The Best of Books on Multicultural Ministry

Kellemen’s Christian The Best Of Guide
The Best of Books on Multicultural Ministry and Intercultural Relationships

Kellemen’s Christian The Best of Guide: Making your life easier by finding, summarizing, evaluating, and posting the best resources on a wide variety of topics from a Christian perspective.

The Best of Books on
Multicultural Ministry and Intercultural Relationships
Part One

Note: Excerpted from African American History, Life, Christianity, and Ministry: An Annotated Resource Guide, By Robert W. Kellemen, Ph.D., LCPC. For information on the full version: http://bit.ly/f1AvT

*Anderson, David. Gracism: The Art of Inclusion. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2007.

Pastor David Anderson builds a thoughtful, practical, balanced Christian approach to multiculturalism. He avoids the extremes of color-blindness and of affirmative action. Skillfully he explains the biblical injunction to care for the marginalized. Gracism is a must read for anyone who longs to build bridges leading to racial healing, harmony, and reconciliation. Its balance between theology, philosophy, and methodology makes it a uniquely practical manual.

*Anderson, David. Multicultural Ministry: Finding Your Church’s Unique Rhythm. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004.

Pastor David Anderson has “been there, done that.” As a seasoned pastor of a multi-cultural church in a multi-cultural community, Pastor Anderson writes both with biblical insight and personal experience. A well-written, practical, and hopeful book, Multicultural Ministry is a foundational book for everyone interested in racial harmony and mutual ministry.

*Anderson, David, and Brent Zuercher. Letters Across the Divide: Two Friends Explore Racism, Friendship, and Faith. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001.

Pastor David Anderson and author Brent Zuercher have penned a groundbreaking and distinctive book. What happens when two friends of different races explore racism and faith? Letters across the Divide happens. For a firsthand account of what honest, open, bold, and loving multicultural relationships could look like, read this book.

*Breckenridge, James, and Lillian Breckenridge. What Color Is Your God?: Multicultural Education in the Church. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995.

As the subtitle suggests, What Color Is Your God educates pastors in foundational cultural understanding. Covering ethnic groups in America, this primer shows church leaders how to value cultural differences. It also highlights transcultural biblical principles and probes how various cultures apply or misapply these eternal principles in daily life.

*Conde-Frazier, Elizabeth, Steve Kang, and Gary Parrett. A Many Colored Kingdom: Multicultural Dynamics for Spiritual Formation. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004.

A Many Colored Kingdom provides ground breaking insight into the theology and methodology of spiritual formation from and in a multicultural perspective. The co-authors themselves live and breathe what they write, researching and writing with passion and precision. This book richly celebrates the diverse contributions to Christian spirituality necessary to fully engage and embrace the infinite, multifaceted beauty and glory of Christ.

*Cooper, Rodney. We Stand Together: Reconciling Men of Different Color. Chicago: Moody, 1995.

We Stand Together would be a five-star book if it were not now somewhat dated. Editor Rodney Cooper is a leading Black Evangelical educator. Active in the 90s in the Promise Keepers’ movement, he surrounded himself with men of diverse ethnic groups to edit this primer on how men of different races can understand, forgive, reconcile with one another, and minister together.

*Emerson, Michael. Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Please, don’t read this book without reading the “sequel” (see below): United by Faith. Divided by Faith outlines the problem, as understood through a dissertation research project, of race relations in Evangelicalism in America in the 1990s. The results are troubling and at times could even produce hopelessness. However, facts are facts, and this sort of detailed quantitative and qualitative study is all-too-rare in Evangelical circles.

Emerson’s premise is that much of what White Evangelicals do to unite across racial lines end up being counter-productive. He does so by showing a concise history of Evangelical thought about racism from Colonial times to the Civil Rights movement. His core thesis is that most work done is too individualistic—one person trying alone to cross racial boundaries. His basic suggestion is the cross-cultural congregation. Unfortunately, until one reads United by Faith, how to accomplish this goal is left to the reader’s imagination—which may by now have been stunted by all the piles of statistics suggesting that Evangelical racial reconciliation is futile. However, the power of God, starting with one person’s commitment to cross-cultural relationships, can start a chain reaction—and lead to hope.

*Emerson, Michael. United by Faith: The Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Emerson has convened a multicultural team of co-authors to follow-up his earlier work Divided by Faith. In this work, Emerson argues that Evangelicals, when they have done anything at all to work toward racial reconciliation, have been to individualistic in their approach.

Emerson then argues that the biblical and effective approach is the multicultural congregation in which no one race makes up more than 80% of the congregation. The authors explain the biblical and social need for such congregations. They then follow with hope-giving success stories which provide the philosophy, principles, and practices necessary to obtain the biblical social vision of the multicultural people of God.

