Well, the arguments I got about the lack of interest in changing
came after I posted my original message, so I was basically going
into it blind when I started this topic. I honestly didn't expect
to see any resistance to the idea of going multicultural, other than
people not knowing how to do it. So it's been interesting to learn
about other churches' reasons for not embracing it. I can totally
see your point that many churches, especially older,
more "traditional" ones, wouldn't be willing to change their
styles. It's something they grew up with, and to change it just
wouldn't feel like... church. My guess is that if you were to ask
those people, they'd SAY they're open to other cultures joining
their church, but they'd pretty much expect anyone who comes in to
embrace their existing worship style. So that would be their most
obvious problem area.

I'm still not entirely convinced that a static worship style is the
only barrier, though. Even if a church starts adopting varying
worship styles, I think they'd still have the snowball problem to
get past. When I look at the predominantly Asian-American church I
went to in California, as well as this one Asian-American church in
Bellevue that I've visited a few times, and I look at their worship
style and preaching style and everything else about the service... I
can see absolutely NO reason for it to remain 95% Asian... other
than the fact that it already IS. They welcome anyone who's not
Asian and treat them just like they're one of them, but it's like,
why would you go to that church, when there are plenty of other
churches in the area that are similar to that one in all other
aspects, but without the screwy ethnic ratio? So that type of
church would have to take drastic measures in order to become
multicultural, and I think they're mostly just not convinced that
such action is warranted or necessary.

It's weird, though, after attending Antioch for five years, it's
like a shock to me whenever I walk into a predominantly Asian
church. I'm like, my gosh, they're still stuck in this barbaric
unicultural state? Then I have to remind myself, the Asian
Christian community didn't change; I simply left it!

--Wayne

--- In pugetsoundchristiansingles@yahoogroups.com, Chica Christ
<chica4christ00@...> wrote:
>
> I'm tracking ya. That wasn't how I read your original email. :) I
agree with you but maybe it'll start raising the question and people
can start thinking about how they can do it...look more at Antioch
as a model or ask Antioch those questions. Many churches I believe
don't want to be "multi-cultural"...I think they focus so much on
what they consider "sacred" or whatnot ways of worshipping that they
are afraid to go against that. My old church felt that the less
hymns we did and the more contemporary songs we did, the further
away we were getting from the original design for churches. If that
makes sense. They also felt that way when the Pastor took out the
pews and added chairs and made it a multi-purpose room. That through
some of the "blue hairs" in to a tail spin. So some churches need to
wake up and realize that making changes is not taking away from what
God wants us to do, that it is what God wants us to do...of
course..good changes...not like drinking cool-aid! ;)
>
>
> Wayne <celebok@...> wrote:
> Well, the thing is, none of this was covered in that 700
Club
> segment. The main message was simply, this is the way church
should
> be. My guess is that most people were watching that and
> thinking, "Yes, that would be nice," and not having a clue of what
> steps they could take to make it happen in their church.
>
> What's interesting is that I was having discussions about this in
> online groups, and the general attitude of other people seems to
be
> that they ultimately can't control who shows up at their church,
and
> that to figure out how to attract other types of people would be
too
> complicated and would take their focus off of more important
things
> like their spiritual growth. I'm thinking Antioch's message would
> be more effective if it also included the "how to" part. Basically
> saying to them, "It's not as hard as you think. Here's how you do
> it." Or perhaps have some kind of multicultural consultant offer
to
> visit other churches and pinpoint their problem areas that might
be
> turning off certain people-groups and how they could fix it.
>
> Still, there are people who just simply disagree that this is an
> issue at all, and there's not much we can do about that.
>
> --Wayne