When Jim Goodroe traveled to Dallas in 2005 to attend a national ethnic ministry summit, he came home with a vision for a multiethnic church in Spartanburg.
Jim Goodroe talks about a multiethnic church plant, “Kaleidoscope,” at an Ethnic Ministry Convocation in Spartanburg July 30. (Photo by Ray Price)While he could easily imagine a thriving multicultural congregation in an area he calls the “most international county in South Carolina,” what he couldn’t have foreseen in 2005 was that, thanks in large part to the efforts of volunteers and staffers with the Spartanburg County Baptist Network, his city would be tapped to host the same national ethnic ministry summit that originally fueled Goodroe’s vision.
Part of his vision is about to be realized. On Sept. 13, Kaleidoscope, a multiethnic congregation, will launch weekly Sunday evening services at Spartanburg’s downtown Marriott. And in 2012 – perhaps as early as 2011 – the national Ethnic Ministry Summit, usually held in cities large enough to host a major league sports team, will come to Spartanburg.
Goodroe, director of missions for Spartanburg County Network, will oversee planning for the event, which is sponsored by the Ethnic America Network. The event will be called the “Carolinas Summit.” (See related story.)
Kaleidoscope, a church plant that has been in development for three years, will be the South Carolina Baptist Convention’s first multiethnic congregation. By definition, worshippers speak different languages and come from a variety of worship traditions. Goodroe said Kaleidoscope’s worship services will incorporate some ethnic-related worship features, but music and preaching will be presented in English. He said first-generation immigrants need assistance from language workers, but next generations, as well as those who have come for college or business, speak English and are eager to assimilate into society.
Derrick Smith is church planter for Kaleidoscope, the first multiethnic church in the SCBC. (Photo by Ray Price)Kaleidoscope’s leadership team represents seven ethnicities. The church sent five representatives, including church planter Derrick Smith, to Phoenix for the 2009 Ethnic Ministry Summit.
Goodroe said his passion for ethnic ministry started 10 years ago when he learned that “nations,” as mentioned in Matthew 28:19, is the Greek word for “ethnics,” as it is in the Luke 24:47 version of the Great Commission, whose Luke and Acts (1:8) versions say to “start by reaching the ‘ethnics’ wherever you are.”
The door for ethnic ministry opened wide the next year, when Goodroe became DOM in Spartanburg County, where he credits his predecessor, Alvin O’Shields, for laying the foundation for ethnic work.
When Goodroe learned his city has residents representing more than 70 countries, he said he realized that the “old paradigm of single-ethnicity language workers would never get around to all the groups.” A multiethnic church could do so, he believed, if it discipled its English-speaking members as missionaries to reach the native speakers in their people groups. To that end, he said, Kaleidoscope’s mission statement is “turning strangers into friends and family.”
Goodroe said he realized that the New Testament account of Pentecost included the salvation of 3,000 internationals in one city. He said he is “believing God for 3,000 international believers” in Spartanburg by the time he retires in 2017.