Implied, but not highlighted or extracted in detail, is the truth that such congregations can and should then do two things: 1.) Be a visible testimony exhorting the world to “go and do likewise.” 2.) Take a stand against societal racism and promote racial reconciliation and justice.

*Kellemen, Robert W. and Karole A. Edwards. Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007.

Beyond the Suffering is a one-of-a-kind African American narrative. It is not simply a history of America, not simply a history of African Americans, not simply a history of African American Christianity, but a narrative of how African American Christians ministered to one another. As the title suggests, the book tells how African American believers helped one another to move beyond their horrific suffering to a place of healing and hope.

The characters are the African American believers themselves. The plot is their real-life battles told in their empowering words. The authors are a co-authoring team, one an African American female, the other a Caucasian male. Together, they embrace the legacy of how African Americans sustained, healed, reconciled, and guided one another in the faith.

Written in an engaging style that allows African Americans to tell their own story, Beyond the Suffering reads like a novel. It empowers African Americans and all people of all races and nationalities to love like Christ loved even in the worst of circumstances. Readers not only are riveted by the powerful historical chronicles, but are also equipped to apply soul care and spiritual direction principles to their own lives and ministries.

Important Stuff

*Your Guide: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., LCPC, is the Founder and CEO of RPM Ministries (www.rpmministries.org) through which he writes, speaks, and consults to equip God’s people to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth. He blogs daily at http://rpmministries.blogspot.com.

*My Necessary Disclaimer: Of course, I don’t endorse everything in every article, book, or link that you’ll find in Kellemen’s Christian The Best of Guide. I report, you decide.

*Your Suggestions Are Welcomed: Feel free to post comments and/or send emails (rpm.ministries@gmail.com) about resources that you think deserve attention in various categories covered in Kellemen’s Christian The Best of Guide.

The Journey: Day 41--Our Day of Reflection

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Our Day of Reflection

Thank you for joining me over the past forty-day journey. As promised at the outset, on our 41st day we pause to reflect.

My Reflections

In the introduction to Beyond the Suffering, Karole and I noted that the book is a gift to African Americans and a gift from African Americans. As a gift to, it honors the tremendous contributions made by African American believers—contributions frequently neglected by most historians. As a gift from, it equips and empowers all people of all races as we learn life lessons from heroes of Black Church history.

It is my prayer that the past forty days have serve a similar purpose. That my longest-ever blog series has been a gift to and a gift from African Americans.

It never ceases to amaze me that so few people are aware of these great believers and their great life stories. I hope their treasure will now remain unburied.

Your Reflections

Reflecting on everything you’ve read during these forty days, what topics and themes stand out to you? Why? What will you do with these concepts?

How can we keep the gift going and growing?

How can we expand intercultural ministry and relationships?

Biblical Reflections from the Past and Into the Future

Finally, let’s leave with two biblical reflections.

*Reflection # 1: Hebrews 11:1-12:3

The great past cloud of witnesses, though dead, their lives yet speak. I’m thankful that our legacy outlives us. I’m thankful for the African American legacy. Their legacy encourages and empowers me to live beyond the suffering and to leave a loving legacy for future generations.

*Reflection # 2: Revelation 7:9

When the Apostle John peers into the future, he does not see a homogenized eternity. Instead, he sees a multi-cultural future throng gathered together for ever and ever in joint worship of the King of Kings. I’m thankful that diversity will outlive the old heaven and the old earth. I’m thankful that in the new heaven and the new earth our differences will be celebrated. I want to live today in light of that future intercultural day.

The Journey: Day Nineteen--Cross-Cultural Ministry

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Nineteen: Cross-Cultural Ministry

Welcome to day nineteen of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Nineteen: Cross-Cultural Ministry[1]

Long before multi-culturalism became fashionable, we find evidence of mutual worship and fellowship among blacks and whites. Though not the norm, we glean cultural competencies from these historical occurrences in which African American believers met their need for spiritual nurture with Caucasian believers.

Pulpit Ministry: Expounding the Scriptures Relevantly

Previously we met Solomon Northup—born free in Rhode Island, then kidnapped and enslaved in Louisiana from age thirty-three to forty-five. Though recognizing the inconsistency of his master, William Ford, a slave-owning Baptist preacher, Northup still notes:

“. . . it is but simple justice to him when I say, in my opinion, there never was a more kind, noble, candid, Christian man than William Ford.”

