A Revelation 7:9 church is one that desires to improve its delivery of the Great Commission—“to make disciples of every ethnicity”—and the Great Commandment—“to love our neighbors as ourselves”—within its 1-3-5 mile radius.
The Revelation 7:9 Task Force has identified ten expressions of a local church aspiring to striving to practice a Revelation 7:9 ethic.
Importantly, it is a misnomer to think that the only expression of a Revelation 7:9 church is for the congregation to become multi-ethnic, multi-generational, and multi-socioeconomic class. To the contrary, several expressions outlined below demonstrate a desire to reflect Revelation 7:9 in other ways.
1. Volunteers: Elect qualified people of color as deacons and/or elders, or appoint volunteers in key positions such as teachers, small group leaders, nominating committee members, etc.
2. Employment Staffing: Hire qualified people of color to serve on staff in key or visible positions. Note that in the church, many first-time minorities employees on a majority staff fail to properly assimilate into the culture, under-perform, or resign. Why? Because the initial hiring of minority staff (including those who are younger, a different gender, or with a developmental disability) requires more intentional, extensive onboarding, coaching, and long-suffering.
1. When a mono-ethnic church (or a cluster of churches) intentionally plants an autonomous daughter church using a Revelation 7:9 ethic in an area where the demographics make sense.
2. When a mono-ethnic church plants a multi-site campus extension differing in age, ethnicity, and socio-economics than the mother church.
3. When a mother church plants among people of color in a given ZIP Code. This plant will look and feel different than the mother church.
4. When a church plants a church in an under-served ZIP code.
Note: we are using the definition for the “under-served” from the EPC Church Planting Team, which differs from an under-resourced community. An under-served ZIP Code is defined as a local church plant designed to evangelize a demographic dominated by “Nones” or “Dones”—the religiously unaffiliated (formerly called “unchurched” or “dechurched”)—in its 1-3-5-mile radius. This would be locations in your city or in such cities as Portland, Maine; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; etc.).
1. Either because of demographic shifts or holy discontent that a congregation is not reflecting the variety within its 1-3-5 mile radius, a mono-ethnic church decides to transform into a multi-ethnic, inter- generational, and/or economically diverse congregation.
1. Facility Sharing: An expression of a Revelation 7:9 church is a facility-sharing arrangement between a majority congregation and a minority congregation that extends beyond transactional to relational. In other words, instead of simply having a landlord-tenant contract, the mother church fellowships in new ways with the church or parachurch tenant. Facility-sharing would also include multiple joint events and partnering on joint outreach endeavors as equal partners.
2. Schools: Adopting an under-resourced school with a minority church, including intentional power-sharing partnerships.
3. Refreshed Outreach Philosophy: A refreshed local church outreach philosophy aspiring to imitate the Revelation 7:9 ethic is less paternalistic and less programmatic, but more willing to share ideas and power with minority communities. In other words, listening and learning more than leading. This new philosophy entails:
• Balancing the church’s local budget and global budget. Often suburban or rural churches invest more overseas than in their own cities.
• Conducting asset-based research (contrasted with deficit-based research) on what is good about the neighborhood instead of what’s bad about it.
• Developing peer-to-peer relationships by gathering community stakeholders in under-resourced areas to ask them to define their own neighborhood’s needs.
• Convening candid, Christian, civil conversations that cultivate personal cross-cultural relationships.
• Recognizing that poverty is more than economics and requires wholistic ministry.
We think these equate to several God-honoring local church expressions.