Two of the key words in these hopes are "every" and "multicultural." Given the appropriate location of the meeting place, the necessary physical facilities and persuasive ministerial leadership, most Protestant congregations averaging more than 800 at worship could become bicultural, and perhaps even multicultural, churches. With relatively few exceptions, however, it is far more difficult for congregations averaging fewer than 20 at worship to become multicultural. When we consider that the number of small Protestant congregations in the United States averaging 20 or fewer at worship outnumber those averaging more than 800 by a 5-to-1 ratio (in the Episcopal Church USA, that ratio is closer to 20-to-1, and in the United Methodist Church, it is more than 20-to-1), that suggests a realistic goal would be either "many" or "a majority."

Is Multicultural a High Threshold?
A far higher barrier, however, is raised by the choice of "multicultural" rather than "inclusive" or "bicultural" or "ethnically mixed." If, however, guilt is perceived as an effective and acceptable motivating force, the use of "all" and "multicultural" can be endorsed. One explanation for "multicultural" creating such a high barrier is relatively
few parish pastors are (a) fluent in three or four languages and, more critical, (b) comfortable in serving in a leadership role with three or four or more different Christian religious cultures. One reason, of course, is English has replaced French as the common global language. A second is few theological seminaries can mobilize the resources required to prepare students to become effective pastors in a congregation that includes people who come from a variety of language backgrounds and an even larger variety of cultural heritages.

An Even Higher Barrier
Perhaps the highest barrier to reaching that goal of every Christian church in America becoming a multicultural congregation is the product of two variables. One is most American Protestant congregations resemble a voluntary association of human beings. One characteristic of voluntary associations is every constituent retains the unilateral right of withdrawal. Military organizations, high commitment religious organizations, jails, prisons and contract laborers do not offer that unilateral right of withdrawal.

A second characteristic of voluntary associations is they tend to attract people who share at least a couple of important characteristics. Relatively few high school seniors socialize with ninth graders. Korean-born residents of the United States rarely socialize with American-born blacks. This is known as the homogeneous unit principle. The ancient cliché is, "Birds of a feather flock together." The first-time visitor at Sunday morning worship may look around to see if "anyone here resembles me."

The very large congregations can avoid this barrier by combining a redundant network of small groups based on a high degree of homogeneity among the participants with scores of small ministry teams united around completing a shared task, plus a variety of learning experiences that create a feeling of unity among those who have enjoyed a meaningful and memorable experience, plus one or two leagues of athletic teams that rely on the power of competition to create cohesive ties, plus scheduling three to 10 different worship experiences every weekend.

That is an attainable component of the larger ministry plan in the congregation that averages 800 or more at worship, but it is difficult to achieve in a congregation averaging 80 at worship - and one-half of all Protestant congregations in America average fewer than 80 at worship.

At the other end of this spectrum of human associations are the high expectation covenant communities with a very high threshold into full membership that also are based on a clearly defined and consistently enforced set of legal principles. The special forces in the United States military, street gangs, winning athletic teams, a modest number of protest groups organized around a precisely defined cause, and perhaps 10 percent of all the Protestant congregations in America are located at or near that high-commitment end of this spectrum, but 10 percent is a small proportion of the universe. It also should be noted that a growing proportion of the human associations in the United States at this end of the spectrum display a relatively high degree of demographic diversity, but that usually is offset by a high degree of ideological uniformity. That long sentence introduces a critical fork in the road.

Demographic Diversity or Theological Pluralism?
A combination of several factors including the ecumenical movement, denominational mergers, the migration of Christian churchgoers across traditional faith lines of demarcation (such as Roman Catholic to Protestant), the emergence of  nondenominational megachurches, and the arrival of parish pastors born after 1960 have been producing two conflicting demands. One is the demand for an affirmation of theological pluralism. One expression of this is to add human reason and personal experience as equal influences with Scripture and the historic confessions in defining one's theological position.

The conflicting demand, especially from Christian churchgoers in America born after 1960, is that, "I need to know exactly what this church believes, teaches, preaches and practices before I can decide whether this is the church for me or not!" The word "church" in that quotation may refer to a specific congregation or to a denomination or both. In some contemporary denominational families, this provides an advantage to the
nondenominational congregation in the competition for future constituents. They can provide an unequivocal statement of their belief system and practices without those statements being in conflict with a denominational statement or practice.

