Abstract:
My reflections on the contextual realities of musical worship amount to this: extending effective hospitality to different ethnic and racial groups through musical worship requires the host to address and embrace their own foundational cultural norms – and recognize the hospitality intrinsic to that genre already – in musical worship as well as the norms of the guest, the other. The hospitality Elm City Vineyard extended to me by incorporating my worship ideas into the community has happened most seamlessly when we began positively articulating our respective foundational cultural norms, which included the unique gifts different ethnic groups brought to the table. Though a work in progress, I have learned to see, on the one hand, how the church is learning from me and growing around my ideas, and on the other, the unique beauty of these White forms of musical worship that are ultimately adoring the same God I do. I hope my following insights on different components of musical worship will help you better understand what God is doing in the midst of your congregations, so that we as members of the Body of Christ can better embrace and experience the integrated humanity initiated by Christ Jesus’ reconciling work as seen at Pentecost and all throughout Pauls’ entreaty to the Gentile followers of Jesus in Galatians (especially the language of the baptismal formula found in 3:28).
The full paper is attached to this post.
