Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective
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Sojourners have drawn attention to some recent articles and studies on multiracial church growth in America, suggesting that megachurches are transforming quickest. Welcome news but it leaves me with many questions, including…
I guess my question would be – is being multiracial the same thing as being integrated?
I mean, here in Hong Kong there are plenty of churches where, expressed as raw percentages, there is a multiracial profile. But that doesn’t mean the cantonese, english and filipino congregants mix much, or even talk to each other much.
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Good question. I have no idea of the answer, but you’re right, one does not imply the other. Could it be that megachurches are just large enough to accomodate cliques in ways microchurches can’t?
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Perhaps microchurches are cliques, and that is why they find it more difficult to absorb newcomers who are different from the people already there. The anonymity of the megachurch makes it easier for people of different churches to join, but how much do they belong?
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It would be interesting to know if George Bananna has done any interracial-mix demographic research on this topic.
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Steve, that is the question isn’t it. How racially siloed are the multiracial megachurches?
Andrew, no idea, but I have a few good books on multiracial and multicultural churches that I’d better check out again.
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One thing I did observe when I went to Hillsong in Waterloo Sydney to hear Jim Wallis last year was a quite diverse mix of peoples from different ethnic backgrounds: many Asians, Aboriginals as well as a large number of European background people. It may have been due to the local inner city culture, but aren’t sure.
Have not been yet to a Hillsong service at Baulkham Hills so not sure about the mix there.
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Baulkham Hills itself is not as racially mixed as the inner city so I wouldn’t consider it an indictment on them if they aren’t either. I’ve been there but I can’t recall any glaring differences to their surrounding community.
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