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The Merging Streams Coalition

 

 

What if your church or denomination reflected the ethnic makeup of its community by building healthy partnerships with churches of other cultures?

 

The Merging Streams Coalition

 

What if...your church or denomination reflected the ethnic makeup of its community by building healthy partnerships with churches of other cultures?

Membership in The Merging Streams Coalition equips pastoral leaders who have lived in North America for one, two, or multiple generations to identify healthy partners of other cultural backgrounds, build trusting relationships, cast a compelling vision, break through congregational resistance, identify strategies to impact future generations, and kneel together before the throne of God in prayer.

 

The Merging Streams Coalition is not an intensive course designed to fill minds with sociological insights.  Instead, it uses a relational, organic, multi-faceted learning experience designed to produce life change.

Membership in The Merging Streams Coalition equips pastoral leaders who have lived in North America for one, two, or multiple generations to identify healthy partners of other cultural backgrounds, build trusting relationships, cast a compelling vision, break through congregational resistance, identify strategies to impact future generations, and kneel together before the throne of God in prayer.

 

The Merging Streams Coalition is not an intensive course designed to fill minds with sociological insights.  Instead, it uses a relational, organic, multi-faceted learning experience designed to produce life change.

The sharing of information, stories, real-life ministry situations in the small group cohort, together with the interviews and video lessons are invaluable resources to leaders who want to engage with their cross-cultural neighbors and communities.

 

The conversations and videos are a huge help for avoiding unnecessary obstacles in ministry, and providing new avenues of thought and mission collaboration.

I will use this in my role with our association/district and will recommend others to participate in the Merging Streams Coalition!

 

- Dr. Peter Meier, Executive Director for Missions and Outreach, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Florida/Georgia District

Honing your Mobilization Skills

 

The Merging Streams Coalition is designed for two types of ministry leaders: pastors desiring to mobilize believers for local cross-cultural ministry, and denominational leaders desiring to mobilize pastors to form cross-cultural church partnerships. Both types face an uphill battle.

Both kinds of ministry leaders are stymied by the same common barriers:

  • Most of their people are indifferent or opposed to local cross-cultural ministry

  • They are already over-committed to ministry programming, and functioning in burnout mode

  • They have no clear path forward

 

This leaves us mired in an unenviable reality:

  • Most American churches are in decline

  • Most first-generation immigrant churches are skilled at reaching other newcomers to the U.S., but not as adept at retaining their children or grandchildren

  • Neither American nor immigrant churches are equipped to thrive in a multicultural society

Are you ready to sharpen your skills at moving God's people past these barriers into cross-cultural collaboration?

Becoming an Effective Mobilizer

 

Maybe you’re the pastor or outreach director of a local church, trying to mobilize believers for local cross-cultural ministry.  Maybe you serve with a denomination, and you’re trying to mobilize pastors around local cross-cultural ministry.  Either way, it’s an uphill battle.

 

Ministry leaders are stymied by the same common barriers:

  • Most of their people are indifferent or opposed to local cross-cultural ministry

  • They are already over-committed to ministry programming, and functioning in burnout mode

  • They have no clear path forward

 

This leaves us mired in an unenviable reality:

  • Most American churches are in decline

  • Most first-generation immigrant churches are skilled at reaching other newcomers to the U.S., but not as adept at retaining their children or grandchildren

  • Neither American nor immigrant churches are equipped to thrive in a multicultural society

 

Membership in The Merging Streams Coalition will give you clarity and confidence in crafting a brighter future for your church or denomination through multiplying healthy cross-cultural church partnerships.

 

Register Now

Membership in The Merging Streams Coalition will give you clarity and confidence in crafting a brighter future for your church or denomination through multiplying healthy cross-cultural church partnerships.

Register Now

You'll have access to a multi-faceted learning experience combining online videos, cohort-based coaching, case study interviews and peer networking.  

You'll receive this information on a digestible schedule, moving you beyond mere cognitive understanding to successful implementation.

You'll be part of a six-month small group Coaching Cohort, in addition to ongoing learning and networking resources.

You'll be provided with 3-5 hours of fresh content each month,  with recordings of all live sessions posted online to fit your busy schedule.