Northup details Ford’s pastoral ministry to his slaves. “We usually spent our Sabbaths at the opening, on which days our master would gather all his slaves about him, and read and expound the Scriptures. He sought to inculcate in our minds feelings of kindness towards each other, of dependence upon God—setting forth the rewards promised unto those who lead an upright and prayerful life. He spoke of the loving kindness of the Creator, and of the life that is to come.”

Pastor Ford related truth to life cross-culturally. Emphasizing the two great commandments, he taught Christians how to love one another and how to love God. Ford highlighted the character of God and the hope of heaven. Northup even recounts how Ford’s preaching led to the conviction and salvation of another slave, Sam.

Personal Ministry: Encouraging the Saints Relationally

Ford coupled his pulpit ministry with his personal ministry. Speaking of his time with Pastor Ford, Northup notes, “That little paradise in the Great Pine Woods was the oasis in the desert, towards which my heart turned lovingly, during many years of bondage.” Perhaps hard to imagine, but even in enslavement, even through ministry offered by a Baptist slave-owner, Northup experienced the ark of safety that is the “old ship of Zion.”

What was it about Ford’s life and ministry that so impacted Northup? During an extended trip by horseback and on foot to the Bayou, Ford “said many kind and cheering things to me on the way . . .” Ford knew how to speak life-giving words (Proverbs 18:21).

In exemplary fashion, Ford also used probing soul questions and spiritual conversations as he ministered to Northup. “He interacted with me in regard to the various fears and emotions I had experienced during the day and night, and if I had felt, at any time, a desire to pray. I felt forsaken of the whole world, I answered him, and was praying mentally all the while.”

Northup testifies to Ford’s relational competence. “So did that benignant man speak to me of this life and of the life hereafter; of the goodness and power of God, and of the vanity of earthly things, as we journeyed along the solitary road towards Bayou Boeuf.”

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. Pastor William Ford demonstrated cross-cultural competency in his pulpit. What specific aspects of his ministry could you emulate today?

2. Pastor William Ford demonstrated cross-cultural competency in his personal ministry. What specific aspects of his ministry could you emulate today?

[1]Excerpted, modified from, and quoted from Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Purchase your copy at 40% off for only $10.00 at www.rpmministries.org.

The Journey: Day Ten--Longing for Someone to Confide In

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Ten: Longing for Someone to Confide In

Welcome to day ten of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Ten: Longing for Someone to Confide In[1]

The most horrific aspect of slave family life was the rape of black women by their masters and others. Harriet Jacobs, the victim of constant lewd advances from her master, expresses her despondency because of the birth of a daughter.

“When they told me my new-born babe was a girl, my heart was heavier than it had ever been before. Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women” who inevitably must endure licentious assaults on their virtue.

Jacobs describes the onset of such onslaught in her own life.

“But I now entered on my fifteenth year—a sad epoch in the life of a slave girl. My master began to whisper foul words in my ear. Young as I was, I could not remain ignorant of their import.” She felt that “every where the years bring to all enough of sin and sorrow; but in slavery the very dawn of life is darkened by these shadows.”

Her master, Dr. Flint, tried his utmost to corrupt the pure principles that her grandmother had instilled in her. He peopled her young mind with unclean images, such as only a vile monster could imagine. She turned from him with disgust and hatred, but he was her master. She was compelled to live under the same roof with him—where she saw a man forty years her senior daily violating the most sacred commandment. He told her that she was his property and that she must be subject to his will in all things.

“My soul revolted against the mean tyranny. But where could I turn for protection.”

Jacobs longed for someone to confide in and “would have given the world to have laid my head on my grandmother’s faithful bosom, and told her all my troubles.” However, Dr. Flint swore that he would kill her if she was not as silent as the grave. Being very young, Jacobs felt “shamefaced about telling her (grandmother) such impure things, especially as I knew her to be very strict on such subjects.”

A Skillful Spiritual Friend

What was she to do? And what are we to do when life kills the dreams we dream; what recourse do we have? We, like Jacobs, can turn to those who love us unconditionally.

“Still I was not stripped of all. I still had my good grandmother, and my affectionate brother.” Of him, she writes, “When he put his arms round my neck, and looked into my eyes, as if to read there the troubles I dared not tell, I felt that I still had something to love.”

Her affectionate brother was a skillful spiritual friend. Consider his relational competencies: the appropriate use of physical touch, the meaningful application of eye contact, accurately reading body language, sensing unspoken pain, and communicating unconditional love. And consider the result of his ministry: the rebirth of love.

A Skillful Spiritual Director

Her saintly grandmother was a skillful spiritual director. Upon finally learning of Dr. Flint’s advances, Jacobs’ grandmother confronts him, telling him plainly what she thought of his character. She then forcefully rebukes him:

“I tell you what, Dr. Flint, you ain’t got many more years to live, and you’d better be saying your prayers. It will take ’em all, and more too, to wash the dirt off your soul.”

