Inclusion II

Was chatting w/Rob about yesterday's post, which leads me to suggest some corrections and additions:

I've been in many churches that used more than one type of music, to add variety and to make the culture/language/symbolism more inclusive. Unfortunately, the white churches I've been in usually aren't very good at non-hymn music. I'm thinking of a particularly dirge-like version of the peppy Brazillian song "Cantad al Senor."

However, this practice of taking hymns from a variety of traditions does, ultimately, make worship better, I think. So there's another piece of the puzzle--drawing elements of the service from other cultures, while retaining the basic framework of the main culture.

I was in Minnesota at a pretty white church that shall remain nameless. After we'd sung a gospel benediction, the pastor said, "You're almost there. You really want it--you're about to break out. I can feel it!"

Hopefully, we really are almost there.