Multiethnic churches are on the rise, according to sociologist Michael Emerson. The University of Illinois-Chicago professor said preliminary research shows 16% of U.S. congregations are multiracial, up from 6% in 1998.
Around one-in-five American churchgoers attend a church in which less than 80% of participants are of the same race or ethnicity, a Baylor University study found in 2018.
Also more prevalent: black clergy leading multiethnic congregations. In 1998, Emerson said, 4% of clergy heading up multiracial churches were black. By 2019, the number increased to 18%. Hispanic leaders increased from 3% to 7%, and Asian Americans from 3% to 4%.
White clergy lead 70% of multiethnic churches, down from 87%.
Mark DeYmaz co-founded Mosaix Global Network in 2004 to help leaders as they navigate challenges inherent in the process of establishing a healthy multiracial church.
“The way you get comfortable in a healthy multiethnic church is to realize that you go, ‘Man, I’m uncomfortable here.’
“We embrace the tension and that’s very different than the normative church, which is trying to make everybody comfortable.”
The road isn’t easy for leaders working to desegregate what Martin Luther King Jr. famously called the “most segregated hour in America.” Pastors like Corey Hodges must navigate how to address national racial tensions like the controversy over NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision to kneel during the national anthem. Hodges pastors The Point Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in Salt Lake City. His church life has been “stressful,” he told Religion News Service.
“I’m OK with that because that pain is a part of the growth.”