Canada is already one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. But things are about to change significantly over the next twenty years says Statistics Canada.
According to projections they released in March 2010, the proportion of visible minorities in this country is set to explode. Driven largely by immigration, their report suggests the face of Canada will have changed dramatically over half a century.
In 1981, about one million Canadians—five percent of the population—identified themselves as visible minorities and about 5.3 million visible minorities were counted in the 2006 census. By 2031, up to 14.4 million people in Canada could be a visible minority, accounting for one-third of the population.
In Canada's two biggest cities, Toronto and Vancouver, the white European majority will, by 2031, become the new visible minority against the majority darker-skinned people.
Rev. Dr. T.V. Thomas, originally from Malaysia, is an Alliance evangelist and directs the Centre of Evangelism and World Mission in Regina.
Since 2008, Dr. Thomas has served as the Multicultural/Intercultural Ministries Consultant to The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada (C&MA).
cmAlliance.ca recently interviewed Dr. Thomas and asked him to share recently interviewed Dr. Thomas and asked him to share some of his insights into how the C&MA can best respond to such a tectonic shift in the composition of the Canadian population.
Alliance.ca: Given the expected growth in visible minorities, what must the C&MA do to address this unprecedented diversity?
Dr. Thomas: Short of a Holy Spirit Revival sweeping across the country, the future of the Church in Canada is directly dependent on the discipling of visible minorities.
The C&MA needs a concerted and collaborative effort at national, district, local church and personal levels to embrace this unprecedented opportunity God has afforded us. The mandate of our Sea to Sea (5th S region) initiative includes reaching Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.
A clarion call needs to be made to Alliance people to believe God for more workers and the infusion of new funds to reap the ripening harvest across the nation. I believe if the flame of faith is stoked, the spirit of sacrifice is inspired and the call to obedience to the Lord is issued, Alliance people and congregations will accept this challenge.
Alliance.ca: What do you recommend local Alliance churches do to build bridges to this growing diverse population?
Dr. Thomas: There are four things they must do right before moving forward.
Embrace Right Vision
To engage in any effective ministry, one must both exegete the Bible and exegete the culture and society. Just as our International Workers need to missiologically look at the target groups they are trying to reach in a cross-cultural situation, we must do the same with our increasingly multicultural, multi-ethnic, multinational and multilingual neighbourhoods. It is key to know who your neighbours are.
Cultivate Right Attitudes
We all know how important attitudes are to life, relationships and ministry. Right attitudes are foundational to bridge-building. The congregation needs to develop loving and welcoming attitudes to 'strangers.'
One of the keys for congregations is to enthusiastically embrace Christian hospitality as a vital spiritual principle of Christian life and ministry.
Develop Right Skills
Most people have grown up in mono-cultural environments. Now, we live and work with people of many cultures. Therefore, we need to learn how to relate sensibly and appropriately with them.
Most of the cultures of the world are far more relational than the individualism in the West. We need to provide regular and incremental skill development training to increase intercultural competence for every Christian.
Ensure Right Understanding
It is important to know who your neighbours really are. Focusing on just the physical features of a person does not reveal fully who they are. It is important to know the person's national, cultural, ethnic, religious, linguistic, educational, socio-economic and generational backgrounds.
Learning about the worldviews of different cultures, religions and generations helps in communicating the gospel contextually.
