Two of the guiding Great Commission passages, “Go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19–20) and “You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8), can, if we are not careful, limit mission. Both suggest that we evangelize by “going” to distant places and reaching other ethnic communities. And that is true, we do. Scripture commands it and church history verifies its effectiveness.
But Acts 2 displays another very powerful means of evangelization, namely, reaching many cultures in and through the local church. At Pentecost, the Spirit rushes upon the believers and they immediately begin to preach the gospel in numerous languages. Why? Because the listeners are from, as Luke has it, “every nation under heaven” (2:5). He later lists a minimum of fifteen distinct people groups gathered to hear about the “wonders of God” (2:9–11).
Much can be drawn from this passage; however, the emphasis here is that the first recorded gospel message was to peoples of many cultures already in Jerusalem. Peter didn’t “go” anywhere to preach to the world, for the world had “come” to him. The world was his parish and it was resident in his neighborhood.
The article illustrates this idea through a newly formed congregation in Lexington, Kentucky. Although the city was not commonly associated with cultural diversity, the congregation included people from more than ten nations across Asia, Africa, South America, and North America.
Its ministry developed through relationships with international students, immigrants, and refugees. The example challenged the assumption that a community was culturally uniform simply because its diversity was not immediately visible.
Education, economics, the need for sanctuary from oppression, and access to global transport were changing communities. People were moving from one nation to another, placing cross-cultural relationships within the daily reach of local churches.
The implications are immense. How do churches, which by and large don’t even reach the people most like them, reach the people least like them? That is the central question explored by this July 2008 issue.