BCC Staff Note: This blog is the final article of a four-part series on the BCC Grace and Truth website addressing racial reconciliation.
Pastoral care refers to the spiritual care of church members. Every church member requires some pastoral care, and when the church is ethnically diverse it is important for that pastoral care to be transcultural in its relevance. Let’s unpack this a bit more by reflecting on the letter to the Ephesians.
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians gives us a clear and explicit theology of the church. If you want to plainly grasp what the church is and should be, then dwell on the message of Ephesians. In Ephesians, we see that the church is God’s new community made up of people from very different backgrounds; it is God’s spiritually united, multi-ethnic community. As we have seen in other blog posts in this series, God has created “one new man” in Jesus Christ, and has united very different individuals from different cultures under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
A Multicultural Spiritual Community
In Ephesians 3:6, the apostle Paul writes, “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.”
The mystery that God had revealed was that it is through the gospel (rather than the law) that the Gentiles (non-Jews) are brought into the family of God. Paul’s point, which would have sounded radical at the time, was that salvation is available to anyone. A person could be made an heir, a member, and a sharer in God’s family simply through faith in Jesus. In other words, embracing Jewish customs was not required; observing religious rituals was not required; submitting to the Law of Moses was not required. The only requirement was faith in Jesus, because it was “through the gospel” and not through the law that anyone could be included in God’s saved people.
Let me put it this way: when they received salvation, the Gentiles didn’t need to become Jewish. They didn’t need to change their culture when they entered the household of God. The nations come into God’s family, from a cultural perspective, as they are. Salvation is available, and no cultural assimilation is required. So when you come to God, you don’t need to change your culture. You don’t need to change your language or accent. You don’t need to assimilate into anything. We enter the family of God through the gospel, which means that the family of God is not mono-ethnic but multi-ethnic. So the amazing mystery was that, through the gospel, God’s people could become a spiritually united multi-ethnic community.
The Need for Transcultural Pastoral Care
Multi-ethnic communities, as beautiful as they are, can be complex to pastor and care for. This is especially true when there are historical and present injustices that exist between different ethnicities. Structural racism, existing biases, or racial blind spots can severely impact the quality of our leadership and pastoral care. But everyone is equally a member of this community; everyone has the same need for, and expectation of, receiving pastoral care. So, if we are going to faithfully minister in a multicultural community, then we must have churches that are characterized by transcultural pastoral care. Churches should have a pastoral care ministry that reaches across different cultures and ethnic groups so that everyone receives the care they need.
In truth, however, this is often far from reality. What can be done about it? Obviously, this is an extremely complex topic and there are a variety of analyses that need to be done and a variety of strategies that could be implemented. But here’s my one suggestion: transcultural pastoral care can be greatly aided by transcultural pastoral leadership.
Transcultural Pastoral Care Is Aided by Transcultural Pastoral Leadership
When the leadership team of a church or a ministry is ethnically diverse, it can help to enhance that team’s awareness of the various struggles the multi-ethnic congregation is facing. This increased awareness can then build wider trust across the entire church community. For example, when minority groups within a church have a leadership team that recognizes their struggles from the pulpit or in another public manner, then they will likely find it easier to apply for pastoral care or counselling. But if that particular group doesn’t think that their leadership team understands them, then they may never even apply for formal counselling at all. The effectiveness of pastoral care can be hampered by the lack of diversity within the pastoral leadership.
The Gospel Brings Us Together
As we saw in Ephesians 3:6, the gospel brings us all together in Christ. We are heirs together, members together, and sharers together. This unity should be seen not just in our church membership rolls, but also in our leadership teams. In turn, these diverse leadership teams expand and enhance our pastoral reach, so that we are better positioned to provide effective pastoral care to any and every person within our church. Jesus was able to provide effective pastoral care to those from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Let us seek to imitate Him as we build diverse leadership teams that can, similarly, provide effective transcultural pastoral care.
Questions for Reflection
Reading Ephesians 3:2-13, how would you summarize what the church is? Why is transcultural pastoral care necessary in the pursuit of biblical faithfulness for multicultural churches? How do you think transcultural leadership can enhance the pastoral care capacity of a local church?