Growing up in the Midwest in the US, I was only acquainted with churches that tended to be ethnically and racially separated. Until God led us into global ministry, I never noticed what I was missing out on. Did unrest and prejudice exist in our host country? Undoubtedly. However, it did not seem to me that distinctions were as pronounced or obvious as they had been where I’d grown up. Especially (and thankfully) not in the church.

I grew to love the diversity of our congregation as I attended worship services each Sunday. Believers from various countries whose first language, for the most part, was Portuguese, gathered on Sunday mornings. Our congregation of people with differing shades of skin praised Jesus together. We greeted each other with beijinhos (little kisses near each cheek) as was customary in Portugal. Our accents, cultural norms and preferences were sometimes on display but at other times they were set aside for the sake of unity in Christ. The Gospel drew us together and captured our focus.

It would not be for several years that we would realize how meeting and loving fellow church members who looked different from us would further prepare us to welcome other ethnicities into our family. Years later, when our daughter and her family moved to London where her husband joined the staff of a large evangelical church, our love for diversity in worship grew even deeper. God’s people from many nations worshipped the living God. You have likely experienced similar joy in your own small or large congregations. Surely heaven will be like this!

“After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. And they were shouting with a great roar, ‘Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!’” Revelation 7:9-10

Unity in Christ will one day be complete as every knee bows and every tongue confesses that He is Lord. May we long for His return and, until He comes, may we joyfully practice unity in worship wherever on this globe God places us!