One Bread, One Body: Exploring Cultural Diversity in Worship

I'm the chair (lay) of my church's worship committee, and recently read this book in preparation for our committee's preparation for World Communion Sunday. As a lay person I found this book very approachable - the use of five-syllable theological words is minimized and explained. Nonetheless this was a rich book, full of inspiration, supporting the concern for more diversity in our worship to reflect the diversity of our community, and complete with good ideas. The first section is worthwhile all by itself - it addresses the issues that move us to multicultural worship, and the theological concerns we need to have. But it's practical, too, with ideas of things in our current worship to look at, and some great challenges to our existing ways of thinking about what is "appropraiate" in worship. The second section contains four case studies which reflect both the struggles inherent in striving for a truly multicultural church, as well as the joys that come with even a small measure of success in this area. Most useful for us, though was the third section, especially the section on music. We've already implemented some of the suggestions in this book, and I think we're moving steadily in this direction, but the ability to me more intentional about this is very important. The best thing about this book, though, is that it is inspirational. This is not an easy thing to attempt, and the inspiration of this book can help keep us going.