I was in Tescos yesterday shopping for rather mundane things like bread and orange juice. But as I went along the aisles I encountered the "ethnic food" section, which was stuffed full of all kinds of exciting sounding items, some of whose names I couldn't even read. In fact as I went around the store I also noticed a lot of shoppers speaking in languages I didn't understand.
That got me thinking. If our stores are full of people from places like Poland and Pakistan, how come our churches aren't? The stores bring them in by providing the things they need to live -- basmati rice, palm oil, polish sausage, malta drinks... How many of our churches are offering people something that they look at "on the shelf" and will say "Yes, I will have some of that!"?
If you want to do this for Poles, I've recently run across a good resource. It's called Pole to Pole and you can read about it at http://www.globalconnections.co.uk/missionintheuk/poletopole
I'm sure I will have more to do with it later. So I'll add more then.
Oh and on ethnic food, last weekend I met a woman who'd been working in China where she ate fried scorpions WITH their stingers still on! Mmmmm...
We are very part-time members of a multi-ethnic church. It has shaken down to just one main ethnic group: the Nepali.
ReplyDeleteMy conclusion on this is that people like to worship with those who speak their own language. This is not universally true, but it seems to generally be the case.
Very true. And often in their own musical style, at their own level of volume for preaching, etc. This shows up in the services and in small groups and in what people expect to do for each other during the week.
ReplyDeleteSo how long have you been Nepali?