Is your favorite part of a conference
 the keynote speakers, the workshops,
or the people you meet in the lobby?

 

Coalition members receive access to: 

The Merging Streams Forum
(the keynote speakers)

Monthly live interviews with
diverse, cutting-edge practitioners

Cohort-based coaching

(the interactive part of the workshops)

with a small group of peer practitioners

Our signature online course 
(video workshops)

Building Healthy
Cross-Cultural Partnerships

The Merging Streams Network
(the people you meet
in the lobby)

Networking opportunities with an interactive community of multicultural peer practitioners 

Individual coaching

(one-on-one in the online cafe)

with our Executive Director, focused on your local ministry implementation

Community prayer

(a monthly online gathering)

asking God to multiply healthy cross-cultural partnerships nationally

I’m in a place where I want to be listened to.  But I also realize I need to be learning.  So the combination of individual coaching, group discussions, and video lessons has been a great fit for me. 

 

- Russell Mann, Cross-Cultural Student Minister, Central Baptist Church, Decatur, Alabama

Register now for the Spring 2024 cohort of
The Merging Streams Coalition

 

Annual membership fee $199
+ Onetime Cohort registration fee $299 

Membership is available at this low price
because of the generous donors of Immigrant Ministry Connections

Register Now $498

 Coalition Members Receive Access to...

 

Building Healthy
Cross-Cultural Church Partnerships

 
A comprehensive digital course for launching and maintaining healthy relationships between churches of different cultural backgrounds

 

Foundational Videos

  • Finding God at Work through Immigration
  • White Supremacy, White Guilt or White Equality?
  • Creating Motivation for Cross-Cultural  Church Partnerships
  • Four Steps to Launch a Healthy Cross-Cultural Church Partnership
  • Three Steps to Maintain a Healthy Cross-Cultural Church Partnership

Posted and Upcoming Videos

  • Migration and Missions in the Bible
  • Developing Collaboration  between Homogenous and Multicultural Churches
  • The Multi-Congregational Church
  • Distinctions between First and Second Generation Immigrants
  • Navigating Organizational Differences between Structured and House Churches
  • Stewarding Your Facility Well

Your Cross-Cultural Partnership Coach,
John Wesley Yoder

 

When I returned to the Minneapolis area after 13 years in Beijing, I discovered that nearby immigrant pastors had planted over 700 churches.  It saddened me that many of these churches were isolated, with little connection to the American church or one another.  I’ve worshipped in over 80 of these churches, taking the pastors to lunch and hearing their stories. At the same time, I’ve been speaking with hundreds of pastors across North America about their relationships with pastors of other cultures.

I gradually discovered principles that cultivate healthy cross-cultural church partnerships. As I shared these principles, most pastors were hearing them for the first time.  My practice of individual pastoral coaching developed into small group cohort coaching. It also led to working with denominational leaders for the multiplication of cross-cultural partnerships.  I’ve designed The Merging Streams Coalition not only as a place for pastors and denominational leaders to receive coaching, but also to share their stories, resources, networks and prayer support.

 

You can learn more of my history and credentials in the About Us section of this website.

As a missions pastor, I have had the privilege of watching John Yoder develop into an expert and leading voice in the area of cross-cultural church partnerships.

 

- Chaz Nichols, Asia Director, Converge International Ministries

Your Cross-Cultural Partnership Coach,
John Wesley Yoder

 

When I returned to the Minneapolis area after 13 years in Beijing, I discovered that nearby immigrant pastors had planted over 700 churches.  It saddened me that many of these churches were isolated, with little connection to the American church or one another.  I’ve worshipped in over 80 of these churches, taking the pastors to lunch and hearing their stories. At the same time, I’ve been speaking with hundreds of pastors across North America about their relationships with pastors of other cultures.

I gradually discovered principles that cultivate healthy cross-cultural church partnerships. As I shared these principles, most pastors were hearing them for the first time.  My practice of individual pastoral coaching developed into small group cohort coaching. It also led to working with denominational leaders for the multiplication of cross-cultural partnerships.  I’ve designed The Merging Streams Coalition not only as a place for pastors and denominational leaders to receive coaching, but also to share their stories, resources, networks and prayer support.

 

You can learn more of my history and credentials in the About Us section of this website.

 

 Live Practitioner Interview Lineup

Spring 2024

April 2024

Ed Kang

 Director, Acts 2 Network
Planting Multicultural Churches through International Student Ministry

May 2024

Jim Olson

 

Pastor, Bethel Christian Fellowship, St. Paul, MN (retired)

The Journey from Monocultural to Multicultural to Multi-Congregational Church

June 2024

Adam Ramirez 

Pastor of smalltown Latino churches across the Upper Midwest

Planting Immigrant Churches across Small-Town America

Previous Interviews available in the Video Vault

 Emanuel Roque

Hispanic Multicultural Catalyst, Florida Baptist Convention

 Current Trends in Latino Disciple Making

Ebenezer Endiryas

Podcaster, Shaping the Culture
Pastor, Perazim Church, Bloomington, MN
Realities of Pastoring
the Second Generation

Sam Chacko

Project Manager, Stadia Church Planting

Pastor, Loft City Church, Richardson, TX

Rewards and Struggles of Pastoring
a Multiethnic Church

The live practitioner interviews alone are worth the price of the Coalition!

 

- Clare Jewell, Executive Director for Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, EveryEthne

It's not just about you

 

Your church, your denomination, and the Body of Christ desperately need Christian leaders who know how to build solid, trusting relationships with believers of other cultures, and to nurture those relationships into productive joint ministries.

Membership in The Merging Streams Coalition will give you clarity and confidence in crafting a brighter future for your church or denomination through multiplying healthy cross-cultural church partnerships.

In my role of coaching American and immigrant churches in building partnerships, I’ve never had time to write down my insights for the benefit of others. 

 

Now that I’ve joined The Merging Streams Coalition, I find that all my ideas have already been articulated.  I’m definitely recommending the Coalition to other pastors in my District.  Thank you John for designing these materials!

 

- Vue Lee, Assistant to the President for Missions, South Minnesota District, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod

Can your church or denomination afford for you
to not invest 3-5 hours per month
sharpening your cross-cultural partnership skills? 

Register now for the Spring 2024 cohort of
The Merging Streams Coalition

 

Annual membership fee $199
+ Onetime Cohort registration fee $299 

Membership is available at this low price
because of the generous donors of Immigrant Ministry Connections

Register Now $498

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

 

One simple definition of Christian discipleship is keeping in step with the Spirit.  That means occasionally looking up from our own preoccupations to observe what God is doing around us.  As Henry Blackaby famously said, Watch to see where God is working and join Him in His work.

 

Over the past decades, God has brought millions of devout Christians from around the world to the United States.  This presents us with the opportunity to experience a fresh outpouring similar to the Day of Pentecost, when the Spirit simultaneously began a new work among 16 ethnicities, among men and women, among young and old, all in one accord. 

 

The Body of Christ in America is the world’s largest and most diverse. Building and maintaining loving relationships across cultures will be complicated and messy. But in churches who have formed healthy cross-cultural partnerships, I have observed a new harvest of the Spirit fruits of love, joy, peace, and more.

What new work is God doing in your community?  What would it look like to join Him in that work?

 

May God guide you into unexpected ways of keeping in step with His Spirit—and with His Bride.

Return to Coalition Registration

 

One simple definition of Christian discipleship is keeping in step with the Spirit.  That means occasionally looking up from our own preoccupations to observe what God is doing around us.  As Henry Blackaby famously said, Watch to see where God is working and join Him in His work.

 

Over the past decades, God has brought millions of devout Christians from around the world to the United States.  This presents us with the opportunity to experience a fresh outpouring similar to the Day of Pentecost, when the Spirit simultaneously began a new work among 16 ethnicities, among men and women, among young and old, all in one accord. 

 

The Body of Christ in America is the world’s largest and most diverse. Building and maintaining loving relationships across cultures will be complicated and messy. But in churches who have formed healthy cross-cultural partnerships, I have observed a new harvest of the Spirit fruits of love, joy, peace, and more.

What new work is God doing in your community?  What would it look like to join Him in that work?

 

May God guide you into unexpected ways of keeping in step with His Spirit—and with His Bride.

Return to Coalition Registration