When he responds by asking if she knows to whom she is speaking, she boldly replies, “Yes, I know very well who I am talking to.” Flint then backs down, leaving the house in a great rage.

The moment Flint leaves, Jacobs’ eyes meet those of her grandmother. The anger is gone, replaced with tenderness. Jacobs expresses amazement that her infidelity did not lessen her grandmother’s love for her. “She was always kind, always ready to sympathize with my troubles.”

Whereas Jacobs’ brother illustrates expert sustaining, her grandmother exhibits adroit reconciling. She literally takes her life in her hands to stand toe to toe with a white master. Even when she rebukes him, she retains concern for him—for his eternal destiny. She also demonstrates the vital ability to quickly shift from righteous anger to tender compassion, not to mention her expressions of unconditional love.

Learning Together From Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. What spiritual friendship principles can you learn from Harriet Jacobs’ brother?

2. What spiritual direction principles can you learn from Harriet Jacobs’ grandmother?

[1]Excerpted, modified from, and quoted from Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Purchase your copy at 40% off for only $10.00 at http://www.rpmministries.org/.

The Journey: Day Seven--Groaning to the Father of the Fatherless

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Seven: Groaning to the Father of the Fatherless

Welcome to day seven of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Seven: Groaning to the Father of the Fatherless: Perpetual Lament[1]

In the gripping slave narratives, we find believers sharing their hurting hearts with their caring Savior. In their practice of the biblical art of lament, African American Christians clung to biblical imagery.

For example, Pastor Peter Randolph describes a mother named Jenny who grieves the loss of her children.

“So she (Jenny) commends them to the care of the God of the widow and the fatherless, by bathing her bosom in tears, and giving them the last affectionate embrace, with the advice to meet in heaven. Oh, the tears of the poor slave that are in bottles, to be poured out upon his blood-stained nation, as soon as the cup of wrath of the almighty Avenger is full, when he shall say, ‘I have heard the groanings of my people, and I will deliver them from the oppressor!’”

Painting Pictures of God onto the Palettes of Life Portraits

Enslaved African Americans survived by painting pictures of God onto the palettes of their life portraits. They viewed Him as the Father of the fatherless, as the God who collects their tears in his bottle of remembrance, and as God the just Judge avenging their suffering, hearing their cries, and delivering their souls.

While Solomon Northup lies in a slave pen with fifty fellow slaves, he prays a prayer of personal lament.

“My cup of sorrow was full to overflowing. Then I lifted my hands to God, and in the still watches of the night, surrounded by the sleeping forms of my companions, begged for mercy on the poor, forsaken captive. To the Almighty Father of us all—the freeman and the slave—I poured forth the supplications of a broken spirit, imploring strength from on high to bear up against the burden of my troubles, until the morning light aroused the slumberers, ushering in another day of bondage.”

His mouth vocalizing his pain and his eyes watching God, Northup draws a line in the sand of retreat. When everything inside screams, “Surrender hope!” he cries out to God lamenting the evils he is suffering while pleading for strength to endure. He teaches us that the will to survive is soaked in continual lament.

Fixing Your Eyes on the Hope of the Future: Heavenly Reunion

Randolph explains that given such earthly sorrow, enslaved African Americans ministered to one another by emphasizing heavenly reunion. “In parting with their friends at the auction-block, the poor blacks have the anticipation of meeting them again in the heavenly Canaan, and sing:

‘O, fare you well, O, fare you well! God bless you until we meet again; Hope to meet you in heaven, to part no more. Sisters, fare you well; sisters, fare you well; God Almighty bless you, until we meet again.’”

Enslaved Virginian, William Grimes, summarizes it best. “If it were not for our hopes, our hearts would break.” Knowing that they would never see one another again in this world, they set their sights on another world.

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. The will to survive is soaked in continual lament. What does that mean to you? How could you practice its meaning in your life?

2. How could you apply the truth of biblical lament in your ministry to others who are grieving?

3. In what situations do you say, ‘If it were not for my hopes, my heart would break? How does God sustain you through future hope?

4. What image of God do you cling to when life attempts to batter and break you?


[1]Excerpted, modified from, and quoted from Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Purchase your copy at 40% off for only $10.00 at www.rpmministries.org.

