and in the garage.)

There were seats for about 15-20 people. The rest sat on the floor and a few stood at the edges. A friend preached the message (via translator) in a basement room approximately 16’x25’. About 80 people were packed into that room. And my, did they ever sing. The service was livestreamed via iPhone to a TV in the living room and to people’s phones throughout the house.

As soon as the service was ended, the food, which had been portioned out into styrofoam take-out boxes during the service, was quickly distributed throughout the house via relay.

This was one of the best cross-cultural experiences I have had in the last 7 years.

[JohnH]

I have had a number of friends including seekers in the Akron area. When I first started attending my old church in Hartville, I was, like many new seekers, very eager to invite people and invited friends, who in turn invited other friends. It was about 30 minutes away.

Fast forward to the present and someone told me there is a ministry in Akron I should know about and I got in touch with whoever runs it. He was excited to talk to me about volunteering opportunities, etc.

Things took a negative turn, though, when I mentioned I knew seekers in Akron who were interested in a conservative Anabaptist church. He informed the church in Akron is only intended for migrants and is not open to people "from" Akron.

I thought that that perhaps might just be a one time thing or it was a specific ministry. A few years later, I learned from some other people (another person who lives in Akron and currently attends the church in Hartville) that he, too, was told he wasn't really a "good fit" for that church since he wasn't part of the immigrant population.

This was one of the best cross-cultural experiences I have had in the last 7 years.

I would like to see churches that are open to cross-cultural experiences between plain Mennonites, people who were born and grew up in Akron, and the various immigrants who have found their way there, including Nepalese people. It is sad that this congregation isn't one of them.

[Neto]

I have had a number of friends including seekers in the Akron area. When I first started attending my old church in Hartville, I was, like many new seekers, very eager to invite people and invited friends, who in turn invited other friends. It was about 30 minutes away.

Fast forward to the present and someone told me there is a ministry in Akron I should know about and I got in touch with whoever runs it. He was excited to talk to me about volunteering opportunities, etc.

Things took a negative turn, though, when I mentioned I knew seekers in Akron who were interested in a conservative Anabaptist church. He informed the church in Akron is only intended for migrants and is not open to people "from" Akron.

I thought that that perhaps might just be a one time thing or it was a specific ministry. A few years later, I learned from some other people (another person who lives in Akron and currently attends the church in Hartville) that he, too, was told he wasn't really a "good fit" for that church since he wasn't part of the immigrant population.

This was one of the best cross-cultural experiences I have had in the last 7 years.

I would like to see churches that are open to cross-cultural experiences between plain Mennonites, people who were born and grew up in Akron, and the various immigrants who have found their way there, including Nepalese people. It is sad that this congregation isn't one of them.

I suspect that the 'organizers' of that congregation, and others like it, are wanting to 'protect' it from being over-run by 'native' English speakers (where the original 'target group' becomes a minority, just as they are in the larger society). I kinda' know how that can happen, from our own experiences in non-majority language settings.

[JohnH]

I suspect that the 'organizers' of that congregation, and others like it, are wanting to 'protect' it from being over-run by 'native' English speakers (where the original 'target group' becomes a minority, just as they are in the larger society). I kinda' know how that can happen, from our own experiences in non-majority language settings.

Yet people from plain ethnic backgrounds can and do participate. It's simply closed off to people in the local area.

I suppose someone can define a church that only has its doors open towards "people who speak Nepalese" and "people who are from a plain Anabaptist ethnic background, but not including seekers"; the question is if this is explicitly stated anywhere. It certainly is not something I would call "cross cultural" and seems to fly in the face of what Christianity is supposed to be about.

If it were a Nepalese church with its own Nepalese leadership that conducts them in a non-English language, that would be a different matter, but as far as I can tell it is owned and operated by English-speaking people.

[Neto]

I suspect that the 'organizers' of that congregation, and others like it, are wanting to 'protect' it from being over-run by 'native' English speakers (where the original 'target group' becomes a minority, just as they are in the larger society). I kinda' know how that can happen, from our own experiences in non-majority language settings.

Yet people from plain ethnic backgrounds can and do participate. It's simply closed off to people in the local area.

I suppose someone can define a church that only has its doors open towards "people who speak Nepalese" and "people who are from a plain Anabaptist ethnic background, but not including seekers"; the question is if this is explicitly stated anywhere. It certainly is not something I would call "cross cultural" and seems to fly in the face of what Christianity is supposed to be about.

If it were a Nepalese church with its own Nepalese leadership that conducts them in a non-English language, that would be a different matter, but as far as I can tell it is owned and operated by English-speaking people.

I do not know anything about this case, but often times 'ministry personnel' will be involved as leadership until they are able to adequately train someone from the group they are attempting to reach. Of course there is the question of what does 'adequately trained' mean, and who is defining it. Around here, probably the 'church planters'. That's not the way we did it in WBT, but it's what is most often seen, especially when the church planters do not have extensive training in church growth principles, or when they simply want to maintain control so as to avoid starting something that ends up off track (from their own vision and custom), or even grossly aberrant. But that is a risk that is always present in most any kind of out-reach. (It happened with a congregation formed out of our congregation. Not aberrant, but displaying some unfortunate characteristics. And it eventually failed completely.) I do think that you are most likely correct in implying (at least that's how I am understanding your comments) that this case is not really 'cross-cultural'. Perhaps Ernie meant 'cross-cultural ministry', which is not the same as a cross-cultural fellowship.

What some have done is to form an informal relationship with a congregation of another cultural background and language, and meet together on a periodic basis. But this sound different, and unless it grew to this size very rapidly, there should be at least one in-group person, if not a group of men, who is/are taking on leadership responsibilities.