Solving the Immigrant Church Crisis

Book excerpt: Solving the Immigrant Church Crisis: The Biblical Solution of Parallel Ministry (Acts 6:1-7) addresses the crisis of the immigrant church in which complex cultural and linguistic factors create a reticence on the part of immigrants to transfer financial and decision-making authority to succeeding generations, and this results in a culturally irrelevant ministry to those generations, an exodus of believers from the church, a spiritually immature remnant, and an inability to reach the lost. The thesis of this book is that parallel ministry, based on Acts 6:1-7, is the biblical solution to the crisis in the immigrant church. While there are at least two main aspects of this crisis, a spiritual-relational and an ecclesiastical aspect, this book focuses on the ecclesiastical aspect of defining the biblical structure of church government. Specifically, this book is for immigrant churches primarily in the United States and offers them a biblical and practical solution to the problem plaguing them for over two centuries of how to minister effectively to the succeeding generations.