The Journey: Day Six--Watered with Our Tears

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Six: Watered with Our Tears

Welcome to day six of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Six: Watered with Our Tears[1]

They arrived on two ships, one year apart. The second ship, the Mayflower, landed in 1620 with 102 Pilgrims seeking religious liberty. The first ship, a Dutch man-of-war, came ashore in 1619 in Jamestown, Virginia, with twenty enslaved African men and women. Captain Jobe of the Dutch man-of-war bartered the seventeen men and three women for food to Sir John Rolfe’s Jamestown settlement. For the leaders of the Jamestown colony, Africans were mere commodities for European trade and servitude. In the land of the free, American slavery had begun.

Solomon Northup’s Narrative: The Hope of Years Blasted in a Moment

Solomon Northup lived free for thirty-three years in Rhode Island until he was kidnapped and enslaved for a dozen years in Louisiana. When he was first stolen, he spent two weeks in a slave pen where he met an enslaved woman named Eliza, her daughter Emmy, and her son Randall. His account of her separation from her children offers insight into the agony of deprivation, the need for hearing one another’s story, how not to empathize, and how to feel another’s pain.

Northup tells the story of Eliza’s life, as she related it to him, in great detail. After years of enslavement, she was promised her freedom and told that she was traveling to Washington, D.C. to receive her free papers. Instead, she was delivered to a trader named Burch.

“The hope of years was blasted in a moment. From the height of most exulting happiness to the utmost depths of wretchedness, she had that day descended. No wonder that she wept, and filled the pen with wailings and expressions of heart-rending woe.”

Spiritual Friendship 101

Of their enslavement together, Northup writes, “We were thus learning the history of each other’s wretchedness.” They participated in Spiritual Friendship 101 by practicing the arts of story sharing and story learning.

Northup and Eliza were eventually conducted to a slave pen in New Orleans owned by a Mr. Theophilus Freeman. A planter from Baton Rouge purchased Randall. All the time the trade was occurring, Eliza was crying aloud, wringing her hands, and begging that Freeman not buy Randall unless he also bought herself and Emmy.

When he answered that he could not afford them all, Eliza burst into paroxysm of grief, weeping plaintively. The bargain agreed upon; Randall had to go alone. “Then Eliza ran to him; embraced him passionately; kissed him again and again; told him to remember her—all the while her tears falling in the boy’s face like rain.”

In response, “Freeman damned her, calling her a blubbering, bawling wench, and ordered her to go to her place, and behave herself, and be somebody. He swore he wouldn’t stand such stuff but a little longer. He would soon give her something to cry about, if she was not mighty careful, and that she might depend upon.” His callousness models exactly what not to do when responding to another’s grief.

Northup, on the other hand, entered Eliza’s agony. “It was a mournful scene indeed. I would have cried myself if I had dared.”

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. Who has treated you like Freeman treated Eliza? Who has told you to “quit your blubbering,” and “I’ll give you something to cry about!” What impact did such insensitivity have on you?

2. Who has cared for your soul like Solomon Northrup cared for Eliza? Who has listened attentively to your earthly story of suffering? Who has mourned and wept with you and for you?


[1]Excerpted, modified from, and quoted from Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Purchase your copy at 40% off for only $10.00 at www.rpmministries.org.

The Journey: Day Three--Encountering Every Misery for You

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Three: Encountering Every Misery for You

Welcome to day three of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Three: Encountering Every Misery for You[1]

Olaudah Equiano’s empathy for his sister was Herculean.

“Yes, thou dear partner of all my childish sports! thou sharer of my joys and sorrows! happy should I have ever esteemed myself to encounter every misery for you, and to procure your freedom by the sacrifice of my own!”

What a model of incarnational suffering. In his letter of spiritual consolation to his long-lost sister, he does more than say, “I understand your feelings.” He does more than say, “I feel what you feel.” He says, “I am willing to take on your pain—to encounter your every misery for you.

Equiano is reminiscent of the Apostle Paul who, in Romans 9:2-3, shares his great empathy and unceasing anguish for his Jewish brethren—feeling their feelings. In this passage, Paul wishes himself accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of his brothers—encountering their misery for them.

Like Paul and Equiano, we are to be “Jesus with skin on.” As Jesus pitched his tent among us, took on flesh, assumed the very nature of a servant, was made in human likeness, and became sin for us, so we must intimately engage our spiritual friends. Aloof, detached, arms-length ministry is neither biblical nor historical.

Hope Deferred Makes the Heart Sick: Candor

Eventually Equiano was sold to a wealthy widow with a son his age. After two months, he began to settle in, hoping that he had found a form of stability with his new family. However, his hope vanquished when he was stolen again. He rehearses his immeasurable despondency grasping for words to communicate what exceeds human language.

