What do you think?
Rate this book
Ethnic Blends: Mixing Diversity into Your Local Church
Increasingly, church leaders are recognizing the intrinsic power and beauty of the multi-ethnic church. Yet, more than a good idea, it's a biblical, first-century standard with far-reaching evangelistic potential. How can your church overcome the obstacles in order to become a healthy, fruitful multi-ethnic church of faith? And why should you even try? In Ethnic Blends, multi-ethnic church pioneer Mark DeYmaz provides an up-close and personal look at seven common challenges to mixing diversity into your local church. Through real-life stories and practical illustrations, DeYmaz shows how to overcome the obstacles in order to build a healthy multi-ethnic church. He also includes the insights of other effective, multi-ethnic local church leaders from the United States and Australia. Ethnic Blends describes what effective local churches in the 21st century will look like and shows us how to create them, together as one, beyond race and class distinctions. --Miles McPherson, Senior Pastor, The Rock Church, San Diego, CA Mark DeYmaz, perhaps more than any pastor in America, has his pulse on what it will take for the Church to find real reconciliation in our generation. --Matt Carter, Lead Pastor, Austin Stone Community Church, Austin, TX
240 pages, Paperback
First published February 27, 2010
8 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 8, 2011
Written with campus pastor Harry Li, Ethnic Blends picks up where DeYmaz left off in Building a Healthy MultiEthnic Church. This is a beautiful study guide-integrated book, designed to be a reflective text for church leadership teams. Liberal religious (like me) or more traditional (as DeYmaz and Li are), there's a great deal in this book for inspiring such leadership and really preparing the way to become truly healthy multicultural, multiclass, multigenerational churches.
Faith formation of the church is a central concern of the book and this text would be easy to use in middling to advanced adult faith formation leadership development classes and in small groups. If a church is considering becoming a healthy multicultural church - or has wondered why its endeavors in that direction have stalled out or previously failed -- this is also an excellent text for getting back on track, learning from mistakes, and practicing humility so we can make room in our lives for grace.
Faith formation of the church is a central concern of the book and this text would be easy to use in middling to advanced adult faith formation leadership development classes and in small groups. If a church is considering becoming a healthy multicultural church - or has wondered why its endeavors in that direction have stalled out or previously failed -- this is also an excellent text for getting back on track, learning from mistakes, and practicing humility so we can make room in our lives for grace.
February 27, 2018
An affirming read for those leading multi-ethnic churches
The leadership journey and lessons are gold. For anyone hoping to establish or transition an existing work from a mono-culture to multi-culture, this is a must read. The rewards of leading a multi-ethnic church are many, however, you must be prepared for the winnable but inevitable spiritual battles.
The leadership journey and lessons are gold. For anyone hoping to establish or transition an existing work from a mono-culture to multi-culture, this is a must read. The rewards of leading a multi-ethnic church are many, however, you must be prepared for the winnable but inevitable spiritual battles.
February 20, 2014
The spiritual and practical challenges to racial/ethnic unification in the house of worship
In this book, the authors provide a clear discussion about the challenges facing the Christian evangelists to bring diversity into their churches through real life experiences, discussions, meetings, and practical illustrations. Each chapter is designed with clear presentation of facts, the nature of problems, ways to overcome them and build a healthy community through evangelical movement. Also included in the discussion are the thoughts of other church leaders who have gone through the process of building racial, ethnic, and cultural unification at their churches.
One of the major problems in combating racial bigotry is to change the way we think. This is no easy task, because the prejudice is a learnt behavior, and it is around ever since human beings set foot on this planet. Changes have occurred over the years mainly due to social, economic, and political changes that partly changed the way some people think of race; and partly due to open-minded churches who took positive steps to bring racial harmony in the place of worship. Some changes were also necessary because of the changing demographics of their community. Obstructions to racial/ethnic unification have also played a part, which includes ego, self-interest, fear of losing their identity, fear of losing European culture, and fear of losing social and economic prosperities. There are also some non-major obstacles that include the practices of a church; the kind of music played at a church may be construed as too "white" or too "black." Lack of sufficient minority leaders at the church, accepting foreign cultures, customs, traditions and linguistic barriers have not helped the efforts to blend the community. In spite of al these problems, it is heartening to know that few places of worship have achieved integration though hard work. Once a close friend of our family who was married to a Baptist minster told us that her late pastor husband accepted African Americans at his church, but the influential members of the church threatened to walk out of the congregation for good, and deprive the church with much needed financial support. There are practical problems that a determined pastor has to deal with. That requires patience, determination and leadership skills.
In this book, the authors provide a clear discussion about the challenges facing the Christian evangelists to bring diversity into their churches through real life experiences, discussions, meetings, and practical illustrations. Each chapter is designed with clear presentation of facts, the nature of problems, ways to overcome them and build a healthy community through evangelical movement. Also included in the discussion are the thoughts of other church leaders who have gone through the process of building racial, ethnic, and cultural unification at their churches.
One of the major problems in combating racial bigotry is to change the way we think. This is no easy task, because the prejudice is a learnt behavior, and it is around ever since human beings set foot on this planet. Changes have occurred over the years mainly due to social, economic, and political changes that partly changed the way some people think of race; and partly due to open-minded churches who took positive steps to bring racial harmony in the place of worship. Some changes were also necessary because of the changing demographics of their community. Obstructions to racial/ethnic unification have also played a part, which includes ego, self-interest, fear of losing their identity, fear of losing European culture, and fear of losing social and economic prosperities. There are also some non-major obstacles that include the practices of a church; the kind of music played at a church may be construed as too "white" or too "black." Lack of sufficient minority leaders at the church, accepting foreign cultures, customs, traditions and linguistic barriers have not helped the efforts to blend the community. In spite of al these problems, it is heartening to know that few places of worship have achieved integration though hard work. Once a close friend of our family who was married to a Baptist minster told us that her late pastor husband accepted African Americans at his church, but the influential members of the church threatened to walk out of the congregation for good, and deprive the church with much needed financial support. There are practical problems that a determined pastor has to deal with. That requires patience, determination and leadership skills.
August 11, 2014
I think this quote really just explains the book so well. "It's not about racial reconciliation; it's about reconciling men and women to God through faith in Jesus Christ, and about reconciling a local church to the principles and practices of the New Testament congregations of faith, such as existed in Antioch and Ephesus."
This is just such a beautiful book about the biblical mandate to have our churches not be catered to one people, but to all people. I loved how the authors used scripture and just really dug deep into what God's word says about reaching out of our comfort zone and reaching every tribe and nation. (He used Paul as an example a lot.)
This book is a must have for all Pastor's and church planters alike. Loved it!
This is just such a beautiful book about the biblical mandate to have our churches not be catered to one people, but to all people. I loved how the authors used scripture and just really dug deep into what God's word says about reaching out of our comfort zone and reaching every tribe and nation. (He used Paul as an example a lot.)
This book is a must have for all Pastor's and church planters alike. Loved it!
March 18, 2014
When it comes to multi-ethnic ministry Mark is one of the leaders in this area. This is a helpful book dealing with the ins and outs of creating churches that are open to the rich diversity of God's created people. There are good sidebar stories from other practitioners. It also provides a good overview of the core tenets for pursuing a multi-ethnic ministry.
August 5, 2016
It is not an introduction to the topic of Multi-ethnic Church but it is a good reminder of the unique promise and challenges of Multi-ethnic Church.
April 10, 2013
A challenging vision with lots of practical guidance.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews