How Attainable Is a Truly Multicultural Church?
A review of Mark Hearn’s new book, *Hearing in Technicolor: Mindset Shifts Within a Multicultural Congregation*
If, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, 11 o’clock on a Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week… how do we fix it?
That was over 50 years ago, and it still rings true. Most churches in America have one dominant culture group. Multicultural congregations are increasing in number and proportion as demographics shift across the United States. However, in many churches, the tipping point of becoming multicultural (where 20% of the congregants are not among the dominant culture group) still seems far away. My local church (of which I am a layperson, not a pastor) has taken strides in the last few years to make our congregation more adequately match the demographics of our surrounding area, but we still find ourselves mostly white Americans. So how does one turn the tide?
Mark Hearn has written a wonderful book to help with such a transition and give general principles to get church leaders started. Hearing in Technicolor: Mindset Shifts Within a Multicultural Congregation is a wonderful testimony of faithfulness to the gospel while overcoming cultural differences. Hearn wrote another book, Technicolor, which is more of a…
