I’ve known Mark DeYmaz www.markdeymaz.com for years and have looked forward to his newest book, Ethnic Blends: Mixing Diversity into Your Local Church, which he co-authored with Harry Li, a longtime campus pastor at Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas.
The assumption of this book is that the era of multiracial congregations is emerging. As the opening sentence of the book asks, “If the kingdom of heaven is not segregated, why on earth is the church?” So Ethnic Blends is about the intentional mixing of ethnic diversity into local church churches that would otherwise foster a one-race/class emphasis, even if unintentionally in most cases.
Mark is passionate about multi-ethnicity becoming the normal and natural face of American Christianity. Throughout the book he constantly draws that vision from specific Scriptures. While that perspective is the common thread linking all the chapters of Ethnic Blends, and is quite infectious and persuasive, the actual focus of the book is practical advice, everything from communication to music to relational issues. Each chapter includes many lessons learned at Mark and Harry’s church, as well a first-person brief profile some other multi-ethnic church.
Finally, how do Mark’s two books differ? His first, Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church (2007), is about the big idea, the theology and the seven core commitments needed in a multi-ethnic church. Here’s a video interview I did with Mark about that book: The Show by Leadership Network. The just-released book deals with the roadblocks and barriers often encountered in establishing healthy multi-ethnic churches. I highly recommend it.
Warren Bird, Ph.D., is Research Director at Leadership Network, and co-author of 21 books on various aspects of church health and innovation. His recent “Leadership Network” books blogs include What Is Necessary for Church Planting to Go Viral? Mark Batterson’s Primal, Updated Publishing Updates, Beyond Christendom Says Migration Keeps Transforming the Church, Terrific Biography of Rick Warren, Picking the Best Graphic to Tell Your Story Well, What We’re Reading at Leadership Network, The Soviet Plot to Kill God, Migration and Churches in Europe, The Worst Moment in Most Church Services, Excellent Resources for Church-Based Grants, Multi-Site Church Roadtrip Released Today and Do White Churches Hold Others in Cultural Captivity?
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