The Next Worship: Glorifying God in a Diverse World by Sandra Maria Van Opstal

Author:Sandra Maria Van Opstal [Van Opstal, Sandra Maria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780830899487
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2015-12-30T00:00:00+00:00

Three Guiding Principles

Regardless of which model is favored, three principles should guide a church that wants its worship to be inclusive.

Diverse music. Music is not everything. In fact, it is only part of the worship equation, but it is an important part. The arts are rooted in the experience of a community; they tell a story. They are written out of an encounter with God, his Word and one’s personal life; they reflect a theology that has been developed. When I speak of music I am referring to three aspects: lyrics, melody and instrumentation. Multiethnic worship, at its basic level, should have diverse cultural expressions of song, dance, arts, poetry, language and instrumentation. When adopting these cultural elements into liturgical practices, though, it’s important to navigate the difference between a stereotype and an archetype. In the Inclusion Paradox Andrés Tapia states, “An archetype is the tendency of a group of people to behave in a certain way. A stereotype is the belief that all members of a cultural group behave according to the archetype for that group.”13 Not all Latinos sing in Spanish. Not all black people like gospel. Not all white people sing hymns or play guitar. Not all hipsters play mandolin. To say these are always present is to stereotype. To say there is no consistent presence of these elements is foolish. To have diverse worship you must consider the breadth of ethnic expressions. I encourage you to access the many resources that are available regarding different worship cultures. Some books, websites and articles can be found in appendix B. Appendix I also includes summary descriptions of four major North American ethnic categories of worship.

Diverse platform. One white male once told me he attended a black church for over a year and never considered joining the choir. He confessed that not seeing white people on the platform caused him to internalize the message that he was there as an observer. It’s shallow if people aren’t invited to collaborate, and conversely powerful when people see themselves in leadership. Inclusion is not helpful if it’s mere representation, tokenism, but when space is provided to work across differences it is empowering. Tokenism pats itself on the back for having an Asian person on the worship team. Empowerment allows space for that Asian person to influence what happens on the team and on Sunday morning.

Diverse leadership. A diverse group of leaders that are culturally competent is key to multicultural worship; this type of collaborating community encourages the development of a robust theology of and approaches to worship. Such collaboration allows worship leaders to include their traditions in a way that someone from the outside can’t. The depth of collaboration will depend on the model. A shared leadership model (see chap. 4) views inclusion as central to the team’s philosophy and practice of multiethnic worship. Note, though, that the more diverse, not only racially but culturally and socioeconomically, the more the team’s assumptions will be challenged.

The application of these three principles may vary depending on context.

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