“Thus, at the very moment I dreamed of the greatest happiness, I found myself most miserable: and seemed as if fortune wished to give me this taste of joy only to render the reverse more poignant. The change I now experienced was as painful as it was sudden and unexpected. It was a change indeed from a state of bliss to a scene which is inexpressible by me . . . and wherein such instances of hardship and fatigue continually occurred as I can never reflect on but with horror.”

Have you been there? At the moment of your greatest happiness, life intrudes. Misery waltzes in. The poison of misfortune spoils your banquet of joy. If so, then what? Pretend? Ignore? Seek a diversion?

Equiano chooses candor. He chooses journaling. Both wise choices. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. Heart sickness requires the biblical medicine of candor both with God and with self. Very often, such candor is most effective when pen hits paper and we write with honesty about the instances of hardship and fatigue that we experience.

It was during these evil circumstances, and many more to come, that Equiano acknowledged his heavenly Father’s good heart and Christ’s merciful providence in every occurrence of his life.

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. Who is “Jesus with skin on” for you? How does this person minister to you?

2. For whom are you “Jesus with skin on”? How do you minister to this person by encountering every misery for them?

3. In your life and in your ministry to others, how vital is candor—honesty with self and with God about the agonies of life lived in a fallen world?

4. In your life, where do you need spiritual eyes to trust God’s good heart in every occurrence of your life?


[1]Excerpted, modified from, and quoted from Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Purchase your copy at 40% off for only $10.00 at www.rpmministries.org.

The Journey: Day Two--The Power of Personal Presence

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Two: The Power of Personal Presence

Welcome to day two of our forty-day intercultural journey of promise. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Two: The Power of Personal Presence[1]

Olaudah Equiano and his sister were soon deprived of even the comfort of weeping together.

“The next day proved a day of greater sorrow than I had yet experienced; for my sister and I were then separated, while we lay clasped in each other’s arms; it was in vain that we besought them not to part us: she was torn from me, and immediately carried away, while I was left in a state of distraction not to be described. I cried and grieved continually; and for several days did not eat any thing but what they forced into my mouth.”

Over the ensuing months, Equiano frequently changed masters. Weighed down by grief and a ravenous desire to return to his family, he decided to seize the first opportunity to escape. However, during a failed attempt he realized that the expanse that separated him from his home was too great and too dangerous. “I . . . laid myself down in the ashes, with an anxious wish for death to relieve me from all my pains.”

Left of the Rising Sun

Death refused to visit. Instead, Equiano was sold repeatedly, each time “carried to the left of the sun’s rising, through many dreary wastes and dismal woods, amidst the hideous roarings of wild beasts.” Being “left of the sun’s rising” paints a poetic picture of hopelessness—reflecting an absence of the hope that people have when they are “right of the rising sun” and thus anticipating that the sun will soon approach to dispel their darkness.

Equiano had been traveling in this manner for a considerable time when one evening, to his great surprise, traders brought his dear sister to the house where he was staying. “As soon as she saw me she gave a loud shriek, and ran into my arms. I was quite overpowered; neither of us could speak, but, for a considerable time, clung to each other in mutual embraces, unable to do any thing but weep.”

Ministry Even in Agony

For a time, the joy of their reunion distracted them from their misfortunes. But this, too, passed. “For scarcely had the fatal morning appeared, when she was again torn from me for ever! I was now more miserable, if possible, than before. The small relief which her presence gave me from pain was gone, and the wretchedness of my situation redoubled my anxiety after her fate, and my apprehensions lest her sufferings should be greater than mine, when I could not be with her to alleviate them.”

Even in his agony, Equiano offers words of insight into ministry. Note that it was “her presence” that gave him relief from his pain, and that he longed to “be with her to alleviate” her suffering. Before all else fails, implement what never fails—personal presence.

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. How could your people-ministry grow if you focused on the power of presence?

2. Have you ever experienced the hopelessness of feeling like you were to the left of the rising sun—that your dark night would never end? If so, how did God comfort you during the dark night of your soul?


[1]Excerpted, modified from, and quoted from Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Purchase your copy at 40% off for only $10.00 at www.rpmministries.org.

Is Targeted Evangelism Biblical?

Is Targeted Evangelism Biblical?

I received a great comment post on my blog about intercultural ministry. Please read Demetrius' excellent question. Please read my brief response. Then please share your thoughts/

Is Targeted Evangelism Biblical?

Doc K: How would you apply inter culturalism on the mission field? The reason I ask is that I am a short term missionary in Cambodia for 7 months. In Cambodia there are various people groups such as the Vietmese, Khmer, Chinese, Korean, Nigerians, and Ex-pats to name a few. However, many the missionaries are only targeting specific groups to start their churches due to immense barriers between the races and the classes. The irony is I am African-American ministering primarily to Cambodian American Deportees who have an inner city disopositon and attitude toward life and I minister to the poor Khmer in the slums of Phonm Penh. Demetrius Walton.

