This week we read the Nairobi Statement of worship and culture. This statement is a result of the international gathering of the Lutheran church. In this statement they focus on the importance of worship in the church and the cultural elements of worship. They divided these elements into four: transcultural, contextual, counter-cultural, and cross-cultural. Each element had an equal level of importance and quality towards worship. This statement is a reminder that, though it is easy to get caught up in the worship practices of your own church, let alone your own culture, there is so much more that makes Christianity such a beautiful and global family.
What I think is an important take away that I got from reading this statement was the unifying element of worship. That worship, though looks different in different contexts, is still worship. In the statement worship is related to the creeds, that we all believe the same fundamental things the same way we worship the same God and worship fundamentally with the same intent as everyone in the global Church. It feels easy to judge the reason why people worship when they worship in a different context than you, but if they belong to Christ, there’s an element where we don’t have the place to judge. Rather what we find in Scripture and what this statement is arguing is making space for our faith and different cultures. Not being exclusive to certain practices but allowing our faith and the influence of Christ to translate over culture.
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