At the Como Lake Church of the Nazarene in Vancouver, British Columbia, the English, Spanish and Korean speaking congregations got together for a combined worship. Th e Hispanic pastor greeted the congregation in English. The English-speaking Canadian pastor greeted in Korean. And the Korean pastor greeted in Spanish.

The whole congregation roared with laughter as the pastors struggled to spit out the right pronunciation. I asked one of the pastors, “What was the point?” He said, “I wanted to make everyone experience the discomfort that immigrants and minorities feel.

This was sensitivity training from a mission-minded pastor! This sensitivity opens our hearts and minds to the vast mission field around us. Christ’s love compels sensitivity for other ethnic and minority groups. Sensitivity is an expression of a caring heart, which speaks louder than knowledge or the ability to perfect languages or cultural conduct.

Many Korean congregations have joined our denomination because they have experienced the sensitivity and caring love of their hosting pastors and congregations.

The whole Christian Church is balanced by both unity and diversity in culture and language. As our society is growing multi-cultural, so is the church. One of my church leaders was a manager in a large utility company. He said that without diversity training no one could even dream of becoming a leader. To make a profit, these companies strive to meet the needs of people in a multicultural society. They readily change their marketing strategies and customize their training in order to run a successful business. How much more should we as a church give attention to the needs of people in this multicultural society in order to communicate the message of salvation for their souls and for God’s community to grow?

Every ministerial candidate will in some way enter a multicultural context. Missionary candidates prepare with missiological training for the mission field, but the USA & Canada is now a mission field!

Is it not imperative that we give serious thought to providing practical cultural sensitivity hands-on training beyond classroom lectures? Every church rises and falls according to its leadership. To go anywhere, a pastor and congregation has to go beyond the familiar to the unknown. Following Jesus invariably takes us from the comfortable to the uncomfortable. (Hang in there and the uncomfortable becomes comfortable!)

Sensitivity is a hose through which Christ’s love flows, reaching to all the nations, generations, and subcultures in the USA and Canada. This hose needs to be in the hands of every pastor and congregation to channel Jesus’ everlasting water of life.

Diversity training for leadership would include several things: 1) training in leaving comfort zones by placing a member of a majority cultural group into a minority group, and how to facilitate their working together; 2) understanding culture and worldviews and worldview change; 3) training in receptor-oriented communication; and 4) short term cross-cultural training through internships.

by Kim Lundell,
Korean Mission Director