Targeted Evangelism and Intercultural Discipleship

Demetrius, That's a great question. While the ultimate goal of heaven and thus our ultimate goal on earth is intercultural worship, it seems that wisdom could still dictate an approach like you describe in your ministry under certain situations. Since you are working to evangelize the unsaved, we cannot expect the unregenerate to act regenerate until they are regenerated! That being said, a major part of the discipleship process then should include intercultural reconciliation. What a testimony and witness it would be for the entire region if/when Vietmese, Khmer, Chinese, Korean, Nigerians, and Ex-pats began forgiving one another, reconciling with one another.

Your Thoughts?

And what do others think?

Are We in a Post-Racial Society?

Are We in a Post-Racial Society?

As I always do, I appreciated and enjoyed the interview yesterday with Steve Hiller and Michelle Strombeck of Moody Radio's Prime Time Chicago. We discussed Beyond the Suffering and the state of race relationships in America.

Steve asked me the perceptive question, "Bob, with the election of President Obama, are we now a post-racial soceity?"

My answer?

Well...I'm interested in your answer also. So...please join the conversation.

Okay...my answer...

We have made progress. Obviously, the election of an African American President, an election where millions of whites voted for an African American, is light years ahead of where we were just a generation ago.

However, we still have issues to deal with. Even since the election, I could share half-a-dozen examples that friends of mine have shared with me of racial tensions, misunderstandings, prejudice...

Just since the interview yesterday, I have received several "Thank You" emails from "new friends" (people I "met" only through the radio program and their response). They were thankful for the "balance" I brought to the issue: progress, but work to do. They shared examples in their lives of current struggles against intolerance.

Those who know me and read my blog know I am not a person interested in stirring up controversy. You know I strive to be a bridge-builder and that I strive to explore biblical solutions to relationship problems. That's why I am inviting you to join me on The Reconciliation Journey from January 19 to February 28 on this blog. That's why I am teaching around the country on A Christ-Centered TEAM Approach to Intercultural Relationships.

That said, sometimes we have to get the truth out there. So...what is your experience? What is your opinion? Are we a post-racial society? Are we there yet? If so, what examples do you see? If not, what examples do you see and what can we do to get there?

A Prayer for the Body of Christ

A Prayer for the Body of Christ

April Boycik is a former student of mine and a lifelong friend. Her prayerful response to my posts on intercultural ministry, with her permission, is posted below.

"Lord,

Let me plug in and serve together with whom you would have me serve, as you would, where you would...

Realizing my brothers and sisters, different from me culturally, politically, educationally are all called according to your purpose, too.

Together, we make the body.

Sepearate, we are but amputees."

Toward a Description of Intercultural Ministry/Relating

Toward a Description of Intercultural Ministry/Relating

In the old game show, Name That Tune, contestants would say, "I can name that tune in ____ notes" (the lower the number of notes, the better). Well, I canNOT name the "tune" of intercultural (or multicultural or cross-cultural) ministry/relating in just a few notes.

In fact, one specialist in this area lists more than a dozen different names for the concept related to intercultural/multiculturalism. That's a dozen names--each with its own set of scores of definitions.

So, is the cause hopeless? Nope.

But, keep in mind the humble title of this blog post: "toward a description..." It is not a final anything. And it is not even a "definition." It is a beginning description.

I'll save the more technical aspects for a forty-semester hour graduate course, and try to keep matters relatively straight forward for a somewhat short blog post. Of course, that means these basic descriptions have much wiggle room and can easily be quibbled with. That's good--makes for expanding the conversation.

What Is Culture?

Let's start with a supposedly simple word like "culture." This word itself has a myriad of definitions. My working definition of culture is based upon a biblical theology/psychology of how God designed us. Here are two similar ways I would word my description of culture:

Culture is the shared relational, rational, volitional, and emotional patterns for living that people use in social interactions and learn through social interactions.

Culture is the system of shared patterns of relating, thinking, acting, and feeling that members of society use to relate to one another and to others, and that are learned through social interactions.

What Is Intercultural Relational Competency?

First, I use intercultural relational competency interchangeably with multicultural skillfulness. Here are a few ways I describe these terms:

Intercultural relational competency is the ability to relate like Christ with people from other cultures.

Intercultural relational competency is the ability to relate like Christ when interacting with people whose patterns of relating, thinking, acting, and feeling are culturally different (diverse) from yours.

What Is a Christ-Centered TEAM Approach to Christlike Intercultural Relational Competency?

