The Peoples of Nashville 2

The Nashville Baptist Association has self-published a book titled The Peoples of Nashville, providing a glimpse into some of the major people groups living in their city.  This book contains numerous pictures and is highly informative.  It is also very practical in nature–offering ways for churches to minister to the nations living around them.

I recently asked Lewis McMullen, the Association’s Church Planting Strategist, some questions related to this book.

What is the purpose of this book?

“The purpose of the book is to make churches and church members aware of the diversity of the Nashville area. We wanted the book to begin the process of helping people to adopt and engage an unreached people group here in their own neighborhoods. It is our prayer and purpose that churches and Christians will begin to see the need and then take some first steps to begin reaching these groups.”

Who should read this work?

“It is primarily for local Nashville churches and Christians, churches and Christians wanting to engage with unreached people groups here in Nashville, and those who have some of these unreached groups in their areas. I would also recommend it to people wanting to engage with unreached people groups because of some of the introduction materials on Buddhism, Islam,  and Hinduism. We have included in the book some Do’s and Don’t’s with Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists, and some beginning steps on how to engage with unreached people groups.”

What were some of the greatest challenges in putting together a work such as this one?

“There were several:  Putting together a research and writing team with a passion for unreached people groups; researching and mapping out the people group clusters in the area; and following up on the research and interviewing people in these unreached people groups.

Interviewing was especially a challenge because different people in each group had different numbers in their populations and variations on their needs. One challenge was making sure that the book would inform and inspire people to want to engage these people groups.”

Were there any surprises discovered as your team started doing such people group research?

“Nashville has always been known for its Kurdish population. In fact we have an area of the city known as “Little Kurdistan.” We originally believed that they would be our largest unreached group in the Nashville MSA. However, our researched showed that this assumption was wrong. The largest unreached group in the Nashville area is South Asian Indians (approximately 12,000 in population).

The other surprise for our team was the fact that within three of our largest groups, there were strong connections with unreached family members still living overseas. Since missionaries have limited or restricted access to these three groups in their home countries, they could possibly reach into such contexts by reaching those peoples living here.

For example, while doing research for the book, I met a man from the Sudan who trusted Christ as the result of a Christian witness from one of our churches here. This man in turn, shared Christ with his family in the Sudan by email, phone, and the internet. This man’s family members trusted Christ and are now part of a new church being planted within their tribe in the Sudan.

Another surprise we encountered was that 89% of all of our Southern Baptist Churches in the Nashville area had some type of unreached people group living in their church’s geographical area.

However, the greatest surprise was to discover that the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area  ranks 5^th in the nation for the foreign born population.”

What advice would you give to someone in another city wishing to compile such a book for their urban context?

“Build a team that has a passion for this work. It takes numerous hours of interviewing people and detective-type work. The team needs to have a passion to be able to do the work and follow through.

Be prepared to do a great amount of research. Along with interviewing multiple sources, you will need to double-check the information provided. With each group that we wrote about, we had to do follow-up research with at least 5 to 7 sources of information.

Realize that all information collected is fluid. The movement of the urban diaspora is a constant. The population and make-up of different groups change. You must be prepared to monitor those changes and understand the missiological implications of those changes.  I am sure there will be other future books related to the peoples of Nashville as changes take place in the urban area.

Develop partnerships with others who are working with unreached people groups and share insights and information. Along with the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board, our team worked with World Relief and a number of other refugee groups in  determining information and needs.”

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Thank you, Lewis.

Way-to-go Nashville Baptist Association for taking the lead in setting an example for others to follow!

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You need to check out this book and prayerfully consider the possibilities for researching your community, compiling the information into a helpful format, and making it available to the larger Body of Christ.  More and better research is needed for the urban areas of North America.

Some of you reading this post represent the leadership in your mission agency, denomination, or network.  You have the ability to take the lead in this area of research.  I want to encourage you to start that process of working to understand your communities, so you and your churches may begin to see the nations and start ministering to the strangers next door.