IMMIGRANT CHURCHES
STATEMENT
An immigrant church is a local church composed of those who operate in a language other than the trade or national language. A shared language is recognized in God’s Word as necessary for clear gospel understanding and the ongoing life of the church. These language-specific churches are crucial for serving many first-generation immigrants and their children. Unlike language, cultural differences themselves are never sufficient cause for planting separate churches. Yet immigrants are a valuable part of the body of Christ that face unique barriers. Immigrant churches also serve their members as they navigate the obstacles of their host country. Planting immigrant churches is, therefore, a vital way to serve an often-overlooked community and the broader kingdom by removing barriers to the advance of the gospel. Like any church, the long-term goal of immigrant churches should be to reflect the diversity of heaven.
Article Written by Yuna Sabet and A.W. WorkmanMy Story as an Immigrant Church Planter
At the 2024 Cross Conference, I spoke with a pastor who serves in the eastern part of the US. When he asked me about the church I pastor in California, I didn't know how to explain that we are a Farsi-speaking church that meets inside an English-speaking church’s building. "They allowed us to establish a church in their church!" This pastor was astonished at the complexities of this situation.
During this time, I was wrestling with the complexities of the immigrant church and its existence as a minority community in a larger society. Specifically, my mind had been preoccupied with my eldest daughter, who was getting older and would much rather attend the English church's service than the Farsi-language service at the church I pastored. I must admit I was heartbroken by this. It was strange for me to be preaching in Farsi behind this wall while my daughter worshiped in English in a different church service on the other side of that same wall. I felt that an unwanted separation had taken place.
When we arrived as Christian immigrants in America, the first place we went for worship was to an immigrant church. There, believers gathered to worship in the Persian language due to their shared background and experience as immigrants and, most importantly, because they didn’t have sufficient command of the English language. This situation reminds me of the early church when Christians were forced to leave their city and country due to persecution and go to places that were different from their home areas in terms of language and culture.
Jonathan Szeto, Senior Pastor of Laguna Chinese Baptist Church in Elk Grove, California, has written of the challenges of this kind of pastorate:
I came face-to-face with the complexity of ministering in an ethnic immigrant church. Though there’s often one dominant ethnicity, there remains a significant diversity of cultures—from the newly arrived immigrant who barely speaks English to the second-generation adult who was born and raised in the United States. In addition to cultural differences, there are language obstacles to overcome.
There are numerous challenges faced in seeking to serve first-generation immigrant Christians. And everything becomes even more complex when the second generation of the immigrant church (i.e., their children) grows up in another world. This explains why a category and vision for healthy immigrant churches is critical.
Definitions
What is an immigrant church? Simply put, it is a local assembly of believers made up primarily of newcomers to a given country who operate in a language other than the trade or national language. An immigrant church may have members who do not fit this description, but the majority of the congregation is made up of immigrants and their children. These churches play a crucial role in allowing believers to worship in a language they know well while helping them in countless other ways as they adjust to their new home.
As John Lee, pastor of an immigrant church in California, has written:
“The immigrant church is often the social centerpiece of the immigrant Christian. Where do you go to find jobs? The immigrant church. Where do you find places to live? The immigrant church. Where do you make your friends? The immigrant church. The immigrant Christian can hear preaching in their heart language and engage in Christian community with those who share their culture.”
Immigrant churches, however, should not only pay attention to the needs of immigrants. These churches must also strive to be healthy and biblical. They should be places where the gospel is clearly preached, despite any differences in language and culture that might exist. Like all churches, immigrant churches are also commanded by Christ to take part in the Great Commission. As they do so, they are uniquely positioned, able to not only reach out to other nations cross-culturally but also to support missionaries in their countries of origin.
Why the Immigrant Church Is Important
Immigrant churches are important because a shared language is recognized in God’s Word as necessary for clear gospel understanding and the ongoing life of a church. However, many first-generation immigrants do not yet have sufficient ability in the language of their new country to clearly understand what is being taught, sung, and prayed in local churches. Therefore, they need to gather in churches that use their mother tongue or at least a language in which they are proficient. While immigrants may be able to have friendships with other majority-language Christians, using a shared language in an immigrant church means the “one anothers” of the New Testament can more effectively be lived out. Put simply, a healthy Christian community requires the ability to communicate in a shared language.
Second, since so many immigrants leave everything behind to establish a new life in a new country, immigrant churches are also important as a place of community where friendships are formed, connections are made, and other near-culture believers help immigrants navigate the many barriers of their new country. Cultural differences alone are never a sufficient reason to plant separate churches. Yet the shared culture in immigrant churches does serve immigrant families as, over time, they learn how to navigate their new host culture better.
Third, immigrant churches provide a unique ministry toward the children of immigrants who are growing up between their parents' culture and the culture of their adopted country. By seeking to minister to the whole family–even if that means beginning English-speaking classes, groups, and services connected to the church–immigrant churches help in this challenging time of language and culture transition that can often lead to division and hurt among different generations of immigrants. In this way, they can provide faithful shepherding to the older generation, who may be unable to assimilate, and to the younger generation, who can be too eager to reject their heritage and assimilate into the country they've grown up in.
Finally, as immigrant churches mature and develop, they can serve as examples of the power of the gospel to reach every language and culture while also bringing different languages and cultures together under the Lordship of Christ. Immigrant churches start with a particular focus on caring for an immigrant community whose language and culture might be otherwise overlooked by churches of the majority language and culture. However, in the long term, their vision should also be to reach beyond their own community and reflect the diversity of the communities in which God has placed them – ultimately reflecting the diversity of Heaven.
