Embracing Multiethnicity
Village Baptist Church
Portland, Oregon
Lead Pastor John Johnson
When my predecessor left, I came in an interim role to the church to shepherd it through a time when there had been some real hurt. Some people felt like the former pastor shouldn’t have gone; others felt he needed to go. So there was a bit of polarization. The church didn’t dramatically decline. It just went on hold.
I just said to the leadership, “I don’t know what interim pastors do, but I don’t believe God ever calls the church to just tread water or anchor in the harbor. It seems like we should always be moving. Why don’t we gather together and envision what we might look like in the next 10 years? 20 years? Let’s dream. I know this type of discussion is typically reserved for the next pastor, but maybe that will help you know better who you should call.” So at that point, they developed a vision for the future that has set the course for everything we’ve done ever since.
There was a defining moment. The elders and pastors on staff were kind of stuck, and there was a little bit of blaming and hurt. One day, one of them said, “We’ve gotten kind of arrogant, and maybe what we need to do is get on our knees and repent of any arrogance we’ve had and humble ourselves before God.” All I can tell you is everything changed after that.
We said, “Let’s do something unique. Let’s create global partnerships so we’re not like the Lone Ranger coming into town with a program, but we come as servants and say, ‘How can we assist you?’” We’ve done that and are doing that, in particular in India and Lebanon.
Really, the global piece was already there. We just wanted to rethink how we were doing it. That’s also when we began to become more intentional about the multiethnicity around us. And we began to become much more intentional about being a grace church. We just said we want that to be one of our defining marks—people will come in and find grace, whatever failure they’ve been through.
In comparison to most churches I’d seen before I came, Village was incredibly healthy. When you’re going through hard times, you can internalize everything, and it all looks bleak. They just needed to come to grips with some things. God used me to set things in context. I was this outsider that could help them see what they weren’t seeing.
I think our recovery took a year. There was some pain and wounds that needed healing. Village lost some pretty significant people during that time.
After a couple of years, through events none of us intentionally planned out, it became more and more clear that I should be their pastor.
We’re celebrating our 60th anniversary this year. I’m going to say to our people—because I believe it with all my heart—that our best days are ahead. I wouldn’t say Village has grown phenomenally, but I do think our church has established that it knows itself, knows where it’s going, knows its dream and is making some great steps of faith even in hard economic times to do some incredible things.
