Living and Working in A Multicultural Context

Capital Fellows
Apr 17
5 min read

By Koh Fleming

Yesterday, I was sitting on the metro on the way to work, and being the nosy person I am, I was looking (or trying) to read over the shoulder of the person next to me, who was reading a Korean novel. The guy in front of me was scrolling on his phone, reading a religious text that looked like the Quran or another Islamic text in Arabic. Bummer I couldn’t be nosy because I cannot read in either of those languages, but I was thinking about this norm in the area, where everyday moments reveal the global diversity and cities compress cultures into shared spaces.

In Monday night roundtables, our discussion has shifted from service and community to leadership, and experiences of realities like this also raise an important question: “how do you lead in a multicultural context?” Diverse communities bring enormous richness, but they also bring complexity, and Owen raised in life and leadership last night, the challenge that church communities face in fostering diverse congregations. Why is unity so difficult?

One place this theme came up was during roundtable discussions around a passage from Hebrews. Hebrews 10:24–25 (paraphrased) says:

“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds… and encourage one another.”

The author does not simply say that love and good works will naturally emerge in a Christian community. Instead, he says we must consider (John Kyle really emphasized this word) how to encourage them. The word suggests attentiveness, and that unity and encouragement require effort. In other words, Christian community is not passive; this reflection full circle connected to the fellows’ discussions and efforts in serving one another over the past few weeks, which has been refreshing, and how we are required to be a people who actively look for ways to build one another up. This theme came up again in Rob’s sermon this past Sunday. He talked about how turbulence is not just something airplanes experience, but it is something communities experience as well, and still the instruction given to the early church in Philippians was simple: stand firm. He makes it clear that standing firm cannot happen alone. The church must also stand together. I think it is so funny that individuals got personally called out by Paul in their disagreements and now they are stuck in the Bible, but they are not defined by their differences, failures, or the conflict but by their shared identity in Christ.

Paul, writing to the church in Philippi, describes fellow believers with language that is deeply personal: “brothers,” “beloved,” “my joy.” These are not distant relationships, they are bonds of genuine care. Leadership in multicultural environments, necessitates the same posture some I of which I have learned from my fellow community over the past weeks: joyful humility (LJ talks about this in his recent blog), curiosity about Christ and by relation, the stories of others who are his creation (Jessie wrote about this a bit in her recent blog), and remembering that God is patient (Jessica mentioned this recently in a blog too) and by relation we should patient with one another.

Maybe that is part of what leadership in a multicultural context ultimately looks like. It is not the elimination of differences or disagreements, but the commitment to remain rooted in something deeper than them. The early church faced turbulence, cultural diversity, and even internal conflict, yet they were continually called back to the same posture: stand firm and stand together. The question for Christian communities is not whether diversity exists, but how we live faithfully within it. Perhaps the answer begins where Hebrews points us: considering how to spur one another on toward love and good deeds, and choosing to encourage one another along the way. In communities shaped by different stories and experiences, unity may not be automatic, but rather with humility, patience, and genuine care.

Koh-William Fleming is a member of the Capital Fellows class of 2025-26. He is from Tokyo, Japan, and is a graduate of Covenant College. This year, he is working at the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities in Arlington, VA.

Pictures From The Week

Know a Potential Capital Fellow?

If you know a college senior or recent graduate who should consider joining the Capital Fellows program in 2026-27, please encourage them to get in touch with us. The easiest way to express interest in the program is through our Contact Us Form. You can learn more about the program, including application deadlines, by visiting the Capital Fellows website.

About Capital Fellows. Capital Fellows is an advanced leadership and discipleship program for recent college graduates. Through graduate courses, a paid internship, one-on-one mentoring, and many leadership and community service opportunities, fellows develop and apply their gifts in real-world situations while learning to integrate a Christian worldview into all areas of life. Capital Fellows is a unique opportunity to live and work in the Washington DC area and to be an active member of a supportive community that seeks to serve the city with the love of Christ. It is also a unique opportunity to get hands-on experience in the workplace while deeply exploring God’s design for us as workers and contributors to human flourishing.

Pray for the Capital Fellows

Thank you for praying for the Capital Fellows each week!

In the spring semester, each fellow is asked to write a paper for Dr. Bill Fullilove’s class on a topic that they are personally sorting and that has been the subject of debate in the church. These papers can be hard to write because they are not just intellectual exercises, but a matter of the heart. Please pray for the fellows as they work through the questions, doubts, and debates of these topics. May God bless them with a deep sense of his closeness as they step into topics that are hard and possibly confusing. Perhaps the most amazing part of this work is not the papers and topics themselves, but that God invites us to ask our questions, to wonder about things, and to seek wisdom in his Word.

Want to learn more about Season 19? Click the button below to read through their bios!

Meet the Fellows

About The Fellows Initiative

Capital Fellows is part of a network of similar programs across the country. This network is called The Fellows Initiative. There are 34 Fellows programs in TFI, roughly 3,200 alumni living around the world, and more Fellows programs on the way.

If you know a church in the US or Canada that would benefit from joining TFI by launching a new Fellows program. Please contact TFI by visiting their website.

Don't Miss a Blog Post!

Sign up for the Capital Fellows blog email! Emails are sent weekly during the program year. An unsubscribe link is provided in every email.