Season 2 Episode 13 – The Beauty of the Local Church through Diversity with Soon Pak & Rufus Smith (Part 1)

Introduction: During today’s episode, we talk about key factors of diversity in the local church, and how Revelation 7:9 is molded into Christ’s Church. We have used the term throughout the episode of diversity to point to the more biblical word would be unity. This has really been a discussion about unity and Christ, and I think will be helpful food for thought. Not that everybody would agree with all the points we made, but essentially, it gives us some ability to have a civil and yet a Christian candid discussion about unity in the body of Christ. So I think this dialogue on this podcast will give a format for discussing in the light of unity in John 17.

Co Hosts: Rev. Rufus Smith, IV is the Senior Pastor of Hope Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) in Memphis, Tennessee,a mega Presbyteriancongregation. Over the past 8 years, Hope EPC has transitioned from a pre-dominantly Caucasian to a multi-ethnic church in the deep south, with 30% of members being people of color. In 2016,he Founded the Memphis Christian Pastor’s Network (MCPN)an ethnically & denominationally diverseclergy-onlynetwork. MCPN “bridges the trust-gap”between pastors via candid conversation, supplication, and social interaction—outside of church walls. Cultivating greater trust enables this consortium of 57 pastors to strategically collaborate and leverage their influence to close the “economic disparity gap”in our beloved city.

Rev. Soon Pak is the Pastor of Discipleship at Ward Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Northville, MI, a suburb of Detroit. He attended Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando for his Masters in Divinity and is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Ministry in Adaptive Leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary. He’s been married to Erin for almost fourteen years and have three children, Levi, 7, Titus, 6, and Abigail, 3, and is expecting another son in February.

Ministry to Sponsor: Bucketlist Travels –Are you or your congregation considering taking a trip to the Holy Land? I urge you to contact Christy Lundy with Bucket List Travels for your travel itinerary and planning from A to Z. Christy can be reached on Facebook or email

World Outreach with the EPCis the mission sending agency of theEvangelical Presbyterian Church. Our principal calling is to glorify God by starting disciple-making movements among least-reached people groups, especially among Muslims.

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