Oakland’s work with internationals
By Sue H. Poss
When you think of work with internationals, Rock Hill, S.C., probably doesn’t immediately spring to mind. But it is there, in Oakland Baptist Church, that members have become engaged in ongoing, strategic ministries to refugees and other international families and students living in their city, just south of Charlotte, NC.
It is also there that CBF field personnel Butch and Nell Green are based to help churches find ways to minister to internationals.
“Butch and Nell have been instrumental in helping our church open its eyes to the many international people living in our backyard,” said Oakland’s associate pastor Christy McMillin-Goodwin. “They have taught us, led us, and encouraged us.”
The Greens, who formerly worked among Muslims in Brussels, Belgium, said that, at one time, distance between cultures was measured by geography. Now, it is measured by differences in language, culture, and worldview. “Not only do these things create barriers to the gospel but they create barriers to meeting social needs,” Nell Green said. “The church is poised to minister holistically to the entire world right here. No longer is the career missionary the church’s window to cultures far away. Now we need only look out the window into our own backyards.”
With the Greens encouragement, Oakland sponsored a trip last year to visit CBF field personnel in several European and mid-Eastern locations. “Visiting our CBF field personnel and having field personnel visit Oakland has helped us as we are developing ministries for internationals,” McMillin-Goodwin said. “They have helped us understand the plight of the international person, whether refugee, legal or illegal migrant. They have helped us learn how to pray for migrants and refugees. They have given us the courage to respond to those around us and to respond to God’s calling us in new areas of ministry.”
Oakland also used the experiences from the trip to apply for (and receive) an “It’s Time” grant of $25,000. The grant will be used to help resettle three refugee families and to expand the ministry the church has begun among international students at nearby Winthrop University. The church already has plans to visit CBF field personnel working with international students in the U.S. to help it develop this ministry further.
Tiffne and Joel Whitley, who work with migrants and refugees in southern Spain, were among the field personnel Oakland members met on their 2007 trip. The Whitleys encourage churches to send teams to see their work.
“Once an American has been the minority, been treated with suspicion, misunderstood, completely unable to communicate, or blundered through a culture different from their own, they are better able to understand the situation of internationals in their home cities and more able and willing to get involved. So, having mission opportunities here where we work is one way for us to help churches,” Tiffne Whitley said.
“Internationals living in the States may know very little about American culture, customs, norms, language,” Joel Whitley said. “They may look and sound different but they are people. They have a need to be accepted and understood.”
The Whitleys said churches can help meet those needs by holding ESL classes, helping with physical needs, or holding special services. Individually, church members can do something as simple as striking up a conversation with someone. “It isn't about mass ministry,” Butch Green said. “It is about seeing that one person of a different background and loving them in the way Christ would.”
Oakland’s journey is one the Greens would like to see replicated. There are several ways, they said, that churches can be intentional about ministry to internationals: 1) Study — learn what it means to be culturally sensitive, learn about other faiths, learn how to invite and maintain cross-cultural relationships. 2) Virtually every college/university, no matter how small, has at least some international students. Most of these students never enter an American home. Churches can be intentional about providing them a home away from home. 3) Thousands of refugees that have been approved for settlement in the U.S. but can’t come because they have nowhere to go. Churches can connect with local agencies to provide places for these refugees. 4) Churches can help families and individuals see the neglected immigrants/refugees/students in their town.
At Oakland, in addition to the refugee resettlement and student ministry, the church also has a growing Spanish-speaking group that emerged from an ESL class begun several years ago and a group of young people comprised of Baptists and Muslims that meets regularly.
And what does all of this international ministry do for the church? “You should not expect this ministry to grow your church numerically,” Nell Green said. “But your church will grow spiritually. As we engage with God's world and as we become intentional about missions, God changes us. Missions is more about what God would do in us rather than through us. As Oakland and other churches have discovered, this will bring a joy and excitement than can only come as cultures intermingle and share.”
SIDEBAR
Fellowship field personnel are committed to and available to help churches work with internationals by:
· Looking at the church’s community to determine where possible places to plug in might be.
· Mapping out a plan for introducing international ministry and preparing for it.
· Teaching subjects such as ESL, cultural sensitivity, Islam and other world religions, prayer, visioning.
· Creating experiences for churches to help them engage and learn what ministry to internationals involves whether at home or overseas.