Four Worship Cultures

A brief overview of the Latino, African American, Asian American and Caucasian North American worship traditions
By the Urbana 03 Worship team

What does it look like for a diverse community to worship God?  How can we enter into worship traditions that are different from our own?

This paper was written communally by members of the worship team for the 2003 Urbana Student Missions Conference. A diverse team made of up of worship leaders from across North America, they spent months together leading worship and learning from one another's worship traditions. In this paper, the team explores the roles of the worship leader, distinct musical elements, use of time, important themes and overall atmosphere in four worship traditions found in North America: Latino, African American, Asian American and Caucasian North American.

Authors: Corey Saffold, James Choung, Erna Stubblefield, Todd Waldo, Sandra Van Opstal and Krista-Dawn Kimsey

Click to download: