Building Bridges, Not Barriers: A Gospel-Centered Approach to Immigrant Ministry with Rick & Patti Love

Welcome back to the unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Rick and Patti Love, founders of the organizations Love New Canadians and Love New Internationals. These ministries equip churches to serve new immigrants, refugees, and international students in their neighborhoods. Since 2014 Rick and Patti Love have worked with more than 700 churches and ministries in 20 countries around the world, helping churches develop pathways to Jesus for immigrants in their neighborhood.

Is your church eager to make a meaningful impact in your community, but you’re unsure where to start? Have you considered reaching out to the immigrants living right in your neighborhood? Tune in to learn how your church can be more intentional and welcoming to this often-overlooked group of people.

• Do the research and know your community. // Many churches either fail to recognize the growing immigrant population in their community or feel overwhelmed about where to start. Others may be hesitant to reach out to immigrants due to cultural differences or fear of unintentionally offending newcomers. Do the research and get to know the community around you. Intentionally engage with immigrants by offering structured programs rather than relying solely on casual personal connections.
• Start with friendship. // Rick and Patti developed a three-stage model which helps churches create structured pathways through which they can connect with and serve immigrants. Stage one focuses on friendship and helping immigrants settle into their new communities through social programs with little to no spiritual content. It might include offering programs such as ESL classes, employment classes, citizenship classes, cultural celebrations and field trips. Consider the skills and hobbies of your church members and how they could be used in classes or events. The key is to create environments where immigrants feel welcomed and supported.
• Use the life and teachings of Jesus. // Stage three focuses on more spiritual elements like church worship service, Alpha, small groups, and ESL bible studies. But bridging stage one and stage three is stage two, a class for the spiritually curious. Stage two is a weekly pre-evangelistic class in which immigrants study something about culture, read a gospel text, do a vocabulary lesson based on words read from that text, and then participate in discussion questions. The class uses the life and teachings of Jesus to help us understand the immigrants by asking them about their lives and how it connects with what they are reading in the gospel text.
• ESL and hobbies. // Churches can get creative about how they want to connect with immigrants. Aside from focusing on needs such as citizenship or employment, consider hobbies and common interests that could also be used in conjunction with ESL, such as baking, music, gardening, weddings and more.
• Leading an effective immigrant ministry. // The need for ministries serving immigrants will continue to grow and churches can play a vital role in making their communities more welcoming and supportive. Remove barriers such as complicated registration processes. Don’t turn people away because a program is full or because of how they look or dress. Be respectful of different cultural backgrounds and language proficiency levels. Small-group discussions, rather than large lectures, foster friendships and create opportunities for the students to talk and interact. Many of the best volunteers are immigrants themselves, offering empathy and firsthand experience.

Visit Love New Internationals or Love New Canadians for help ministering to immigrants at your church. Plus, download the Intercultural Ministries Pathway Diagram which Rick talks about.

EXTRA CREDIT // Get the Welcoming Checklist for Newcomers!

Is your church truly welcoming to newcomers, especially those from immigrant communities? To help you put insights from Rick and Patti’s podcast into action, we’ve created the Welcoming Checklist for Newcomers—a practical guide designed to help church leaders evaluate, plan, and implement best practices that foster a welcoming and inclusive environment.

• Equip your team with cultural awareness & hospitality training
• Make first visits meaningful with translation services & newcomer connection points
• Foster deeper community through mentorship, small groups & outreach events
• Extend hospitality beyond Sunday by partnering with local organizations
• Create lasting change with feedback loops & ongoing learning

Welcoming isn’t just a moment—it’s a mindset and a ministry. This checklist will help your church reflect the Kingdom of God and embrace the diverse people He brings into your congregation.

Click here to join unSeminary’s Extra Credit and get instant access to this resource!

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Episode Transcript

Rich Birch — Hey friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. So glad that you’ve decided to tune in. Really looking forward to today’s conversation. Today’s topic is one of those things, it’s literally in the news, it might be every day of the week. Like if it’s not every day of the week, it’s it’s four out of five days of the week. And today we’re talking with some incredible experts that are going to help us think about how our churches can lean in on a real issue that is facing in our communities in a way that we can lean in and ultimately point people towards ah Jesus. Excited to have Rick and Patti Love with us. ah They lead an organization called Love New Canadians.

Rich Birch — Now wait, Americans, do not turn off. Stay tuned. Because you’re going to want to learn listen ah in. It’s a ministry that equips local churches to serve new immigrants, new Canadians in their neighborhoods ah to be more intentionally welcoming with immigrants, refugees and international students. ah Rick and Patti are just incredible folks and excited to have them on the call today. Welcome. So glad you’re here.

Rick and Patti Love — Thanks for having us. Great to be here. Yeah.

Rich Birch — Now, before we get rolling, again, I said, I joked there about our American friends. So friends, if you’re listening in, you know, this, this organization, Love New Canadians, obviously is focused on helping Canadians. But I think it’s important, obviously, not just as a Canadian, but as a leader who served for a long time in the States. It’s important that we learn from other leaders in Canada. Frankly, in some ways, it’s like Canada is a few steps ahead on issues like this. And I think Love New Canadians is the kind of thing that ah that you should be listening to and learning from Rick and Patti. ah So so don’t don’t, I know I made that joke, but please don’t, don’t you need to tune in and be here for the day. So Rick, why don’t we start by kind of telling us about the organization, tell us what you do, give us a bit of the history, that sort of thing.

Rick Love — Sure. Well, my wife started at our church, this ministry, 18 years ago.

Rich Birch — Love it.

Rick Love — And she was she was just trying to connect with immigrants in the neighborhood. And she has training as an ESL teacher. So that’s where she started. And our first class, we had five volunteers and two students every week.

Rick Love — We weren’t sure if anyone was going to show up.

Rich Birch — Love it. That’s a good ratio.

Rick Love — So we just kept working on making those connections because we always want to have a conversation with immigrants in the neighborhood we never met before. And over the time the ministry is growing. It’s grown phenomenally well in our church. Last last Last fall we had an average of 480 students and volunteers coming to our ESL classes each week.

Rich Birch — Wow. Wow.

Rick Love — 10 years ago, we started Love New Canadians to help other churches develop pathways to Jesus for immigrants who were right in their neighbourhood. So we we have we focus on coaching, curriculum and seminars, webinars, ah using the resources we’ve developed ah through this ministry in the last 18 years.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s so good. Patti, you know, I