Identifying and Reaching Ethnic Groups in the City Anthony Casey The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

The World at Our Door Over 1 million granted legal immigration status 100,000 given refugee or asylum status 162,000,000 granted non-immigrant admission to the United States

Where are they?! Part 1 – Identifying ethnic groups in the city National, state, and local level research Part 2 – Reaching ethnic groups in the city Motivation for immigration Multi or mono ethnic church planting The role of orality Training and partnering with churches

National Immigration Reports Department of Homeland Security produces a report each year Details Country of residence, birth, current state of residence, gender, age, marital status, occupation, ect. Helpful for missiologists

State Immigration Reports Refugee database by state, includes contact information and phone number State government offices

Local Immigration Reports Internet and phone book search for Catholic Charities, ESL centers, refugee agencies City government web pages North American Mission Board people groups page Breakdown by state or province Listing of all people groups, languages, religion, population, zip codes, daily life, barriers, prayer guides, and current evangelism efforts

Individual Fieldwork Ethnographic research a process and an outcome Allows relationships to be built End result is a training and mobilization tool

Where to Look Apartment complexes International festivals Ethnic grocery store College or university Make use of personal interviews

Reaching Ethnic Groups in the City What are immigrants looking for? Conversational English clubs Resume and interview workshops

Multi or Mono Ethnic Churches? Neighborhood diversity seems to favor multi ethnic church plants Settle biblical convictions first so you can develop a strategy Ethnic or current cultural affinity? Multi ethnic breakdown

Orality Issues 60-70% of the world prefers an oral style of learning and communicating Most immigrants and refugees come from an oral background The question is, what language do I story in? Linguistic issues Worldview issues Mono ethnic church planting preference but it isn’t always feasible

Training Churches and Developing Partnerships No gospel bombs Well meaning but ill-informed Host CBS and cultural training workshops Network to find out who is reaching out Partnerships are necessary Shared information and resources

Questions How have you found ethnic groups in your city? How have you handled the multi ethnic issue? Are you doing CBS? If so, in what language? How can we better network and partner?