Seeing artwork of a Cameroonian Jesus, an Indian Jesus, a Korean Jesus. Singing songs in Swahili, Korean, and Spanish. Why are we incorporating global art and music in our worship at Church of the Savior?
Before we talk about the "why," let's first talk about "what" multicultural worship is. Multicultural worship is when multiple cultures are celebrated and multiple cultural elements are utilized in the worship. This celebration of diverse cultures could be done by using visual art, musical forms and styles, languages, stories, testimonies, instruments, dance, drama, communion elements, prayers, and gestures that reflect diverse cultures.
So why do we do multicultural worship at Savior? Here are some of the reasons.
Multicultural worship reminds us that God loves people of all cultures. God shows his steadfast love and faithfulness toward the nations (Psalm 117).
Multicultural worship shows that God welcomes diverse cultural gifts. C. Michael Hawn, in Gather into One: Praying and Singing Globally, writes that Revelation 21:24, 26 shows how God welcomes the cultural gifts of the nations into the Holy City, a place of perfect worship in the coming Kingdom of God.
Multicultural worship gives us a glimpse of worship in heaven. We see in Revelation 7:9–17 a great multitude “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (7:9) worshiping God in heaven. This multicultural worshiping community in heaven is a community we look forward to joining one day.
Multicultural worship was part of the church from the beginning. The church was born on the day of Pentecost when God was worshiped in multiple languages, spoken by "Jews from every nation under heaven" (Acts 2:5). Early Christian worship was multicultural, drawing from Jewish roots and Greek ideas, and the cultural symbols of the Greco-Roman era.
Multicultural worship enriches the global church. Multicultural worship reminds us that every culture has something to share with other cultures. The American church has something to receive from the African church, the Asian church, the European church, and vice versa. By cross-cultural sharing, our worship experience is enriched.
Multicultural worship reminds us that we are part of the global church. When we worship God using cultural expressions of others, we are reminded that we are part of something bigger, the global body of Christ. And when we sing songs from the global church–since songs are the prayers of the people–we are praying with the global body of Christ.
Multicultural worship is an act of loving our neighbor. When we embrace the many cultures around us, we show that we love our neighbors.
Multicultural worship allows the people from those cultures to worship God using their heart language. When we sing in Korean, it will be a foreign language for many at Savior, but for me, that is my heart language. As a Korean-American, when I see artwork of a Korean Jesus or sing worship songs in Korean, my heart is stirred and I feel more closely connected to God.
As Soong-Chan Rah writes in Many Colors: Cultural Intelligence for a Changing Church, the purpose of multicultural worship is to “honor the presence of God in different cultures . . . [and] to see God at work in all cultures, not just in one.” My prayer is that Church of the Savior continues to honor God's presence in all cultures, love others by embracing their cultures, and love the God of all nations.
Cover image: Kungfuman, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons