There are many communities in the Northwest where new immigrants outnumber those whose families have lived in America for generations. This is particularly true in agricultural regions. This mission field is both accessible and challenging.
For the past decade I have known of at least two dozen of our CB Northwest churches where a significant non-English community is within reasonable proximity. Many pastors express the desire to incorporate another people group within their church’s ministry focus. Yet areas with considerable need still exist. It is extremely easy for outreach to other people groups to get lost in the “I wish we’d” or “we oughta” files.
As we explored the meaning of living in covenant community during the 2005 CB Northwest Annual Enrichment Conference, representatives of CB churches and their Trustees requested help in reaching their Hispanic community. In some communities immigrants make up more than 75 percent of the population. Many of our CB churches are small and struggling to exist due to the population shift. It is also evident that there must be a different focus if they are to survive and impact their community. Even so it will take more than vision, prayer, willingness and planning.
Hurdles such as the following must be surmounted:
- The prospective host church must understand ministry to another culture is a worthy investment.
- They need to make a faith commitment to new relationships and plan accordingly.
- They must deal with any unresolved and unhealthy issues that may surface within the body as a result of the added challenges of ministry.
- As the vision develops, it may be critical to muster the assistance, experience and objective perspective of others in the covenant community. Doing it alone will probably lead to failure if not disaster.
- And finally, understand that finding able, available and affordable workers is not easy. We need to work together, trusting that God will guide the needed workers.
In conversations at Skamania, several churches committed in faith to regularly invest effort, time and funds in partnering to help a struggling church become healthy in order to reach its local mission field. I was asked if there was someone available to work directly with the church. I knew of no available candidate but told them I would begin looking. Less than a week later, a couple seeking that exact type of ministry appeared. This couple, referred by one of our CB pastors, is bi-lingual, experienced and partially supported by his pension. What was once only a dream has now become God’s answer to prayer to a covenant community. When the believers committed in faith to work together in ministry, God supplied a previously unknown resource that is able, available and even affordable.
My challenge to you: Stop wishing something would happen, begin to pray, develop vision, commit and covenant together. Then we can wait expectantly on the Lord to guide us to the necessary resources to extend and strengthen His Kingdom. As a covenant community of churches, associations and CBNW we can join hands across the cultural and linguistic divide to build models of missional living where harmony is based not on uniformity but on common experience.
