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Connecting ministry leaders, churches, and organizations across cultural lines
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Intercultural Ministries equips churches and ministries to embrace their multicultural future and helps them navigate crosscultural challenges and opportunities. We network, train, and consult with churches and organizations who want to promote effective intercultural ministry.
What we do
Intercultural Ministries of EGC functions as a “supporting ligament” in the Body of Christ for connecting ministry practitioners, churches and organizations across cultural lines—to see the Body of Christ strengthened and the Kingdom of God more fully revealed! We network, train, and consult to promote effective intercultural ministry and international mission networks in and out of Greater Boston. As we follow the Holy Spirit, we have identified the following key strategic initiatives in 2012:
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Hidden Treasures of the Kingdom Uncovered: Celebrating Ministries to the Nations in our New England Neighborhoods - God has  brought to our region wonderful Diaspora leaders who serve effectively their people group both in Boston and in their home country. However, these leaders are often under-resourced and find it difficult to present their ministries to potential partners (churches, organizations and individuals) due to sociological marginalization. Intercultural Ministries wants to celebrate these leaders and their ministries by being an advocate to bring greater awareness to them and providing opportunities for relationship building, partnership development and fund raising. Our first celebration took place on August 25, 2012 at North Shore Assembly of God, Malden. For more information, please contact Bianca at bduemling [at] egc.org and visit the Hidden Treasure's webpage.
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Sharing Worship Space on a Higher Level – We are offering a consultation in Fall 2013, for congregations that want to share worship space well. We want to help churches to cross cultural lines and develop healthy relationships with each other in order to be a witness of a diverse body of Christ in their neighborhoods. Contact Bianca at bduemling [at] egc.org if you want more information. The Sharing Worship Space cohort consultation emerges out of our research project, Shared Worship Space - an Urban Challenge and a Kingdom Opportunity, in the Emmanuel Research Review. This research sought to better understand and explore different models of churches sharing space and the opportunities and the challenges that come with such arrangements. Read about the research here.
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Diverse Leadership Project –
 This project seeks to better understand how Christian leadership is expressed and developed in different ethnic communities and to consider the implications of this for effective intercultural ministry. On this project, we partner with Grace Chapel, in Lexington, Massachusetts. Learn more about this project here.
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Equipping the Church to Bless Muslims - God wants your church be an agent of peace and faithfully bear witness to Christ. God wants your church to have a heart of compassion and a desire to bless Muslims. God wants to use your church to build bridges with Muslims in your community. Read more about ways to get involved.
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City Without Walls Initiative – This initiative is an outgrowth of the 2010 Ethnic Ministries Summit: A City Without Walls, hosted in Boston in April 2010. The aim of the initiative is to continue to nurture intercultural relationships and ministry partnerships as a means of expressing and advancing the Kingdom of God.
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 Christ at the Checkpoint [Reconciliation] Conference - A delegation of ten leaders/students participated in this international conference in Bethlehem, Palestine on March 5-9, 2012. The trip considered the Palestinian - Israeli conflict through the eyes of Christian reconciliaton as well as our role a peacemakers in New England and around the world. To read reflections about the conference and the ministry of reconcilation see this edtion of Intercultural Ministries Connection.
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Intercultural Ministry Partnership between Boston and Germany – This partnership seeks to nurture a learning relationship between Christian leaders in Boston and Germany around shared matters of concern in the area of intercultural ministries. Dr. Bianca Duemling serves as the liaison in this partnership of learning. Read more about the partnership...
Through these efforts of nurturing intercultural relationships, learning, and collaboration, we trust we see greater expression and advancement of the Kingdom of God in the city, the region, and the world.
EGC has been involved in intercultural ministries since 1969. For a table showing many of the milestones, the events, and the people involved, click here...
Why we do it
Over the last three decades, two dynamic flows of migration have carried nearly one million people from over 100 nations into Greater Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. One flow contains people from some of the most vital Christianity of Latin America, Asia and Africa and has fueled dynamic Kingdom growth in our region. The other flow has brought tremendous opportunity to relate to some of the world’s most unreached peoples including Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and Muslims. Unfortunately both of these flows of people have often been overlooked or lacked the intercultural connection necessary to leverage greater Kingdom growth in the city, region, and world. Simply put, the growth of the Kingdom can be greatly expanded by nurturing authentic intercultural connections between the many “nations” represented in the Body of Christ and the many nations in our own backyard.
