Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Two Worlds

You are sitting across from two people, one African-American, on White. Both don't really go to church. Both don't like church and think it is not applicable to their daily life? Here's the question: If you were to create a church that they would both go to together, what would that church look like?
I want to be honest. I get what the white version of this church would look like. I've seen the development of this kind of church. First was traditional church. Organs with hymns. Then pianos made their way into traditional church and maybe some newer hymns were added to the books. Then white Christian culture reacted to this and created the term "contemporary". This meant you could come to church in casual clothing (more like business casual), the music would include a band, and these churches will often highlight their, "relevant preaching." Then came churches for those who hate going to church. These added skits, multi-media, shorter sermons, harder rock songs, songs sung by non-Christian artists, and sermons that have titles or themes directly from pop-culture. There is a newer offshoot called the "emerging church" that I"m not sure where they fit in. But, I do believe that all of these developments have been primarily in the "White church." What has been developing the the African-American church during this same time.
I could say that it's the same and that you shouldn't call what I just listed as "white", but if you've ever read any magazine, book, article, or tried to google churches that believe the things I just mentioned- the churches of color are very very very sparse. They do exist, but not by much.
O African-American, middle-class man who wants to know God but hates church, what do you look for in a church? What church would you go to?

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