How do we live with our social identity and not deny who we are culturally, while at the same time recognize that our spiritual identity must take precedence over any cultural or ethnic allegiance? This is the challenge that missionaries and mission organizations face today. The issue before us is to understand how we can celebrate cultural diversity as an expression of God's creation in the body of Christ, without that diversity degenerating into ethnic rivalries within our mission organizations and our churches. This article explores the issues of identity and ethnicity as they relate to mission and the church, and makes four recommendations for a way forward through the ethnicity maze.
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