Intercultural Church: A Utopian Ideal or a Gospel of Hope?

An intercultural church, where people from different cultural backgrounds form one community and aims to create a new reality through mutually enriching and challenging interactions, is presented as one of the new ecclesiological alternatives in today’s multicultural situation. However, the fact that this intercultural church is an “intentional” faith-based communal project may raise the question of whether it is a utopian endeavor to dream of an ideal community in this world. Is the intercultural church a utopian ideal or a gospel of hope? What is the motivation and basis for which it is pursued? While considering the ambiguity of the term ‘utopian,’ this paper attempts to find the answer to this questions. And as a conclusion, it argues that an intercultural church should be understood not as a utopian ideal, but as a gospel of hope.