LEARNING TO BECOME GOD'S DIVERSE AND UNIFIED FAMILY

Five Congregations Find their Way

FEBRUARY 7, 2018 | OUR SHARED MINISTRY | DANIELLE ROWAAN

"One of our small groups invited me out for lunch," said Pastor Albert Chu, "and it hit me: there were people from Singapore, China, Indonesia, the Philippines around me. But we spoke in English. 'It’s interesting that you all speak English together,' I remarked. They laughed. 'That’s the only language that we all share.'"

Chu is the lead pastor at The Tapestry, a multisite Christian Reformed church in the Greater Vancouver Area. "Our intent was to plant a church in the neighborhood for the neighborhood, so being multiracial has been part of our DNA from the beginning," he said. "We're about 60 percent Asian (including many different Asian nationalities) and 40 percent Anglo or multiracial."

This multiethnic environment did not come about by happenstance, he said. "By default, people like to gather with people who are similar to them, so we've worked to intentionally mix it up in our small groups, our leadership . . . in every aspect of our life together. It means going against the grain a bit."

There have been challenges along the way. Almost all their programs are in English, except for two Mandarin-language Bible studies. "We want people to be able to able to really engage with the Bible, but we do think about whether this could end up segmenting people."