These last two sentences help to explain (a) the recent rapid growth of scores of independent megachurches, (b) the increase in the Roman Catholic-to-Protestant migration, (c) the frequent sharp numerical drop in worship attendance following the end of a long pastorate in a very large denominationally affiliated Protestant congregation, and (d) why a disproportionately large number of Protestant congregations are served by the founding pastor.

Today, the most effective strategy for building a congregation that displays a high degree of theological pluralism and also a high degree of demographic diversity is to organize it around five organizing principles: (1) a long-tenured pastor who excels in building and nurturing ministry teams and also is a persuasive advocate of a clearly defined position on a current social justice issue, (2) a network of peer-led multicultural learning communities for adults and also for teenagers, (3) at least three competitive athletic teams, (4) monthly social events, and (5) a conviction that a healthy size for a congregation in American Protestantism is one that averages fewer than 150 at worship, thus avoiding most of the negative influences of anonymity.

A Universal Goal or Customize?
Perhaps the most common objection to the goal that every Protestant church in America should become a multicultural fellowship comes from those who are convinced that the No. 1 defense for the abundance of Christian congregations in America is that no one church can be expected to reach and serve everyone. The simplest example is one person is an enthusiastic supporter of Pastor Johnson while another churchgoer dislikes Pastor Johnson's communication style in preaching. A second example is the Afro-American church that has earned the allegiance of thousands of American-born blacks because of that congregation's powerful affirmation of its African heritage. Should that congregation also be expected to reach and serve recent immigrants from Peru, Korea, Poland, China, Mexico and Russia? Is it acceptable for congregations to specialize in what they do best?

Difficult? Yes! Impossible? No!
If the bicultural approach can be affirmed as one road to building a multicultural Protestant church in America in the early years of the 21st century, it is relatively easy to identify hundreds of contemporary success stories. Most of these can be placed in one of a dozen categories. These are ranked here from relatively easy to the most
difficult.

1. Eliminate social class as a major barrier and locate the meeting place in a community that already includes residents from several ethnic and language heritages, most of whom chose to live here because (a) it is a multicultural community, (b) the public schools have earned a reputation for relevance and quality, (c) this address confirms the upward mobility of a family's personal journey, and (d) the neighborhood associations of residents have fostered the creation of inclusive personal social networks.

2. Overlapping that is a second model that rests on a two-part division of the American population. The larger group consists of those who build their personal social networks from among people who resemble themselves. That generalization applies to Americans who trace most of their ancestry back to western Europe or to Africa or to the Caribbean or to the Pacific Rim or to India or to China or to Mexico or to one country in Latin America or to an Arab-speaking nation or to some other nation. This is a most highly visible pattern among well-educated and upwardly mobile professionals who were born and reared in another country before immigrating to the United States. Many of them place a high value on an ethnically integrated labor market, an ethnically integrated residential neighborhood, ethnically integrated retail shopping and health care delivery, ethnically integrated educational institutions, ethnically integrated recreation, entertainment, and vacation facilities, and ethnically integrated public transportation, hotel and restaurant facilities, but they prefer a monocultural religious community.

The smaller group consists of those who are self-identified integrationists, and that governs their choice of a worshiping community. They want to be a part of an ethnically diverse Christian congregation, and many want their children to share that experience. The predominantly Anglo and English-speaking congregation focus on attracting these integrationists as the road to becoming a multicultural church.

3. For many residents of the United States, music is a far more meaningful channel for communication than is the spoken word or the printed word. First, create a multicultural worship team. Second, add a new worship experience to the weekend schedule led by this multicultural worship team with a bilingual or trilingual team leader.

4. Focus on reaching, attracting and serving parents in a bicultural marriage who want their children to experience the conviction that a bicultural marriage should be perceived as the norm, not the exception. The first step is to call a pastor who is half of a bicultural marriage with a spouse who is comfortable with a high-visibility role in that congregation
as a volunteer or a paid staff member.

