A collection of resources from SIL’s Global Diaspora Team to provide ideas and inspiration for churches wanting to engage in diaspora ministry.  See the full document HERE.

Refugee & Immigrant Agencies

Refugee relief and immigrant agencies often accept help from volunteers and organizations to set up apartments for new arrivals and for transportation, etc. as the people adjust to life in a new place. They also accept donations and are often looking for everything an individual or family needs in their house or apartment. Direct contact with these agencies will open up opportunities to serve.

Many cities have networks dedicated to helping connect volunteers and organizations with refugees and immigrants on a friendship basis. Their goal is to help these new neighbors to become self-sufficient and get to know and integrate into their new culture. Churches are well placed to help in these situations. The following link is an example of a city-based organization from Charlotte, North Carolina, https://www.refugeesupportservices.org/about/.  And another example from the Houston Diaspora Coalition. It will be important for a church to work closely with such partners.

Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT): http://evangelicalimmigrationtable.com/

This movement focuses on refugees as well as immigrants. "We are a national movement of Christians committed to learning more about what the Bible says about “welcoming the stranger,” and living out these biblical principles in our churches, our communities, and our nation.”

International Association for Refugees (IAFR): https://iafr.org

• Excellent advice for churches from IAFR’s

“Best Practices for Christian Ministry among Forcibly Displaced People”

• What Local Church Leaders Can Do

• IAFR Toolbox – for many other helpful resources.

Refugee Highway Partnership (RHP): https://www.refugeehighway.net/

• This page is focused particularly on What Churches Can Do.

World Relief: worldrelief.org

• World Relief – Church Leaders Toolkit (PDF), Get church involved (DOC)

Organizations & Churches with a Refugee/Immigrant Focus

The following list is a very small sampling of all the organizations and churches that have some kind of significant ministry to diaspora communities.

International Mission Board (IMB), North America Mission Board (NAMB):

• “Portrait of a Neighborhood” (Clarkston, GA) – NAMB - https://vimeo.com/206110222

• Unreached People Groups of North America database - peoplegroups.info

Global Frontier Missions (gfm): https://globalfrontiermissions.org/start-here-gfm-website/ 

•  “God’s Heart for the Foreigner” (video)

GlobalGates: https://globalgates.info/

Reaching the unreached through global gateway cities.

• Infographic Library: Unreached peoples groups in major cities of N. America

• Resources and videos: https://globalgates.info/resources/#videos 

International Project: https://internationalproject.org/ – church-planting movements through unreached people groups living outside their homelands

• The Foreigner Among Us - a compelling 10-min video.  This video is meant especially to inspire churches to reach out to the foreigners around them, with biblical basis and personal stories.  More broadly focused than just refugees.  Has clips from New York City, Minneapolis, and LA.

Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) – Mission to North America: https://pcamna.org/

The Refugee and Immigrant Ministry is involved in a variety of outreach ministries including ESL, vocational training, legal assistance, etc.

Other Tools and Resources

Diverse resources for the church (includes the UK & Canada)

• welcomechurches.org (UK) – Church-led resource network with vision “for every refugee in the UK to be welcomed by their local church”

• proskuneo.org (US) – experts on multicultural and multilingual worship

• https://brassingtons.wordpress.com/2019/06/01/five-ways-to-use-other-languages-a-bit-in-your-church/ – Five ways to use other languages in our church, includes resources to help you put these simple ideas into practice.

• WelcomeChurch.ca – a network for churches across Canada to join who are ready to welcome newcomers into their community. Providing announcements for events, resource partners, training, and much more; additional resources (such as a video series for your church) available once your church or gathering joins the network. 

• Tyndale Intercultural Ministries Centre – offering lay training, consulting, higher educational opportunities, and research, resources, and networking for church leaders

2015. Finding our Way. Immigrants, Refugees and Canadian Churches. An Interdenominational Guide to Action. 

• Jeannie Marie –  Across the Street and Around the World: Following Jesus to the Nations in your Neighborhood … and Beyond

Selected Bibliography

Introduction to Diaspora

Immigration Issues & Ministry to Refugees

Beyond Hospitality. Migration, Multiculturalism, and the Church. Charles A. Cook, Lauren Goldbeck and Lorajoy Tira-Dimangondayao. 2020. 

This edited volume sees Canada as a mosaic (“where, when intermingled, distinct individual pieces complete the whole”) and challenges the Canadian church to move beyond monocultural approaches to ministry, in light of the country’s migration and multicultural realities. It also seeks to inspire the church to embrace others beyond hospitality, and to bring down barriers of difference. (Missio Nexus)

Seeking Refuge: On the shores of the global refugee crisis. Stephan Bauman, Matthew Soerens, and Dr. Issam Smeir. 2016

Offering the latest statistics (2016), Biblical perspective, hard-hitting challenges to our concerns, clear explanations of the US refugee resettlement system and policies, considerations of refugee trauma, PTSD, & cultural adjustments, a look at root causes of the crisis and policy matters, and, of course, some practical ways the church has and can get involved such as World Relief’s “Good Neighbor Teams”. 

Serving God in a Migrant Crisis: Ministry to people on the move. Patrick Johnstone and Dean Merrill. 2018. 

This is a great book to recommend to the average church-goer in the US or the UK. It’s not too technical, but still supports everything with well researched data. It lays out the argument in three parts: 

• Part 1 “What’s Going On” – overview of migration today and invitation to examine feelings about it

• Part 2 “What to Know” – why people leave, Jesus as refugee, look at policies, and from a Christian perspective, the blessing of immigration

• Part 3 “What to Do” – suggestions for individuals, the church, Christian agencies, and global church

One of the best parts of this book is the accessibility (only 127 pages of easy reading), and the guided questions at the end of each chapter, helping the reader process the information and see how it could apply for them specifically. (Review by Trevor Deck)

 Strangers in the Kingdom. Ministering to Refugees, Migrants and the Stateless. Rupen Das and Brent Hamoud. 2017.

The idea of belonging and the importance of place are central themes of the book and these themes challenge our understanding of citizenship and identity in our world. A global overview includes definitions, a history of major displacements, and some relevant international laws and conventions. Two chapters cover Biblical foundations from the Old and New Testaments. Two more chapters deal with theological and missiological foundations. The final chapter gives specific examples of how churches and other ministries have responded to refugees, migrants and the stateless. (Review by Gordon Williams)

Welcoming the Stranger. Justice, Compassion & Truth in the Immigration Debate. Matthew Sorens and Jenny Yang. 2018.

Sorens and Yang are leaders in World Relief (one of 9 official refugee resettlement agencies in the USA and the only fully evangelical one). In this book, they provide a good, balanced, up-to-date introduction to the complex immigration situation (especially in the US) from a Christian perspective. The book includes a helpful history of US immigration (including refugees), a look at the current system, policies and politics, a review of the value and concerns of immigration, and an examination of the church and a Christian response to the current immigration dilemma. (Reviewed by Gordon Williams)