When Heaven and Earth Collide with Alan Cross

Clarkston, Georgia has been called the "most diverse square mile" in America. Pastor Trent DeLoach of Clarkston International Bible Church, talks about how a church that was struggling as the community experienced dramatic demographic change in the 1990s, transitioned to embrace the change and reach the nations moving in next door and across the street. With over 50 languages spoken and 90+ nations represented, Clarkston IS the world. 

We talk about things like, how do we develop multiethnic churches, how do ethnic congregations partner together, how to share space, how to grow through diversity across languages, how to map your community to identify immigrant groups, and how to pray for and reach the home countries of the people in your community?

Clarkston International Bible Church has become a ministry hub of the North American Mission Board (SBC) to help churches across the country learn how to minister to and engage refugee communities. You can follow the church online at http://cibcfamily.com

Senior Pastor of Summit Church, JD Greear, and Missions Pastor, Todd Unzicker, talk about the big picture of immigrant/refugee ministry as well as the nuts and bolts of the why and how of engaging in Diaspora Missions. Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, NC, is a leader in how a local church can impact the world from right where they are. They also consider how to confront obstacles to engaging the nations around us from personal objections to politics with a central focus on Christ and His call to us to love our neighbors and take the gospel to them. These interviews were taken in the Summer of 2016, but they are incredibly relevant today - perhaps even more so. 

Meet Erick, brought to the U.S. at two years old illegally by his parents from Mexico. Erick did not know about his undocumented status until he was around eleven years old. He is pursuing graduate level education on DACA and is concerned about what his future might hold. Through it all, he trusts in Christ and seeks to follow God. 

Pastor David Crosby is pastor of First Baptist Church, New Orleans. In this podcast interview from June 2016 at the Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis, he talks about what it is like to engage in immigrant ministry in New Orleans, the need for immigrants to be able to report crimes committed against them, loving your neighbor, supporting local police in helping make our communities safer through humane immigration policy - and he even talks about whether or not we need a wall and how pastors can lead their churches to minister to immigrants wherever they are. 

Vance Pittman, pastor of Hope Church in Las Vegas, Nevada, talks about how we are to intentionally reach the immigrants, refugees, and people from all over the world in our communities with the gospel and then speak on their behalf. 

Dr. Matthew Hall on living and ministering as exiles in the midst of empire where we find our primary identity in Christ instead of in the world. This will enable us to live according to the Cross and love and minister to the most vulnerable around us, including immigrants and sojourners. 

In this podcast, Dr. Bruce Ashford of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, explains how God is working even in the upheaval and movement of peoples around the world to bring worship to Himself from among the nations. In the midst of sorrow and difficulty, God is still at work in the lives of immigrants and refugees.  

In this interview with Ed Stetzer, we discuss changing demographics in America, how the nations of the world have come to us, and how the church is to respond to immigrants and refugees with the gospel according to the mission of God. 

This podcast interview with Pastor Bryant Wright of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia, explores refugee ministry from a gospel and local church perspective.