In this issue:

Multicultural Fluency and the Discipline of Dialogue

Don't Go It Alone When Changing Worship

The Right Question

When a crisis or conflict occurs in a congregation, the most important thing that leaders need to do is communicate well with members.

Susan Nienaber

Multicultural Fluency and the Discipline of Dialogue
By Curtiss Paul DeYoung

The Bible has much to say about community. In the very act of creating humanity, God initiated community. For community to have the equality that God expects, everyone must have a voice. This means those who have power in society (or the church), and thereby already have a voice, will need to listen more. Those who have been voiceless in society will have to become emboldened by the Spirit to speak.

Those of us who have a strong psychological need for receiving credit for our ideas and contributions will want to learn how to place the need for community above our own egos. A focus on individual accomplishments should be replaced by a community-centered agenda. When ideas are considered community property and no one needs to claim ownership of what they share, we are closer to realizing koinonia. In such a community, roles are based on gifts, with individuals leading in the areas of their giftedness. Everyone has a voice, and all the glory goes to Jesus Christ.

To create an environment where everybody’s voice is heard, we will need to become skilled at what James Earl Massey calls "the discipline of dialogue." Massey says, "Dialogue is the way of community. It is the personal dimension of sharing. Dialogue concretizes the will to be in relation with another person . . . . Dialogue is the way of explored intention, the way of God who is always seeking to share himself with others."

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Don't Go It Alone When Changing Worship
by Rick Uhls

When I arrived two years ago at Redondo Beach, I was told that there were three very different worship services: one informal, one contemporary, and one traditional. Bringing my own assumptions about what these definitions meant, I immediately diagnosed what was clearly wrong with the traditional worship service and implemented what I felt were the appropriate changes.

However, I soon realized that I had changed the worship service to meet my needs and had haphazardly insulted the worship culture of the traditional service worshipers that went back many years. This required some healing work with the congregation.

The Right Question

Leaders do not need answers.
Leaders must have the right questions.

The School of Christian Education at Princeton Theological Seminary names three questions around which they seek to have students think. These are also useful questions for congregations.

How do people come to Christian faith?
How do people grow in Christian faith?
How do people live out Christian faith in daily life?

Editors:  Lovett H. Weems, Jr. and Ann A. Michel
Production and distribution: Carol Follett