The Lord Will Make a Way Somehow: Strategies for Cross-Cultural Music and Worship

Abstract

With neighborhoods shifting racially and economically, churches are challenged with meeting the new population with relevant and culturally meaningful worship music. Ethnic groups are diverse within themselves as well, with black and Latino peoples having disparate tastes and traditions from Church of God in Christ to South American Evangelicals. Congregations must have strong pastoral leadership and competent, spiritually alert musicians and singers. Although the leadership may want more effective outreach through music, it requires trained musicians, often in jazz, to educate the musicians as well as the congregation. Vocalists must also be melded together, trained and untrained, into a vernacular blend in praise teams or choirs. Musicians must do research in the community for songs and resources that touch the “heart music” of the target population. The result of such a commitment is to see a congregation rally around a new mission and new friendships. Children growing up in such a cross-cultural worship have a more open view of the world. But bearing fruit in cross-cultural ministry is measured in decades and may not have overwhelming success like some homogeneous church plants. If we want to see the church's witness as credible before a watching world, racial reconciliation and justice fleshed out in the worshipping community must be a greater priority. In a society still plagued with racial alienation, this may be the toughest strategy of all.