Designing Worship For Multiethnic Churches Part II -- By: Ken L. Davis
Journal: Journal of Ministry and Theology
Volume: JMAT 08:2 (Fall 2004)
Article: Designing Worship For Multiethnic Churches Part II
Author: Ken L. Davis
JMAT 8:1 (Fall 2004) p. 109
Designing Worship For Multiethnic Churches Part II
Director of Church Planting
Baptist Bible Seminary, Clarks Summit, PA
Fostering A Shared Story
In a multicultural congregation, for deep unity to be experienced in the midst of great diversity, the people must work together to develop a common memory, a “shared story.” While there may be a few initial worship elements they all hold in common as children of God, members of a multicultural church may not share a mutual understanding of the best and more “appropriate” ways to honor and praise God. Thus it is vital they develop and foster a common worship culture. Researcher Kathy Black comments on the value of this “third” culture:
While experts in the area of congregational studies assert that every congregation has its own “culture,” this concept takes on a slightly different meaning in multiethnic congregations that take seriously the cultures represented by the various members. By all sharing their cultures, their histories and faith journeys, as well as the ways they traditionally praise God and the ways that God inspires them through certain songs and prayer forms, a “third” culture emerges out of shared memories that blends elements from each of the cultures present.1
We have already noted that the proper goal for “integrated multiracial churches” to pursue is the creation of a new mestizaje congregational culture—a uniquely new culture that relies on the distinctiveness of each representative culture to create a blended hybrid culture. The concept of mestizaje is deeply understood by Mexicans and Mexican Americans: it is the “blending” of Native (Indian) and Spanish peoples to create a “mestizo” people and
JMAT 8:1 (Fall 2004) p. 110
culture, one that preserves “aspects of their individual cultural pasts but [has] also internalized aspects of the culture of the other.”2 Culturally sensitive worship works in a similar way.
To facilitate the emergence of this “third” culture, leaders of a multiethnic church must discover ways to take the various individual stories shared by all and build a new common story. This is what happened at Pentecost. People from different countries and cultures, touched by the Holy Spirit, learned to listen sensitively to one another and to learn from one another.3 Jews and Gentiles, with little in common, discovered how to foster a close community in the midst of their great diversity. One of the keys to their unity: they began worsh...
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