“The Ministry of Reconciliation as Spiritual Fellowship”
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
Editor’s note: the following is an essay on the Second Great End of the Church and was the basis of a sermon preached by Rev. Kim September Stated Meeting of the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area, on September 12, 2009 at First Presbyterian in Shakopee, MN.
For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. – 2 Corinthians 5:14-20
In January of 2004 a group of mostly second generation members of a Korean immigrant congregation in Minneapolis was blessed by our “mother church” to launch a multicultural community called Church of All Nations. We were chartered with great expectations by our presbytery and denominational leaders, but no one knew if one hundred mostly young Korean-Americans could actually become a Church of All Nations; many thought the name was a bit premature, if not presumptuous.
Today, we are a healthy, midsized congregation that is roughly 30% Asian, 37% white, 22% black, and 10% Latino, with more than twenty-five nations represented in our membership. Our pastoral staff includes people from Korea, Kenya, Sudan, Brazil, China, Japan, Cote d’Ivoire and the United States (both Euro- and African-American). Our session and board of deacons also fully reflect this diversity.
We are one of a handful of congregations in the U.S. with no ethnic majority and sizable groups of the four major racial categories of white, black, Asian and Latino. But we actually have even more denominational background diversity than ethnic diversity, drawing as many Catholics, Episcopalians and Lutherans as we do Pentecostals, Baptists and Evangelical Free. Our highly visible commitment to ecumenical unity may be one reason why, out of the twenty-five new members we recently welcomed, the vast majority had no Presbyterian background. We also draw equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats, and we address politics, racism, the economy, war and peace head on.
Our central mission is to live into the ministry of reconciliation, and it is happening in all kinds of wonderful ways here. For instance, in January of 2006 we moved from our Korean “mother church” into the building of a declining white PCUSA congregation, Shiloh Bethany Church, which had plenty of room. We rented space for a few months, but then Shiloh Bethany asked if they might merge with us. At the end of July the congregation that was founded in 1884 was dissolved, and all of its members became members of Church of All Nations. (more…)
