Culturally-Conscious Worship - by Kathy Black (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Culturally-Conscious Worship explores the complexities of multiculturalism in faith communities and addresses the challenges faced in designing worship in a multicultural context. Raising awareness and sensitivity to the cultural and liturgical issues encountered by pastors when communicating across cultures in worship settings, Culturally-Conscious Worship recognizes factors such as denomination, cultural diversity within the congregation, and leadership dynamics, acknowledging miscommunication can occur when cultural assumptions go unrecognized.

A variety of scenarios reflect cultural assumptions in worship: differences in arrival time, perceptions of the duration of certain practices, debates over music style, congregation members' behavior during rituals, and conflicts regarding the purpose of Sunday worship. Other issues of include sermon expectations, sacred music preferences, and formality/informality in sacred settings. These questions, along with many others, often involve unconscious cultural biases that influence communication events.

Culturally-Conscious Worship acknowledges that controversies arising from cultural assumptions can also be present in homogeneous congregations comprised of individuals of the same ethnicity have diverse geographical, denominational, or generational backgrounds. Multicultural congregations face additional complexities due to differences in geography, denomination, theology, liturgy, generations, ethnic cultures, and sometimes languages. The book recognizes the challenge of negotiating diverse expectations related to worship form, content, style, and atmosphere when individuals from different cultures contribute their perspectives.