Recently in Multi-Cultural Ministry Category

My cousin, Sam, (yep, "Sam Ward" is a recurring name in our family tree) is a worship music guy over in Fort Wayne, IN and has an excellent blog that you should all read called Worship360. Please refrain from writing comments about how weird it is that my family produces so many creative types and have a look at Sam's questions and comments in response to the stuff I posted the other day.

Here's a few of Sam's thoughts and my responses. (Dude, this is what I love about blogs!)

"... the question was asked, "How can your church still be recognized as a Presbyterian church?" as if the only distinctive was the version of hymnal in the pews..."

For me this question in the interview seems so odd. Why do we care about being recognized as Presbyterian? Don't we care more about being recognized by a family resemblance to our big brother, Jesus Christ? And isn't racial segregation one of the major signs of hypocrisy that make people reject the church?

"...we are to sacrificially serve each other as Christ did in all areas including our music choices...the way this plays out in a specific congregation might change based on the cultural make-up of the congregation..."

It's true that if your town is all "X" and no "Y" then it would be silly to try to incorporate "Y" style music into your service. But what's God's universal will in this situation. Sam had an excellent post on his blog a few weeks ago about the difference between God's universal will vs. God's individual will (universal will=care for orphans; individual will=adopt an orphan.) God's universal will is that we are all called to break down walls, be reconciled, and love our neighbor (and our enemy). How that looks for individuals will change. We have a sister church in Kenya, New City Fellowship in Nairobi, whose mission is to see Africans and South Asians reconciled in a worshiping community. That's a unique vision that applies in Nairobi but would be kind of weird to attempt in Springfield, USA. I believe that every church is called by God's universal will to humbly and honestly look at themselves and decide if their music planning is intentionally building trust between diverse tribes of people or whether their music planning is just building up taller and thicker walls of division. Mercy, mercy mercy! We can only do this by grace.

"Through my adoption experience, I'm realizing how much we as Christians define ourselves based on physical characteristics. It also seems to me that Paul encourages the church to attempt to avoid those types of classifications such as Jew or Greek, slave or free. So while we are to serve each other sacrificially, are we continuing to define ourselves simply based on biology instead of the spirit who makes us one family?"

Sam, this is a profound statement. Reading through "Adopted For Life" I am growing in my own appreciation for how amazing the doctrine of adoption is for all of us. In fact, this is one of the strongest arguments for reconciliation. We are new creations in Jesus, a family by his grace! However, I don't believe that our adoption creates a "color-blind" church. There's a temptation to say that God doesn't care about race. God made a beautifully diverse world that Revelation 7 shows us will be diverse even in the new heavens and new earth.

"We white members believe that as part of our agenda for reconciliation for the overwhelming oppression of two hundred years and in order that our black members might feel completely trusting, white culture should take a subsidiary role in our worship." - James Ward, Reformed Worship Magazine March 1987.

This statement reflects how I was mentored in the process of reconciliation in worship music. It is a huge part of what has defined the sound of New City Fellowship worship services. It's one of the reasons that NCF churches can feel so incredibly different from their sister churches in the denomination.

There's a few phrases that I particularly like. One is "We white members believe" which reflects a choice to show love, a willing desire to set aside one's preferences in order to reconcile. I also like "in order that our black members might feel completely trusting." Notice that he didn't say "comfortable" or "relevant" or something like that. We are not about making people comfortable; that's not going to happen in a multicultural context. Our desire is that the church become a place where prejudice, fear, and bitterness can be replaced with trust. Good word.

So, what do you think?
Is this Ronald Regan-era statement something that should still define our reconciliation agenda in the age of Barak Obama?
How does this process expand to include the cultures of immigrants and refugees?

Here's two different choirs performing the exact same arrangement of "Mary Did You Know?" One is a black youth choir. The other is an older white choir. Notice the layers and layers of cultural communication that defines each choir: location, attire, phrasing, instrumentation. It's a credit to the composers and arrangers of this song that it could fine a place in such different contexts.

Here's a fun experiment: start the lower video and then at :45 start the top video. It's a mashup! If only the tempos were the same, it would work for the entire tune.

Here's the interview, you should definitely read it. I think they did a great job of representing my dad's vision for worship at NCF-Chatt. Thank you byFaith and Robert J. Tamasy for highlighting the ministries of New City Fellowship churches.

I will say that a consistent misinterpretation of NCF is to say that we are about contextualization. This is a half-truth. Contextualization is to say, "We are in a [random culture] neighborhood and so we have [random culture] style worship." There's nothing wrong with contextualization, but it's not the complete vision. We believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ is by nature a reconciling force. Our new identity in Christ makes us peace-makers across racial, cultural, economic, and generational lines. So our multi-cultural sound is more than just smart marketing, some attempt to reach a demographic group by being relevant. It's an intentional demonstration of love with the goal of establishing God's kingdom. The result is that we are not trying to make people comfortable in church; instead our goal is open up ourselves to being uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable to sacrifice my stylistic preferences in order to be in fellowship with someone who is different than me. When Jesus called us to take up our cross, he didn't have comfort in mind. When Paul encouraged us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, he didn't have comfort in mind.

