Reflections
THE MULTI-CULTURAL VISION OF BRUNSWICK CHURCH, NY
By Harry Heintz
Where there is a VISION... challenges are accepted.
Just over a year ago I was challenged to put into words our need for a building expansion. In reliance upon the Lord and with the help of some of our servant-leaders, a purpose sentence emerged. I see this as our challenge: We seek to be a multicultural, multigenerational congregation with growing influence for Jesus Christ in the Town of Brunswick, Rensselaer County, across the capital region, and around the world.
- God never intended that there be churches just for white people or just for black people.
- God never intended that there be churches just for young people or just for old people.
- God never intended that there be churches just for people who like to sing old hymns or just for people who like to sing new songs.
- God never intended that there be churches just for single people or just for married people.
- God never intended that there be churches just for Democrats or just for Republicans.
- God never intended that there be churches just for men or just for women.
- God never intended that there be churches just for people who graduate from high school, or just for people who don’t graduate from high school, or just for people who graduate from college, or just for people who don’t graduate from college, or just for people who never stop going to colleges.
- God never intended that there be churches just for people on the basis of how much money they have or make.
- God never intended that there be churches just for people on the basis of national origin.
God intended better. It is written all through the Bible. God called Abraham and Sarah to start the family of faith that would bless all nations. The biblical nation of Israel was to be a light for the Gentiles and to call all people to join the chosen family. Right after Jesus’ birth, Simeon held him in the temple and said that he was to be a light of revelation to the Gentiles and glory for the people of Israel. Jesus gathered the lost sheep of Israel for a couple years and then sent them into all the world to tell everyone his Good News. The Church in the New Testament was the one place in the world where there was no longer Jew or Gentile, no longer slave or free, no longer male and female. It was the place where belonging to Jesus made all people one. The final pictures that the Bible gives us of the people of God are of a people that includes every nation, every tribe, and every language group on earth.
We seek to be a multicultural, multigenerational congregation with growing influence for Jesus Christ in the Town of Brunswick, Rensselaer County, across the capital region, and around the world. The word multicultural carries baggage for some people. It may sound to some like some kind of politically correct quota word. It is not for us. We take it to mean exactly what it says, of many cultures. When people think of multicultural they may stop at just two categories: color of skin and national origin. Our concern goes way beyond that. Multicultural concern does not only address matters of skin color and ethnic diversity. In Peter’s Pentecost sermon (Acts 2) he mentioned three great divisions in his world: age, gender, and class. Quoting Joel, through whom the Lord spoke 700 years before, he declared that the Spirit was being poured out on women and men, young and old, slave and free, shattering old barriers. The barrier of national origin hardly needed mentioning, since that had already been dealt with in the outpouring of the Spirit on the disciples and their witness to God in 15 different languages. When we use the word multicultural we do not mean quotas or percentages or someone’s idea of political correctness. We mean Biblical faithfulness. We want to be a congregation that has the Pentecostal vision of Acts 2. We want to be part of the fulfillment of that great vision given in Isaiah 56:7-8:
these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
Thus says the Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel,
I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.
Any barrier that people erect that keeps other people out must fall. The grace of our Lord Jesus breaks down artificial barriers. Let the Church follow the Lord. That is at the heart of our challenge today. To be a congregation of welcome is a mighty challenge. To fulfill our purpose as one expression of the Church of Jesus Christ will demand that we look to the Lord of the Church to fulfill his promises and make us to be his body on earth.
The Spirit empowered Church will see no barriers between global and local. It will be a “glocal” church, always involved in ministry near and far. We will acknowledge that within five miles of here students from many of the nations of the world are studying and hoping to find a welcome. Our challenge is to reach out and welcome the internationals near us.
This church, the church that we want to be, will always be leaning on Jesus. We will readily confess our weakness and inadequacies. We will quickly admit our shortcomings and needs. We will learn to work and to wait, to trust and to travail, to believe and to become.
The challenge goes beyond welcoming, but also includes being. The welcoming community is a community of discipline. Where grace reigns not just anything goes. Every person is welcomed for who she or he is, a unique creation of God. Every person is invited to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. Every person is called to participate fully in the new life of the Church. But not every behavior is blessed, not every choice is celebrated, not every action encouraged. They were a community of discipline. They gave themselves to the Lord and to each other in disciplined ways. They devoted themselves to biblical teaching, to community life, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers. They met together regularly in worship. They opened their homes to each other, sharing food and joy. They shared of their financial resources so that the needs of all would be met. And the Lord added to their number daily (Acts 2:42-47).
We simply and sincerely want to be the church that God designed us to be: a church for all people, for all whom the Lord our God shall call. We don’t want to compete with other churches, but to cooperate with all churches. We don’t want to grow to a certain size of our own choosing, but grow as God adds to our number. We don’t want to build a new worship center to impress people, but to serve people. We just want to be faithful to the Lord of the Church in our time and in our place as he leads us.
To this end, to be the Church of Jesus Christ, designed by God the Father, redeemed by the Lord Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, I call upon us to give ourselves fully and unreservedly to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that God may be pleased to pour out his Spirit upon us and use us in barrier-breaking ways to the glory of his name. That is the challenge before the Church in every age and in every place. It is the challenge before us today.
Where there is a VISION . . .challenges are gladly accepted.
In covenant partnership with you . . . Harry Heintz
July 30, 2003
Harry is the pastor of Brunswick Church in Troy, NY, an innovative Presbyterian congregation committed to an evangelical, multicultural expression of the church, equipping every member to be a minister living out faith in the marketplace.
Used by permission.
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