5. Open a Christian day school with a multicultural faculty that requires every parent of a student to contribute at least 50 hours annually as a volunteer.

6. Become a multicultural and multi-site congregation with one governing board, one staff and one ministry plan, but with at least three sites for monocultural worshiping communities. Gradually build all other ministries with a multicultural constituency.

7. Create new multicultural ministry teams that are organized around a common and unifying short-term assignment that becomes a meaningful and memorable experience. One common example is the 10-person team who serve as short-term volunteers in mission working with fellow Christians in ministry in a sister church on another continent. A second example is that multicultural team that organizes a new worshiping community at a second or third site and invites people to "come and help us pioneer a new congregation for the new millennium!"

8. The English language Anglo congregation launches a new worshiping community that is designed for adults who speak Mandarin or Korean or Spanish or Polish or Cantonese or Portuguese or some other language. The mission developer-pastor is an ordained minister from that country who recently immigrated to the United States and feels called to organize a new congregation. That pastor is on the staff of the host church and is committed to helping create bicultural mission teams, mutual support groups and variety of other bicultural experiences.

9. The larger congregation begins by gradually filling every program staff position with persons in bicultural marriages with most of them also bilingual couples. The goal is the staff will represent at least five or six ethnic cultures and be fluent in several languages. The goal is, "Every first-time visitor meets a person who resembles that visitor, speaks the language and understands the culture."

10. Build a multi-site ministry focused on several worshiping communities consisting of people born after 1987. Most of these sites will be rented facilities, and the ministries are designed for teenagers who came to America recently with their parents. The long-term goal is to assimilate these young people into that larger English-speaking missionary church that sponsors these off-campus monocultural worshiping communities.

11. That large English language Anglo congregation adds one new minister of missions to the paid staff every two years. The physical plant includes several venues that can be used for the corporate worship of God. One of these ministers of missions organizes a new Spanish language congregation, a second organizes a new Korean congregation, a third organizes a new congregation for Arabic-speaking Christians, a fourth organizes another Spanish speaking congregation for a different slice of the Hispanic population, and a fifth organizes a new mission in a different language.

A decade later, the three English language services on the weekend report a combined average attendance of 800, and the five others report a combined worship attendance of 900.

This congregation is organized with one staff, one governing board, one budget and a huge variety of specialized ministries, some of which are monocultural, others are bicultural, and a few are multicultural including four multicultural soccer teams. A big source of continuity is in that team of long-tenured pastors.

12. The long-tenured trilingual pastor, who also is comfortable in three different religious cultures, schedules three worship services for every weekend. One is in English, one in a second language, and one in a third. The 12-member worship team includes four people from each of those three cultural groups and leads worship at all three services. Another half dozen people are prepared to serve as substitutes when needed. Half of these 18 people were born after 1985. The four leaders of that worship team rotate, with each leading worship in one or two services every weekend.

At this point, at least a few readers will want to add a 13th model. This one creates a bicultural or multicultural church by merging two or three monocultural congregations into one new worshiping community. From this observer's experiences, however, the success rate among these ventures has been relatively low. The number of efforts based on this model would push it to among the top five if that were the guiding criteria in building this list. The success rate, however, places it no higher than 13th.

Five Lessons From Experience
From this observer's perspective, the most important lesson is the No. 1. variable in creating a multicultural congregation in American Protestantism is the leadership of a long-tenured, determined, skilled and visionary pastor who displays a high level of competence in enlisting influential allies.

The second is the larger the congregation and the faster the rate of numerical growth, the easier it will be to transform an Anglo congregation into a multicultural church.

A third lesson is the vast majority of recent immigrants, American-born blacks and the Anglo members of small Protestant churches prefer monocultural congregations.

A fourth is the congregation with a monocultural staff will have difficulty in becoming a multicultural church.

The last is the adults who display the greatest interest in joining a multicultural congregation are those in a bicultural marriage. Overlapping that category is the second largest group - those adults who are self-identified integrationists.

For more than four decades, Lyle E. Schaller has served as a parish consultant to hundreds of congregations and scores of denominational agencies. His recent books include From Geography to Affinity, The Ice Cube Is Melting, and A Mainline Turnaround.