Wow! That question alone is a mouthful!

Just as I build my description of "culture" on a biblical theology of people, so I build my description of competency based upon a biblical methodology of change. In my biblical theory of how to help people to change, I highlight sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding (SHRG). For intercultural or multicultural or cross-cultural ministry, I take these four terms and turn them into an acrostic: TEAM.

T: Tacking Another Person's Perspective (Or Tracking Another Person's Perspective)

This is the ability to empathize with someone whose patterns of relating, thinking, acting, and feeling developed out of a diverse culture. It is the ability to walk in the shoes of another person from another culture. It requires culturally-informed listening, among many other "skills."

E: Engaging in Bridge-Building Conversations

This is the ability to encourage another person to assess their own individual, cultural, and universal experience through the lens of God's eternal Person, perspective, purposes, and plans. It includes the both/and "skill" of listening to the earthly story while jointly weaving in God's eternal, heavenly story.

A: Accepting, Reconciling with, and Forgiving One Another

This is the ability to apply Christ's forgiveness of us to our intercultural relationships. It highlights the fact that "racism" (another word with multiple definitions) is not a skin issue but a sin issue. It recognizes that integration alone is a legislative/law issue, while reconciliation is a heart issue, a spiritual issue. This includes the "skill" of being an ambassador of intercultural reconciliation.

M: Making Disciples Who Are Interculturally Competent (Or Mentoring Disciples...)

This is the ability to equip equippers. It is the ability to envision, empower, and equip others to be interculturally Christlike. It is a spiritual direction/discipleship process that passes on and stirs up Christlike intercultural love.

A Soul Care and Spiritual Direction Model

What I am developing/suggesting is a soul care and spiritual direction model of intercultural (multicultural, cross-cultural) competence. It is not simply an individual model: change one person. Nor is it simply an institutional model: change the law. It is a spiritual, ecclesiological model: a Christ-centered, TEAM approach to cultivating Christlike intercultural relational competency.

My passion is to equip the Body of Christ to relate like Christ when interacting with others whose patterns of relating, thinking, acting, and feeling are culturally different from them.

Thus, intercultural competency certainly includes evangelism, since the unsaved and the saved, even from the same home, have diverse patterns of relating, thinking, acting, and feeling.

But it goes far beyond evangelism (ambassadorship) to include fellowship, worship, stewardship, and discipleship. Christlike intercultural relational competency includes how we relate to one another of different cultures in church, at work, in our neighborhoods...it is all-inclusive.

Just How Biblical Is Intercultural Ministry?

Just How Biblical Is Intercultural Ministry?

I've been working on a new presentation on Cultivating Christlike Intercultural Relational Competency: A Christ-Centered TEAM Approach. Of course, if it is Christ-Centered, then it is going to be everywhere in the Bible, right?

Is it?

For sure!

Consider just a few examples of how central intercultural ministry is to the eternal plan of God.

1. Intercultural Ministry Is a God Thing: James 2:1-13; Romans 2:4-11. For God so loved the world. God is no respecter of persons. He is calling people from all nations to His forever family. He calls us to godly living that shows no favoritism.

2. Intercultural Ministry Is a Christ Thing: Matthew 28:19-20; John 4:1-42. Christ calls us to make disciples of all nations. Christ models intercultural ministry in breaking social barriers to witness to the Samaritan women, resulting in the people proclaiming that He is indeed the Savior of the world.

3. Intercultural Ministry Is a Spirit Thing: 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. We are all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks. The Spirit purposefully combined the diverse members into one Body so that there would be no division.

4. Intercultural Ministry Is a Salvation Thing: Ephesians 2:11-22; Revelation 5:9. Christ's salvation purpose is to reconcile, make peace, and create in Himself one new people who have full and equal access to the Father by the Spirit, making us all fellow citizens and joint members of God's household. The Lamb purchased for God people from every tribe, language, people, and nation.

5. Intercultural Minsitry Is a Church Thing: Acts 2:14-47; Acts 10:1-48. The first Church and the Church throughout Acts integrated believers from diverse cultures.

6. Intercultural Ministry Is a Sanctification Thing: Colossians 3:1-11. As we put off the old and put on the new person in Christ we are renewed not only individually, but also corporately where there is no Greek or Jew, barbarian or Scythian, but Christ is all and is in all.

7. Intercultural Minsitry Is an Eternal Thing: Revelation 7:9-10. As John peers into eternity, he witnesses a great multitude that no one can count from every nation, tribe, people, and language worshipping God together forever.

Is intercultural ministry biblical?

I think so!

Join in again tomorrow when we address the question, "So just what is intercultural ministry?"