In Against All Odds, Brad Christenson, Korie L. Edwards, and Michael O. Emerson use case studies of several churches and college ministries to reveal the sociological, economic and cultural effects that make it difficult to create racial integration in religious organizations. These sociological studies reveal that forming multi-ethnic congregations would be difficult without the plethora of ecclesial, theological, and historical issues that have led to the segregation of the church. However, the research from growing intercultural churches in Against All Odds describe and prescribe the goals, successes, and failures of growing multi-thnic churches that can be studied in the construction of future churches and ministries with similar goals. In order to reflect on the writing and content of Against All Odds we must first review the authors’ goal and deem its success. …show more content…
This suggests that one cannot simply find a church location where there will not be any struggle integrating a church. The example of Messiah Fellowship, the small Flipino congregation, faced similar struggles as Brookside Community church, the majority white church which has segregated services. This reveals that people from similar cultures, ethnicities, and socio-economic levels often are drawn to worship communities with people that resemble them. Friendship became a major theme in this book and in many cases people’s close friends did not include much diversity. The authors explain that these friendships often derive from people looking for a church where they fit in. “We found the racial diversity of these organizations complicated the ability to find belonging within them.” This reveals that creating inter-racial groups often causes people to leave what they are most culturally