North American

1
North American Cross-cultural Church
Planting Glenn Rogers, Ph.D.
2
Americas Growing Ethnic Diversity Today over
1/3 of US population is non-Anglo over 100
million people who are not Anglos By 2042 (34
years from now) minority groups will make up over
50 of the total US population, which by then
will be well over 400 million America also has
the third largest unchurched population in the
world. Only China and India have more
unchurched people than America Many of the
100 million non-Anglos who live in America do not
know the Lord America is a mission field!
3
What must we do to reach Americas growing
non-Anglo population with the good news of
reconciliation and renewed relationship with
God? We must understand that because they are
ethnically-other people they have unique
social and spiritual needs We need to analyze
and critique our ethnocentric assumptions about
the people who are migrating to our country
4
Anglo assumptions about ethnically-other
people Assumption 1 That Ethnically-other
People Think Like Anglos Assumption 2 That
Ethnically-other People Make Decisions Like
Anglos Assumption 3 That Ethnically-other
People Want to be Like Anglos
5
Anglo assumptions about ethnically-other
people Assumption 4 That an Anglo Worship
Assembly Will be a Meaningful, Satisfying
Worship Experience For Ethnically-other
People Assumption 5 That The Language Barrier
is the Biggest Problem to be Overcome in Becoming
a Multiethnic Church
6
Another way to think about these concerns has to
do with assumptions about acculturation and
assimilation 1. Enculturation is the process of
acquiring ones primary culture We absorb our
culture as we grow 2. Acculturation is the
process of learning a second culture Surface-leve
l culture learning 3. Assimilation is the process
of intentionally embracing a second culture to
become a person of that culture Deep-level
culture learning Results in changes to ones
worldview and therefore to ones personality
7
To expect assimilation of G-1 and G-1.5 and of
some G-2 immigrants is at best unrealistic What
does all of this mean? It means to reach the
ethnically-other unchurched in America we must do
more than invite them to be part of our Anglo
churches They are not Anglos and an Anglo worship
assembly cannot meet their social and spiritual
needs To reach them, we must plant
ethnically-other churches We must engage in
cross-cultural church planting
8

• What is cross-cultural church planting?
• Cross-cultural church planting involves the
  intentional crossing of cultural boundaries to
  plant a church that is culturally appropriate and
  relevant for the specific ethnic group under
  consideration.
• What must occur for us to do cross-cultural
  church planting well?
• 1. Must develop a missional perspective
• Missional perspective understanding the
  church as Gods mission agency in the world
• The purpose (mission) of the church is to
  participate with God in his mission--the
  reconciliation of all people

9
What must occur for us to do cross-cultural
church planting well? cont. 2. Must develop a
missiological perspective A missiological
perspective is one that grows out of the study
of effective global missions. Developing a
missiological perspective means learning to
think like a missionary Cross-cultural church
planting is cross-cultural missions To
successfully plant ethnically-other churches in
North America, we need to think and act like
missionaries who are working in a foreign
culture