Technicolor: Inspiring Your Church to Embrace Multicultural Ministry

By the year 2050, the United States will no longer have a majority ethnic group.

The nation's population will be majority-minority. This future nationwide reality has already been a present reality in several cities, including many in the urban south, for nearly a decade. In a 2011 State of the City Address, the mayor of pastor and author Mark Hearn's city said there were fifty-seven languages spoken at the local high school.

Hearn left asking himself, How should our church respond?

In the years that have followed, a phenomenal transformation has taken place. This transition has been chronicled in the Gwinnet Daily Post, the Christian Index, the Wall Street Journal, Lifeway's Facts and Trends, and the Atlanta Magazine. Now, Hearn shares the life-changing story through his own lens. By reading his firsthand experience of this transition as a pastor, you too can be equipped to make the shift to church in technicolor.

Mark Hearn has been a pastor for more than thirty-five years. Since 2010, he has served as the senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Duluth, Georgia, one of the most diverse counties in America. During his tenure, the church has transformed from a monolithic Anglo-American congregation to a cross-cultural community with members from thirty-seven different countries. Pastor Mark holds degrees from Carson Newman College, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Luther Rice Seminary. Mark and his wife Glenda are the parents of four grown daughters and are proud grandparents.