Worship should be uncomfortable because it means that we see God in all his holiness and then we see ourselves in all our mess. The response should be like Isaiah, "I am a man of unclean lips!" Grace is what brings us joy in God's presence, but grace is also what makes us uncomfortable with the mess in the world around us. If we don't leave church feeling uncomfortable with the status quot (meaning the fallen world around us which is characterized by division, racism, oppression, injustice, etc.) then maybe we haven't encountered Holiness, repentance and Grace in a very real way. Randy Nabors was right to say that Christian worship should be defined by joy. We have every reason to rejoice in the Lord. But Randy would add that our Christian joy is always a force that drives us out into the world to be peace-makers and reconcilers.

Sorry, I don't mean to preach so much. I honestly loved the article! Thanks again ByFaith!

There's a few tools that I've learned to employ to train myself in different cultural styles of worship that I can share with the blog readers. Of course, when you work for a church like mine, there's not much of a music budget, so I've had to learn to be resourceful with the awesome power of the web. Here's a few places to get started:

1. iTunes, iTunes, iTunes.
I am surprised that more people have not discovered how awesome iTunes is when you really dig into it. A lot of folks in my church are under the impression that this software is only for iPod owners. In reality, iTunes is just a place to by music that you can save onto your computer for listening, burn to a CD or upload to your mp3 player of choice. iTunes has a great store that can also be an education in music. Start by taking one artist that you know, let's say Kirk Franklin that everyone on the planet is familiar with. Type that into the search and go to his link where you'll see all his recordings and on the right you'll see a list of artist who are similar. So, you can follow those links to other artists and songs all day long, getting deeper and deeper into the gospel experience. Each song plays a 30 second sample which is enough to get the general vibe. If you hear something you like, create a playlist and drag and drop the song into the list. At the end of your session you might choose to buy a few tracks, but you can still learn a lot for free from those little samples.

2. YouTube
You can also go over to YouTube and type in the names of a few artists and you will find scores of videos that are sometimes just the track from the CD in it's entirety. This is certainly not legal to post, but it's there for you to experience if you don't feel guilty about it. You are not stealing by listening to it. Again, if you really like the track, then buy it. YouTube also provides suggestions, and so you can spend all day listening to videos. Check out my previous post to see what the type of videos I'm describing. This is also a great tool for finding African music. Type "African Gospel" or a word like "Nzambe" or "Yesu" into the search and you will get a bunch of videos of African gospel.

3. Internet Radio
Now head back over to iTunes. If you look at the top left hand side under "Library" you will see an icon labeled "Radio". This takes you to a massive catalog of radio internet radio stations organized by genre. This has been fun to discover because the actual radio in my car is pretty lame. Internet Radio takes me back to the days when you would sit by the radio with your finger on record to catch a good song on tape. My sister had boxes of radio mix tapes. What a fun time of musical discovery! Internet Radio is not on demand, but it's another way to open your mind up to what people are listening to who are from another culture. Listening to the good stuff along with the bad means that you are becoming more discerning. You can be conversant in the style so that you can engage with that style in a constructive way. What makes good rap and bad rap? What makes good Soukous and bad Soukous? How does Kirk Franklin's sound compare to Donnie McClurkin?

4. All Music Guide (allmusic.com)
This is a little more intensive. The All Music Guide website has bios on artists, articles on the development of genres, and even album and song reviews. This website is for when you are read to really learn more about the origins of the sounds you hear. It helps you understand the "why" of certain sounds. Pick a genre or even a country and start reading about what music is part of their cultural landscape. This website has been a big source of information for me about the Congolese sound. (I could also recommend Wikipedia for this sort of thing.)

Now that I'm back from vacation, it's a perfect time to start getting ready for the fall. This week, I spent way too much time on iTunes, YouTube and other websites getting ideas for the upcoming choir season. I was impressed with how many cool gospel choir songs are coming out these days!

Enjoy~

There's a few songs that I don't have videos for that I'm considering:

• I Am the Resurrection, Angel Carol by James Ward


• Dwell In the House - we sang this last year at the Black History Celebration; it would be nice to do in the fall.

The gospel communicated with the power of gospel music is always a winner. I give it a 4 out of 5 stars (I took away one star because at the end of the tune, Smokie gets a little off the subject.) I hope this becomes a big hit. People need to hear this bold proclamation of the gospel on gospel radio instead of more prosperity gospel.

This could work as another feature for Mike "Little Mike" Thornton who hit one out of the park with "Never Would Have Made It" last year.

Has anyone else noticed a recent trend of 6/8 time in gospel songs? In fact Donnie McClurkin seems to be stuck in 6/8 land. I'm not complaining; I myself love a good compound meter.