By Darren Cronshaw
I had been really looking forward to sharing with this year’s Multicultural Pastors’ Retreat. BUV staff gathered with more than twenty pastors, showing their commitment to sustainable ministry and encouraging one another. We especially appreciated Meewon Yang and Marc Chan for organising and hosting us as a group.
I am the pastor at AuburnLife Baptist Church, which is seeking to grow as a vibrant, multi-cultural mission-shaped community. So I am an aspiring multicultural pastor in the sense that I am passionate about growing a culturally diverse church. Of course in multicultural Australia we need all our churches to be serious about culturally diverse ministry. Thus I enjoyed being part of the retreat as a fellow pastor with the group, and pastor interested in multicultural ministry.
But I am also privileged to serve on the BUV Mission Catalyst team, with Meewon and Marc among my favourite colleagues who I love learning from. One of BUV’s three main priorities is to embrace our cultural diversity (and also connect better with younger generations and develop pioneering leaders). My role with BUV is research and developing teaching and ministry resources, and a main focus this year is exploring how we can best train Next Generation culturally diverse leaders. Rev Moo Hei, Rev Gail Moe Dwai, Rev Dr Si Khia and Rev Za Tuah Nguri who were at the retreat, and others have been invaluable in starting to help me understand some of the challenges and the needs for helping our churches to help 1.5 and second generation youth and young adults to develop in all God has for them as leaders.
I am starting to better understand the sort of issues all the LOTE pastors are working with every week – how young migrants and their children have to navigate two cultural worlds, develop their identity, learn language and make the most of educational opportunities, and make their contribution to Australian society but also continue to engage positively with the churches of their culture. I want to understand how we can best help our young people to get a vision and develop the skills for effective mission to their own people, and to other Australians and beyond. I said to the LOTE pastors that their young people, as much as or more than other young people, understand intercultural communication and religious diversity and insights that are so valuable for mission in 21st Century Australia – we need them. They will make the best missionaries – here and cross-culturally overseas.
Those at the retreat represented 21 different churches, from probably 15 different cultural groups. I maintain that our denomination or tribe of churches in BUV would not be the same without them. We need one another. Baptist mission in Victoria and beyond needs the contribution of your young people. I think we all need the different perspectives that our different cultural groups bring, so that we can learn from one another about the fullness of the gospel. Cross-cultural missionaries often say that it is from other cultures that they learn new things about God and the Bible; here in Victoria we can really bless one another’s faith as we listen and learn from one another. Let me say that my church – and all our churches – need the gifts and lessons in perseverance and insights into the Bible and commitment to communal and family values that LOTE pastors and their culture bring. We will be the lesser without it. That is why helping all our churches embrace cultural diversity is a research and ministry priority of mine.
Australian Baptists would be the lesser in numbers and growth without LOTE and culturally diverse churches too. We have looked at the growth of Australian Baptists 2001-2011 from Census figures and have seen that 98% of our growth is from immigration growth (without Baptists from other cultures coming to Australia we would be in serious decline). Almost half of Australian Baptists are first or second generation Baptists. That is a huge challenge to all our churches – to be welcoming and hospitable to new arrivals, but also to get more fruitful in evangelism with Anglo Australians. (See Philip Hughes and Darren Cronshaw, Baptists in Australia, CRA 2013, for more details) We need your help with that too.
BUV is developing two approaches to helping LOTE churches with the strategic need of Next Gen leadership development. Firstly, we are co-hosting training days for LOTE (Languages other than English) church Sunday School and Youth leaders, starting with Chin and Karen congregations. I am working on these training days with Marc and Meewon, and our NextGen facilitator Kylie Butler, and Rev Gail Moe Dwai at Werribee Karen Baptist Church, Rev Moo Hei at Croydon Hills Baptist Church, and Rev Arohn Kung and Chin Baptist Church. We are exploring another Chin church partner in the East, and are also keen for other hosting churches for other cultural groups.
Secondly, we are developing a very long-term commitment to mentoring next generation leaders. This is for all our churches, but we are very eager for this to include and resource LOTE churches. The importance of this program is reflected in BUV appointing Jo Semple as Emerging Leaders coordinator to focus on recruiting suitable mentors and matching them with youth and young adults with real potential to grow and flourish as leaders.
For me, and for all of us at BUV and in all our churches, this learning journey is about resourcing your churches for mission to your own people and all Australians, and beyond; but it is also about helping all our churches learn from you and be transformed by your heart and hospitality and communal cultures.
This is why I invite ongoing conversations with LOTE pastors and leaders and others interested in these issues Moreover, all of us at BUV are available and interested in getting to know and resourcing and learning from LOTE churches and other churches interested in embracing cultural diversity and growing in culturally diverse ministries.
Source: BUV News