From Midwest small towns to metropolitan congregations, Lutherans from coast to coast are discovering ways to share God’s unconditional love in Christ with people who don’t look like them or speak their language. Peace Lutheran Church in Kissimmee, Florida, is striving to meet the God-given opportunity and challenge of serving the spiritual needs of more than forty per-cent of our community with Hispanic heritage.

These cross-cultural challenges are a good thing. They help us evaluate what really matters in our outreach to others. When Jesus commands, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19), He moves us to expend treasure and effort to carry the good news of forgiveness through Him to the nations of the world. This is good! But Jesus also desires that we not overlook the nations living at our doorstep. Large and small American communities are the new locations of foreign mission fields. How shall we reach them?

Some people may have the attitude that the first step in reaching out to those different from us is to wait until they become more like us. Let them learn English. Let them love our culture. Let them fit into our schedules. The Apostle Paul says just the opposite, “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). The first step in reaching others is for us to become more like them. Learning the Spanish language is an important step to bridge the gap with Hispanics. But there is more to that bridge. We need to learn how well they know their own language. What is their view of the Bible and worship? What music defines them best? What are their goals in life? How are their families constructed? After all, Jesus did not live and die and rise again so that Hispanics should necessarily be in church at 8 a.m., appreciate every Lutheran hymn, or alter their family traditions; but that they should be saved from Satan, sin, death and hell by hearing the Gospel about Jesus.

God gave the Apostle John a beautiful sight of the Church triumphant. He saw a cross-cultural Church: “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb’" (Revelation 7:9,10). Heaven’s residents are wonderfully diverse in ethnic, cultural and language backgrounds. Yet they all wore the same clothing: all were dressed in the perfect robe of righteousness which was washed white in the blood of Lamb. What a great encouragement this sight is for the church militant on earth where cross-cultural challenges still arise! The Holy Spirit overwhelms those differences through the power of Word and Sacrament. He brings together people whose cultures vary so dramatically that they would rarely come together under any circumstance other than as brothers and sisters in Christ.

In the end, cross-cultural ministry is always going on everywhere in the sense that all people within Christian congregations have different traditions and habits. No two people are alike. Our challenge will always be to capitalize on this diversity within the body of Christ, so that each believer, regardless of language or culture, serves the Lord as the Holy Spirit provides opportunity and strength.

We have every reason to be confident that God will bless our fledgling efforts to reach our communities with that good news which crosses cultures—the news of pardon and peace in Christ.

Herbert Huhnerkoch is pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Kissimmee, Florida,