Building church congregation through intercultural strategy: The practical challenges for developing intentionally intercultural congregations in Winnipeg.

摘要

The dissertation Building Church Congregation Through Intercultural Strategy: The Practical Challenges for Developing Intentionally Intercultural Congregations responds to the reality of the growing presence of multiculturalism in many urban cities around the world in general and Winnipeg in multicultural city in particular. The multicultural dynamics should influence the local congregations to rethink a paradigm shift -- moving their congregations from mono-cultural mode to one that is intentionally intercultural outward-looked congregations. Building intentionally intercultural congregation strategy is no longer merely a mental picture in the minds of Christians living in intercultural communities; some congregations have intentionally put intercultural evangelism and congregation plant into practice.;The goal of this research is to provide a clear understanding, awakening and challenging the thinking of local congregations to see the need of changing the strategy of mono-cultural or people group evangelism and congregation plant to intentionally intercultural congregation strategy. Since human society is changing very fast from homogenous community into that of heterogeneous, local congregations are left with no alternative than to engage in evangelism and congregation plant interculturally. In a nutshell, if local congregations must fulfill the mandate of the Great Commandment (love) and the Great Commission (witness), they must be contextually biblical, theological and practical -- the intercultural congregation strategy.