Biblical References
The Old Testament outlines care for the immigrants who came to the Jewish nation. In Leviticus 19:34, the Lord commands, “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.” It’s stated again in Deuteronomy 10:19, “So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the Land of Egypt.”
The immigrant church finds its earliest precedent in the synagogues of the Jewish diaspora, where the scattered remnants of God's Old Covenant people gathered to worship as they sought to live faithfully in cities like Babylon. In terms of identity, they were different in their language, ethnicity, and faith, and surrounded by pagan societies that threatened to absorb and consume them. These synagogue communities of the Jewish diaspora helped them to live faithful to Yahweh even as they began to speak the languages of their host countries and adopt some of their customs.
Many of the earliest churches in the New Testament also consisted of diaspora migrants, whether in part or whole. Some of these were Jews who had returned to Judea and found themselves cultural and linguistic outsiders, such as the Hellenistic widows of Acts 6. Others, like Aquila and Priscilla, were Jews who had lived in Rome but were expelled to other parts of the empire by the emperor Claudius. The very first church in Antioch was formed because Jewish believers fled persecution and began preaching to the native Gentiles of the city where they migrated.
Not only were migrants a central part of the early church, but Peter writes that all Christians are now, in a spiritual sense, migrants. He addresses the recipients of his letter as "elect exiles," essentially, migrants chosen by God (1 Peter 1:1). He calls them "sojourners and exiles" (1 Peter 2:11). In this way, Peter shows us that the immigrant status of these early believers is a picture of the experience that all true Christians share as we await our true homeland. Immigrant churches today continue to be a living picture of the spiritual identity of all who believe.
What Happens When It’s Done Well
First, immigrant Christians will be cared for by the local churches when barriers are recognized. When healthy immigrant churches are planted, the broader church recognizes language's central role in Christians' ability to fulfill Christ's vision for the local church. This means immigrant churches will be encouraged and resourced by the churches of the majority language group, even if everyone wishes things were different and weekly worship altogether was possible. The good news is that this desire will be fulfilled in heaven and partially on earth as some believers learn one another's languages.
Second, immigrant Christians will be cared for by the local church when barriers are not made ultimate. Doing this well means that the language and culture differences between immigrant and majority-language churches are not treated as fixed and immovable barriers but as permeable barriers that can change over time. And because the gospel is powerful enough to overcome all human divisions, both kinds of local churches pursue appropriate ways to demonstrate together the unity the gospel creates while also seeking to reach all kinds of lost people in their communities.
This posture of pursuing healthy immigrant churches means that first-generation immigrants are cared for, and so are their children (who will often be very different from them as their needs change over time).
Finally, the immigrant church can reach their own communities in the heart language; something difficult for majority culture churches to do. And in so doing, they model what it means to reach the nations with the gospel.
Problems When It’s Not Done Well (Or at All)
When the need for immigrant churches is rejected, neglected, or downplayed, first-generation immigrant Christians are prevented from understanding the preached Word and receiving the care and discipleship they need because of the language barrier. So, during one of the most stressful and difficult seasons of their lives, they are kept from participating in the life of the body of Christ. Many backslide from their faith or fall away entirely during this time. Especially in Western countries, where it is not socially advantageous to be a Christian, the danger of immigrants falling away is genuine.
Sometimes, well-meaning Christians might insist that immigrant believers simply assimilate into existing churches, assuming that these newcomers have the language ability to be edified by the church in the same way that they are. However, this position ignores both the practical and the biblical realities that have, since Babel, made language a necessary cause of separate organizations.
Second, We should not overstate the need for immigrant churches such that there is no room for immigrants to become members of majority language churches. A they-have-their-church, and we-have-ours mentality. In this way, longstanding divisions between different cultural groups can become permanent. In this case, culture has become elevated above biblical principles of ecclesiology.
Immigrant churches must also resist the temptation to become a safe enclave for their members rather than a vibrant, healthy church. And, even if they are healthy, it’s easy for these churches to become siloed, wholly disconnected from the churches of the majority language. When this happens, both kinds of churches miss out on the benefits of broader cooperation for mission and encouragement. This kind of division heightens the tensions that arise when the second generation desires to leave their parents’ church to join an English-speaking church. What could be considered a good option of joining a sister church can instead be viewed as leaving the community entirely.
What It Looks Like
One network of Bhutanese-Nepali immigrant churches in upstate New York has been so effective at reaching their own immigrant community that every single Bhutanese-Nepali family in their city has had meaningful contact with them. This contact has often started with an airport pickup and meeting practical needs. This then leads to relationships and opportunities to share the gospel. As the resettlement of their demographic stops, this network of churches is beginning to explore how to do missions back in their home country and even in other Asian countries.
Similarly, my own young church in California regularly receives new immigrant families. As we care for them and share the gospel with them, we also set our sights on reaching those still in our homeland – and those beyond.
The kingdom impact of immigrant churches is significant, not only among their immigrant community but also for those from the majority culture. For mysterious reasons, sometimes the lost are more open to hearing the gospel from someone very different from them than they would be with someone who is like them. A liberal white American, for example, is far more likely to listen to an Iranian former-Muslim's testimony than to that of another white American. An immigrant believer's unexpected and unique nature can open doors for spiritual conversations among those of the majority culture who have written off the Christianity they think they know.
Immigrants are a valuable part of Christ's body that faces unique barriers. But they offer great gifts to the body of Christ, too. Planting immigrant churches is a vital way to serve an often-overlooked community and the broader Kingdom by removing barriers to the advance of the gospel. All who are committed to healthy, church-centered missions should embrace the need and the vision for these kinds of immigrant churches.
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