Where the Nations Meet: The Church in a Multicultural World

By Stephen A. Rhodes

Book Overview

Ride the subway or a bus in New York, London, Los Angeles, or any number of other cities around the country or around the world, and you will be impressed by a cacophony of languages, a crazy quilt of skin colors and a ceaseless array of culturalhistories. Excitingly and sometimes confusingly, this is the world the church now serves.Pastor Stephen Rhodes, in whose congregation thirty-two nationalities gather weekly, fervently believes Christians should embrace the varied cultures that now surround us. In Where the Nations Meet he sets forth a biblical, ministry-tested pastoral theology of multiethnic ministry. He shows how God's creation was always intended to be multicultural, how the church is called to evangelize, serve andinclude all ethnicities, how the church can bring healing to increasing conflict in a world of so much difference, and much more.Peppered his prose with inspiring and challenging stories from multicultural congregations, Rhodes not only provides a theological basis for multicultural ministry but also suggests how such ministry can be successfully conducted in all churches. He offers a valuable guide for all pastors and laypersons who want their church to be a place of unbounded celebration wherethe nations meet.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0830819363
• ISBN13: 9780830819362
• Release Date: May 1998
• Publisher: IVP
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

32 Nationalities in One Congregation!

Is this what the early church was like . . . people from all tribes and nations drawn together into one common church of God? If so, no wonder several conflicts are recorded in Scripture!Just when the church growth movement convinced pastors across the nation into believing that all growing churches must be homogeneous along comes Stephen Rhodes to ask whether this is really God's plan for the church. His statements are bold, "We are living in the last days of the idolatry of success, in which Christians bow before the false god of homogeneous church growth instead of throwing the church doors wide open to all God's children." He backs up his statements with a wonderful case study, his own church of 32 nationalities on the outskirts of our nation's capitol.If this book has a problem, it may come from the passion with which Rhodes presses his point. He has all of the passion for multicultural ministry that a missionary might have for missions, or an urban pastor might have for ministry in the ghetto. This could spark a reaction from those of us who have bought into the homogeneous principles of church growth or who do not have so many cultures represented in our parishes.Still . . . the discussion valid and Rhodes is the perfect person to raise the question. This is a book that I hope you will purchase and wrestle with.

A must read for churches building a multicultural model

Where the Nations Meet: The Church in a Multicultural World, is a book that delivers great biblical depth on the subject of multicultural church models. Just the Introduction and the first chapter are worth the price of the book. I have used it with the elders at my church as we strategically planned for developing a multicultural church. The book is not about practical How to's, but about biblical truths and principles which are foundational for a succesfull long lasting multicultural ministry. It is a must reading for elders, pastors, or lay leaders who want to get a biblical grounding on this subject. The author will go through many insightfull comments on familiar and unfamiliar biblical texts bringing rich thoughts to the multicultural church model. One quote worth the price of the book is 'God's call of Abraham was not an exclusive call but an inclusive one,' "In You all the nations will be blessed."'

A Glimpse Into the Future Church

The author takes us down a journey of his own experience of pastoring a church of many nations. He uses scripture as a foundation of his ministry and shows how different verses of the bible show how God's heart is for every nation. A must read for all in the full time ministry!