In South Africa churches may be among the last bastions of apartheid, but some churchgoers are crossing racial lines, for the sake of survival. Philippolis is a small farm town far away from everything. Far from the city and the government, far from justice and equality. The population is still divided and named — “Colored,”…
Multiracial congregations are all the rage, it seems, at least among Protestants. Conferences are being held across the country encouraging pastors and other religious leaders to be multiethnic, and groups like Mosaix and Kainos have been established to support the effort. People that attend these conferences are provided a theology for why more churches ought…
An important part of the culture of every congregation is the music they experience together. Whether it is the pipe-organ-accompanied hymns sung in a grand gothic cathedral or the a capella singing of a ”non-instrumental” Church of Christ or the chant of a cantor at Yom Kippur or the festive dance of a Hindu festival…
The Congregational Library and Archives in Boston has the exciting task of preserving – and helping others to preserve – the history of some of the earliest communities of faith in America. They rescue documents from attics and basements, digitize them, and make them accessible. While their work is unique, it offers clues to how…
One important aspect of your congregation is recognizing the boundaries of who is included versus those who aren’t. A key way to understand the way the community is built is by examining the processes of assimilation — how are people brought into the community? Imagine the following example: Mr. and Mrs. Black enter the congregation…