Get involved
 We welcome research assistants, interns, and volunteers to help us gather information and connect with New England’s ethnic churches. We need help from urban ministry students and practitioners to build relationships with various church leaders, then listen to and document their stories. We also need people who could volunteer from home by transcribing audio recordings of interviews with leaders from among New England’s ethnic church communities. Please contact us and explain how you might like to get involved.
Resources
 One of the goals of Intercultural Ministries is to offer churches and organizations a menu of services where we can be of some help in the area of intercultural ministry development. If you think these could be of service to your church or organization, we would love to speak with you. Our hope is that it would be a win/win partnership where we could offer services that would be of real benefit to you and provide a means to fund some of the broader strategic development projects we are working on. And, of course, our prayer is that all we do would ultimately be a big win for the Kingdom. Learn more about the resources we offer...
Acts 1:8 Gatherings
 Over the past decade, EGC has helped sponsor three major gatherings of diverse Christian leaders following the concentric pattern of Acts 1:8. In 2002, we hosted the Multicultural Leadership Consultation of Boston, bringing 250 diverse leaders together to learn from one another and to celebrate Boston’s Book of Acts. In 2007, we broadened our scope and hosted the Intercultural Leadership Consultation (photo), bringing together 450 leaders from across New England to learn from one another and to celebrate New England’s Book of Acts. In 2010, we hosted the Ethnic Ministries Summit: A City Without Walls, bringing together 700 diverse leaders from across our region and across North America. For more details, see City Without Walls..
New England’s Book of Acts
 In preparation for the Intercultural Leadership Consultation in October of 2007, EGC collaborated with various groups within the church to compile stories, articles, and resources from numerous people groups and ministries that help tell the story of what God is doing in New England. For some groups, we updated and expanded reports that were written for the previous Multicultural Consultation of 2002. For other groups not covered in 2002, we opened a new chapter that we hope will continue to grow. The 2007 New England’s Book of Acts cannot contain everything, but rather compiles key stories and articles of the ongoing work of God through a sampling of the ethnic and immigrant churches of Greater Boston from 1965 to 2007. Read and download New England’s Book of Acts here...
Boston-Germany partnership
Together for Berlin was formed in 2002 to be a network of individuals and churches from many Christian denominations whose goal is to spread the Gospel of Jesus to Greater Berlin. The Foundation Himmelsfels is an intercultural outdoor retreat and resource center for intercultural ministries located in Spangenberg, Germany. Both organizations are partnering with EGC to mutually benefit from each others’ experience in the area of intercultural ministries. Dr. Bianca Duemling, on staff as EGC’s Assistant Director of Intercultural Ministries, is the liaiason between EGC and our partners in Germany. Learn more about the Boston-Germany ministry partnership...
Cambodian Ministries
 Just north of Boston is the second-largest Cambodian community in the United States. Pastor PoSan Ung, minister-at-large to the Cambodian community, provides training and support to the Cambodian leaders who serve this community. PoSan works with Cambodian churches to organize joint activities, such as evangelistic outreach during the annual Water Festival in Lowell in August, multi-church Vacation Bible School, and a multichurch Easter service. PoSan also travels several times each year to Cambodia to provide training, networking opportunities, and support for pastors there. (The Christian Cambodian American Fellowship, a network of Cambodian pastors in New England, is an EGC fiscal conduit ministry. EGC’s Cambodian Ministries is a ministry guided by Intercultural Ministries.)
Haitian Ministries International
EGC’s Haitian Ministries International works to encourage and strengthen Haitian pastors in Boston and to facilitate churches working together to serve the Haitians in this area, in Haiti, and across the Haitian diaspora. In 1985, Pastor Soliny Védrine joined the staff of EGC to coordinate ministry among Haitian churches and build fruitful partnerships which have strengthened the Haitian church community over the past 25 years. Learn more about EGC’s Haitian Ministries...
Learn more about Intercultural Ministries
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