Oh, I just had another funny memory that I just have to mention.

A few years ago, I visited a church in Wenatchee (I just happened to
be there on a Sunday morning in the middle of a road trip), and I
noticed they had a few vertical banners on the walls and brochures
in the bulletins that said something to the effect of being a church
for all people, and they had pictures of black people and Hispanic
people and Asian people, different ages, etc. But then I looked
around the congregation, and everyone was white! I just had to
laugh!

--Wayne

--- In pugetsoundchristiansingles@yahoogroups.com, "Wayne"
<celebok@...> wrote:
>
> 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