What is the difference between integration and assimilation?

Part of my role as a deaconess at St. John’s is to find ways to better integrate newcomers into the life and ministry of our congregation. This stems from both my passion and my past study of the topic. To complete my studies at Concordia Seminary St. Louis, I chose to write on the topic of integration. Since American culture is shifting (or maybe even ‘has already shifted’) away from being church-centered, this is an important topic for churches to be intentional about.

In my academic work on this topic, the process was formerly referred to as assimilation. Those studying this topic have pivoted to instead refer to it as integration. This change emphasizes a small but important difference in the attitude behind how newcomers are brought into a congregation. 

Both ‘assimilation’ and ‘integration’ refer to bringing a group of people together. Assimilation implies bringing people in to make them like the others. Integration infers that both the newcomers and current members are being melded together and will likely need to make adjustments. Traditionally, it makes sense in a church context for newcomers to be assimilated rather than integrated. So, why is there a call for integration rather than assimilation?

When people are assimilated, the individuality, character, and heritage of a newcomer are often disregarded for the sake of having everyone on the same page or continuing traditions. This can be harmful when the surrounding community that is being witnessed to no longer matches the culture within the church. This is what’s happening all over the nation – as more people grow up and move further out from the town their church is in, but continue to attend the same church, the neighborhood around the church often looks less and less like those long-time members.

Integration, on the other hand, is bringing people into shared participation to create the whole. This takes into account that all people in the community have a part in creating the whole, so the unique attributes of each person are included in the whole of the community. The community as a whole doesn’t change in appearance by one new person, but both the community and the individual are interacting with and influencing each other. This also includes an underlying understanding that the church is already a whole body of the church (as described in 1 Cor. 12:12–27). Therefore, when a person is integrated into a church, they are being added as a functional member of the existing body of faith.

Next month: How can a congregation like St. John’s integrate new members well?