When I came to Parkview in 2018, I was delighted to be welcomed into the intercultural residency program. Recently, I have been fortunate to have several conversations with church members about what it means to engage in “intercultural” ministry. It is easy enough to claim “multicultural” ministry, where there are people from a diversity of backgrounds and experiences worshiping and serving together. But intercultural ministry takes the next step in being intentional about engaging these differences as a gift and treasure. Our individual and collective stories matter to one another. We share our different traditions, foods, family stories, and histories. By knowing one another more deeply, we are amazed by the ways that we, too, are changed.

This semester, I am taking a course called “Ministry Across Cultures” with Rev. Dr. Donna Allen. Dr. Allen has opened my eyes to an important truth about ministry: all of ministry is cross-cultural ministry. Even in a homogenous church.

You may be wondering, how is that possible?

But the stories we organize around, the words of our beloved psalms, and the proclamation of the good news about Jesus all have origins in a culture that is set apart from us today by miles and centuries! There is a danger in forgetting to acknowledge the foreign-ness of our sacred texts. When we try to assimilate them to our own experiences, we may reflect meanings that do not really belong. Rola often shared this with us when she shared from her cultural perspective having grown up in Lebanon.

Part of my and Pastor Pamela’s responsibilities as preachers is to interpret not only the text but the world behind the text, the peoples and cultures who wrote the original Greek and Hebrew words. This is sometimes a difficult task. As cultural outsiders to the Biblical text, we are invited into the same kind of intentional engagement we experience in our church community: we look beyond our initial assumptions, learn from stories, and allow ourselves to be changed through encounter. And this is a really beautiful gift!