For Mathew Kuruvilla, the Senior Pastor of Parkside Church in Sydney’s Edensor Park, worshipping alongside people spanning fifty nationalities is not only necessary because of multiculturalism. It is what God desires.

“From the very beginning, God said to Abraham: ‘I will bless you and you will be a blessing to all of the nations’ (Gen 12:3). Even go back to creation, and see that God created everyone in his image,” Kuruvilla says. “If I have that kind of mindset, then I need to show love to other people. I need to welcome those people as part of my family.” Kuruvilla points to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, as well as the church at Antioch, as examples of “multi-ethnic churches”.

Although the White Australia policy was officially abolished in 1973, Kuruvilla believes it still pervades the Australian psyche; particularly among Christians. In his church of 500 however, mono-ethnicity does not have a place.

The fifty flags hanging in Parkside Church hail from all different parts of the world and make Kuruvilla someone worth hearing when it comes to the subject of building a church for “all nations”. Given the growth of immigration in Australia, such churches are no longer optional. The 2011 census shows that 37.7 percent of Australians were born overseas.

In Sydney, Perth, and Melbourne, more people have both parents born overseas than born in Australia. The Australian newspaper recently summarised the ever-changing Australian cultural landscape well: “The figures confirm our national story – we are a nation of immigrants and increasingly those immigrants are from our region.”

In September, Parkside Church is hosting the inaugural On Earth as it is in Heaven multi-ethnic church conference, featuring eight speakers, most of them Australian. One of the speakers from the United States is Mark Deymaz, who was approached by Rick Warren from Saddleback Church to present the conference at Saddleback. Kuruvilla will also speak at Saddleback, where the leadership – who have led the world in church growth strategies – have realised they’ve not thought enough about creating a multi-ethnic church.

When Kuruvilla first went to Edensor Park in 1989, the church was tiny, mostly Anglo-Celtic, and did not represent the 70 or so nationalities in his area. Kuruvilla was convinced of the need for inclusive churches, so he gave “a lot of time” to teaching the small congregation on, “What is the nature of the church”? He recalls, “Then we said: ‘Look, if the church is supposed to reach people of all nations, [and] that’s what the Bible says – “My house will be a house of prayer for all nations” (Isa 56:7); “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19), and there’ll be people from “every nation, tribe, and language” (Rev 5:9) in heaven – then the church needs to do that.”

Kuruvilla began looking at statistics of his local area which confirmed his assumptions about its diversity.

After sharing the demographics with his congregation, Kuruvilla organised a sign promoting: “We welcome all nations” for the church’s front. He and his wife went doorknocking, handing out bus and train timetables to new residents and inviting them to the church. In a demountable, the church began operating a preschool which led to many attending church meetings.

These days, they have a permanent building with a mosque behind it and a Buddhist temple next door. The church is reaching many second and third generation migrants who can speak English fluently. All the services are held in English.

Often new arrivals to Australia are among the most receptive to the gospel. Many of the church’s members come from non-Christian backgrounds. Parkside Church runs its own cafe where different cultural groups share the cooking each week. The church’s activities intentionally mix the various groups together – Bible studies are multi-ethnic, as is the music team.

Kuruvilla doesn’t believe many parts of Australia are exclusively mono-cultural these days. “How many places don’t have a Chinese restaurant?” He predicts that churches who operate with a mono-cultural approach will not have a future. “Mono-ethnic churches will die.” Kuruvilla believes churches are not flourishing because too many are exclusive communities where those who are of a different skin colour feel out of place.

“You look at the church growth in Australia – it’s pretty bad. They’re not growing – they’re dying.” Multi ethnic churches, Mathew Kuruvilla believes – and not only for his context – are “the way to do it”.