Our Story
In January of 2004 a group of largely 1.5 and 2nd generation Korean Americans in Minneapolis was blessed by our “mother church” to launch a multicultural community called Church of All Nations. No one knew if 100 mostly young people with a Korean immigrant background could actually become a Church of All Nations; many thought the name was a bit premature, if not presumptuous.
Our central mission is to do the ministry of reconciliation, and it is happening in all kinds of wonderful ways here. For instance, in January of 2006 we moved from our “mother church” to a declining white congregation with plenty of space. We rented for a few months, but then Shiloh Bethany Presbyterian Church asked if they might merge with us. At the end of July they had a congregational dissolution after being founded in 1884, and their members joined Church of All Nations, handing us the keys to the building. Incidentally, 1884 is the year that Protestant (Presbyterian and Methodist) missionaries first arrived on the shores of Korea. So we came full circle, historically speaking. One of the key reasons for this union was the growing recognition of the need to be a new kind of church for an increasingly multicultural population in Columbia Heights and the entire Twin Cities area. Church of All Nations fit that need very well.
We witness many signs of growth in our midst, but the most important thing is that people are filled with joy, hope and genuine love for each other across all kinds of lines, crossing barriers erected by church and society, history and culture. The culture of public confession, corporate repentance, joyful celebration and vulnerable relationality that we have cultivated here is key to understanding the dynamism and eschatological hope evident in our life together.
We live in the time between the “already” and “not yet”. Our church also sees itself between Pentecost in Acts 2 and the coming kingdom in Rev. 7, when all nations, tribes and tongues will glorify God together in one voice. We feel called to be an ecumenical church that embodies the major spiritual roots of the early church – to be simultaneously Rational, Sacramental and Pentecostal. We are also convinced that only intentional movement away from rigid denominationalism toward visible unity will lead the global church to recover its identity as one, holy, catholic and apostolic. We are a high-risk, low-anxiety church where anything is possible, including the possibility of failure. The only poverty we fear is the poverty of imagination. We feel so blessed with God’s abundance and grace. With humans, this is impossible. Thanks be to God who makes all things possible!