For the last year, my husband, Joe, and I have volunteered once a month at Kid’s Church, a Saturday morning program that’s part of College Park Church’s Brookside Initiative. We’ve had the amazing opportunity to work alongside Cory Johnson, Kid’s Church director, and have had our eyes opened to the nature of urban ministry. Kid’s Church exists to reach children, youth and their families in the Brookside neighborhood with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, helping them to experience the transforming power of Christ’s love, teaching them how to grow in their faith and equipping them to win others to Him.

But, as we’ve found, although urban ministry and suburban churches serve the same God, they can go about it in two completely different ways. I recently had the chance to ask Cory a few questions about the differences.

Q: How would you define the difference between an urban minister and a suburban pastor?

A: Working in an urban environment is so much different. One thing that really sticks out is how most new members of a suburban church are not only sources of talent, but also stability and financial support. In Brookside, most new families are case loads and new opportunities to provide benevolence to families that need it most. In both contexts the people need to hear about and from the Lord, but the responses can be oceans apart.

Take a message on godly finances: one can hear a call to give and the other will receive encouragement to cry out to the Lord for help. Just these two dynamics alone make the two arenas very different not to mention the many other areas such as education/schools, access or exposure to positive activities, clear boundaries and expectations, healthy nutrition, reliable transportation and safe neighborhoods.

Q: Do you feel most suburban churches can define themselves as multicultural congregations?

A: For many, not yet. There is a strong need for diversity in leadership that shapes weekly worship in media, music and communication. When there are a growing number of different racial groups in the congregation, there’s the need for a broader expression to grow as well.

Q: In what ways do you work to promote multiculturalism?

A: As strange as it might sound, just being me has been my greatest promotion. Because I am of African American decent, it has been a mutual culture exchange between me and most of the members of College Park. Being in a racially blended family has given me some valuable insight that has helped me to share my life with others in a nonthreatening way.

Q: How do you feel the typical suburban church in Indiana can become multicultural?

A: That’s a God thing. It’s only through the spirit of God that we can experience unity on any level. We truly need it in the area of race. Many years of history have caused us to become filled with mistrust and that can only be silenced by the Holy Spirit. With that being said, we must fight for the unity and remember to be sober in our thinking of ourselves. The tallest walls between us are those of self importance – our education, job, house, kids, spouse or whatever defines us.

Q: What’s the greatest misconception a church member has on multiculturalism?

A: That if there are people of other nationalities in the church, then it is multicultural. It’s only when the other cultures change the texture of the worship experience of a church that that church is multicultural.