The Nations Among Us

By Alice Kinyua
NZCMS Intercultural Ministry Enabler

There is an image that I find mind-bog­gling, described in Rev­el­a­tion 7:9–10

“After this, I looked, and there before me was a great mul­ti­tude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and lan­guage, stand­ing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice, “Sal­va­tion belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

Here is where my ima­gin­a­tion fails me — What did this sound like? Was it a recital or a song? Was it rehearsed or spon­tan­eous? Did they wave the palm branches or hold them still? Did they lay them down on the ground or use them in a flaw­less coordin­ated dance? What did the words sound like?

It is easy to think that every one of those voices sounded like what it says in my English Bible. But the words and the rhythm change when I read them in Kiswahili or in Kiembu or in French or in Spanish. When thou­sands of lan­guages come together and burst into song, how does that sound?!

I don’t know, but I can imagine one thing: it was glor­i­ous! It was so glor­i­ous that the angels respon­ded in worship! They fell down saying:

“Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honour and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen!”

The Cul­min­a­tion of Pentecost

I think this scene in Rev­el­a­tion is the cul­min­a­tion of the miracle that happened on the day of Pente­cost. The Holy Spirit came down on the believ­ers and imme­di­ately they started speak­ing in dif­fer­ent languages.

Acts 2 men­tions sixteen dif­fer­ent lan­guage groups that were in Jer­u­s­alem at that time from all over the known world! Every­one was minding their own busi­ness when sud­denly they were stopped in their tracks not believ­ing their own ears!

“Weren’t those Galileans speak­ing in dif­fer­ent tongues?” 

They could hear the Gospel in their native lan­guages! A revival broke out on that day! Thou­sands were affected by the Gospel. Thou­sands became fol­low­ers of Jesus Christ.

Coming from a dif­fer­ent country, I nat­ur­ally find myself grav­it­at­ing toward people from dif­fer­ent coun­tries and cul­tures. Anytime I hear a pecu­liar accent I can’t help but ask where that person is from. Soon a con­ver­sa­tion starts and over time, I have built very good rela­tion­ships with people from all over the world living within our neigh­bour­hood. Once upon a time, the only way to meet people of dif­fer­ent cul­tures was to go to those coun­tries. Now, you can hardly think of a country that is not rep­res­en­ted here in Aotearoa. The nations have come to our doorsteps.

Mul­ti­cul­tural Com­munity, Mono­cul­tural Church

I recently started a new role at the NZCMS as an Inter­cul­tural Min­is­tries Enabler. Since then I have made a con­scious effort to look at the com­pos­i­tion of the churches around us and compare it with the com­pos­i­tion of the local com­munity. Here’s what I’ve observed.

When you take a walk in your local area it won’t take you long to meet people from dif­fer­ent parts of the world. This could either be when you are taking a morning jog, walking your dog at the beach, going to the local café or even going to your local op-shop. It will happen even without you trying hard to find them. You just need to be a little obser­v­ant and have a listen­ing ear. (This is actu­ally a very eye-opening exer­cise. I chal­lenge you to try it.)

However, I’ve also observed that when you walk into a local church in that same neigh­bour­hood, the com­pos­i­tion of that con­greg­a­tion is not rep­res­ent­at­ive of the local com­munity. With the excep­tion of a few, many con­greg­a­tions are largely monocultural.

Our Sunday ser­vices are also almost exclus­ively English, even where our con­greg­a­tions include people who speak dif­fer­ent lan­guages. Our worship and our fel­low­ship expres­sions only largely rep­res­ent the dom­in­ant pakeha kiwi middle class culture. Does this sound like your church?

Some Ideas for Pente­cost 2022

The good news is that our churches can enjoy the glor­i­ous worship enriched by dif­fer­ent cul­tural expres­sions. Pente­cost Sunday is coming up. This can be a good time to start explor­ing dif­fer­ent ways of includ­ing other lan­guages and cul­tures in our worship. Here are some simple suggestions:

Prayer
If your church has people from dif­fer­ent parts of the world, invite them to pray in their home language.

Bible
Choose to have someone read the scrip­tures in a lan­guage of some minor­ity in your con­greg­a­tion in addi­tion to the English reading. Grant them the joy of hearing the Gospel read in the lan­guage of their hearts.

Music
Try some common songs in dif­fer­ent lan­guages. You will be sur­prised how many common hymns or favour­ite worship songs already exist in other lan­guages. Have the people in your con­greg­a­tion help your music team learn simple lines. Also, con­sider the kind of music you play before or after the service. What if every so often you chose music that comes from the nations of some of the members of your con­greg­a­tion? Ask them for recom­mend­a­tions for your playlist.

Food
At the next church event, how about delib­er­ately invit­ing people to bring a meal from their culture? You might learn a lot and stim­u­late taste buds you never knew you had!

Rela­tion­ships
Think about your neigh­bour or the vender in the local store that has immig­rated to NZ. Invite them for a cuppa at your house. I have found it easier to invite two people from dif­fer­ent coun­tries at the same time. This makes the con­ver­sa­tions richer and the exper­i­ence easier for you as the host and for the guests as well. Let that be a start of a rela­tion­ship that might later lead to them hearing the Gospel.

Learn more about Alice