Learning to Count to One: The Joy And Pain of Becoming a Multiracial Church

By Alfred E. Mulder

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 159255296X
• ISBN13: 9781592552962
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Faith Alive Christian Resources
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Immigrant Heritage, Race Crisis, to Embracing a Multiracial Future

Alfred Mulder states that what makes this book significant is the extension it is of the journey that the Christian Reformed Churches (CRC) has taken. The CRC like many denominations has gone from a homogenous heritage as mostly immigrants to the United States to being a multiethnic community of faith. This is a story waiting to be told, and the CRC boldly tells the story in Learning To Count To One. So why a book, why not simply make a paper and disseminate it through the denominational letters, indeed, why a book? Mulder says that the project began as a push by the then executive Peter Borgdoff with the purpose being to explore the relationship between North American mainline churches and immigrant churches. This expanded to the suggestion that the CRC "contribute a case study of its own journey." Mulder quickly found that the so-called mainline churches with European roots are historically immigrant churches. Yet without re-storying this immigrant-founding event the same churches that have benefited from this immigrant heritage seem to struggle with embracing new immigrants today. Fully embracing the new narrative of imagining and resourcing a multiethnic denomination is, for a mainline church, embracing oneself! So the journey is told. And the story does not leave out the sad news of the genocide and land acquisition that every mainline church willingly or unwillingly took a part of. Mulder reminds the reader of the `land acquisition' nature of the so-called Christian nations that sent parties to expand their frontiers to "discover" the America's. Mulder reminds the reader of the inequality and white dominance that is the story of the mainline churches growth in America. Mulder even boldly reminds the reader that the CRC like all mainline churches experienced their first "race-crisis" when children of black families in the 1960's were denied admittance to a Chicago CRC school. Yet Mulder gives the hope that is produced by the process of reconciliation, which accompanied God overcoming the divisions in humanity, which began at Babel, by re-storying the CRC as a community of faith that through joy and pain has learned to count to one. This reader is inspired to seek such a project in the Reformed Church in America as well.

Down-to-earth true stories

Learning To Count To One: The Joy And Pain Of Becoming A Multiracial Church is a collection of testimonies from various authors belonging to the denomination of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. The CRC is working to become a family of churches that is inclusive of all races, and worshipers of all nations; their struggles for diversity is reflected in the voices in Learning To Count To One. Black-and-white photographs, and a handful of timetables and charts embellish the down-to-earth true stories of people who live and work to promote intercultural harmony through shared faith.