Multicultural Worship: An Update

Saturday, June 28: We were small in number, but the excitement was huge!

Everyone in attendance was from our church, The Crossing, but we spoke with many of you on the telephone and per email. Thank you for your encouragement.

Those of us who met were in agreement that, before we came together as a choir, we needed an event such as a Choir Clinic at which choirs or praise groups will come together and learn from one another over a weekend. We will invite a worship leader from outside our association, who is presently leading praise and worship groups in a multicultural church to facilitate the clinic. The program would primarily be a time of singing as a choir, rehearsing new music and styles; and meeting in breakout sessions for the purpose sharing and gathering knowledge from one another.

We want to ask our church, The Crossing, to accept the responsibility of organizing and hosting this event. However, if any of you want to be involved in the discussions and planning, please give Charlie or I a call. We are not only very open to co-sponsors, we desire them. We feel our experience is so very limited. The idea of the Choir Clinic would be to learn from one another, especially cross-culturally.

Please be in prayer for this team and watch for an announcement about the details.

Blessings,
Charlie and Glenda Brown

Invitation from Charlie and Glenda Brown, The Crossing Baptist Church

One of the greatest challenges in starting or developing multicultural churches is worship and music style. It is difficult to find a single leader who has the skills and experiences needed to lead believers in heart-felt worship typical of every culture represented. However, our association is remarkably diverse and talented. When we gather we represent 70 languages and cultures.

Imagine a choir made up of musicians from diverse DBA churches. It’s a beautiful image, but who other than our Lord Jesus Christ, can bring us all together in unified worship? The Bible teaches that we should pursue unity with the spiritual gifts He has given us (Ephesians 4:1-16).

This is why we believe God wants to use a diverse group of worship leaders, singers, and instrumentalists from Dallas Baptist Associational churches to share with one another, through music, the styles in which our different cultures or ethnic groups profess our common faith and express our praise and adoration to our one Savior and Lord.

As we sing and rehearse together, each leader will model a typical worship rehearsal in his or her own culture. A leader will teach one or two songs, choruses, anthems, etc. to the choir just as they are sung by his or her own people. After hard work and warm fellowship, we will invite the members of our DBA churches to join us for periodic “Night(s) of Worship” that, with the Spirit’s help, will not only honor and glorify Jesus, but help us to see and understand the fullness of God and His Eternal Kingdom more completely.

We would like to invite you for breakfast and planning for this choir on Saturday, June 28,, 2008 at 9:00 at The Crossing Baptist Church, 1060 Clay-Mathis Rd. in Mesquite. If you, or someone you know, would be interested in recruiting for, singing with, co-accompanying, and/or co-leading such a choir, please come and share your ideas with us. To RSVP or for more information, please call Glenda Brown at 469-951-8210, Charlie Brown or Julie Galindo at The Crossing Baptist Church office at 972-222-7070.

NYT: "The World Comes to Georgia, and an Old Church Adapts"

Check out this great video: http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=FRsupt218220

and accompanying article from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/us/22church.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1