Who is Excluded: A Missionary's Perspective

As a Missionary-Pastor still learning the ins-and-outs of the North Kona Mission Zone, I refer repeatedly to a document about assessing the community.  This document aids in contextualizing the Gospel for our neighbors and develops the groundwork for the church to be pointed out in Mission with God.  The community assessment asks a range of questions, but one of these is simply, "Who is excluded?"  We want to know who has been marginalized and pushed to the outer boundaries of the dominant culture.  We want to know the mechanisms of social exclusion and the systems that perpetuate such isolation.  Once we have diagnosed this reality we can better attend to the needs of the community.

I knew that Hawaii County was diverse; that Hawaii as a state is the only state that doesn't have a white majority, and that multiculturalism is generally "valued."  I also knew that our church was uniquely located in a neighborhood of lower-class working minorities with several Section 8 Housing Developments.  But valuing diversity is a bit shaky in practice.  For instance, the Marshallese Community in Ocean View grew dramatically after first exploring the Kona Coast and feeling rejected by their neighbors.  According to the Hawaii Immigration Specialist, Mexicans are extremely prone to racial profiling.  And, immigrant labor is still exploited for agricultural needs.  

Many of us know the Biblical call to treat the sojourner in your midst with dignity and justice (Lv. 25:23; Dt. 24:14).  Scripture is clear that the way we treat the stranger/foreigner should reflect the grace and liberating action of God, who rescued the people of Israel from slavery.  The repeated phrase is, "because you were once aliens and strangers in a land not your own," meaning Egypt.  Or, if we were to contextualize this, because my white ancestors once fled religious persecution.  This call of scripture could be modified to simply say, "Practice Hospitality" (Romans 12).  

When we look at some of those mechanisms that cause social exclusion, we can't get far without talking about fear of difference.  Humans have an almost innate ability to congregate with similar people.  When factors like militaristic, economic, and political forces push people from the land they desire to dwell to a land not of their choosing, communal resistance bubbles up in the host community.  Christine Pohl puts it this way, 

Complaints surface today in communities in the United States that perceive immigrants or refugees as threats to the local economy or community identity. People proclaim that there is 'no more room' when they feel overwhelmed by cultural difference or socio-economic need, or when they feel threatened by the increasing power of strangers who have come. Strangers are than recast as enemies, threats to the community (Making Room, 99).

Now, as a Missionary-Pastor in an extremely diverse community with a host of spiritual, physical, and emotional needs, I wonder what it would take to organize communities of hospitality in which isolation and fear are met with belonging and understanding.  Is this best done through diversity in worship; developing smaller family-esque communities; training local leaders in particular ethnic groups for various church plants; forming an immigrant welcoming team; all of the above?  I can't wait to find out!