Erratum: So, what’s your story? – The role of storytelling in nurturing inclusive congregational identity

No abstract available.

Ours until Jesus Comes!

In four case studies of congregations in Guatemala, this chapter introduces and discusses the concept of building energy: the emotional energy that groups experience when undertaking a building project. In a country with an increasing number of congregations, it discusses: a Seventh-day Adventist congregation pooling their resources to purchase land and construct a cement-block church; a Pentecostal congregation that constructed a corrugated steel building on rented land but outfitted it with white ceramic tile floor, original artwork, and an impressive PA system; a Catholic church in an indigenous town that worked through conflict to construct a new sanctuary with the help of the community; and a non-denominational church that chose to design and build a structure themselves, using the project as a means of providing work and architectural apprenticeship for its young adults. Across the cases, the building projects brought church and/or community members together, even though the projects often revealed tensions over congregational identity.

(Re)Placing the Congregation: Fieldwork and Congregational Place-Making

Drawing from place-theory, this essay argues for congregations to employ fieldwork as a means to perform the place-making work claimed in a term like ‘contextualization.’ While ‘contextualization’ articulates the importance of locale for Christian identity, ethnographic fieldwork performs the collaborative elements of place-making. Bringing the two fields together, the essay argues for congregations to employ fieldwork as a means for connecting congregational identity with the life of the neighbourhood.

So, what’s your story? – The role of storytelling in nurturing inclusive congregational identity

South African churches are struggling to form cohesive communities and strategies are needed to bring people together. Because of a deficiency in trust, people are reluctant to get to know each other, impacting on the quality of relationships and a positive sense of belonging and community. Congregations need to find ways to nurture an inclusive identity instead of the current norm of all-white or all-black churches, which can be perceived as being inaccessible or exclusive. Innovative strategies like storytelling can unlock the power to understand each other breaking down prejudice, racism and xenophobia. Because intercultural socialisation is found wanting in congregations, sharing different perspectives and experiences can deepen engagements overcoming superficial interactions. This article expands on how storytelling can be used to facilitate an inclusive and intercultural congregational identity through identity formation, liberative practices of reconciliation, community building and as an educational resource.

Doing Identity: Power and the Reproduction of Collective Identity in Racially Diverse Congregations

Congregational identity formation is a challenge for any head clergy. It is particularly challenging for head clergy of racially and ethnically diverse congregations as these leaders occupy positions uniquely situated for destabilizing or instantiating racial hierarchies. Drawing upon the Religious Leadership and Diversity Project (RLDP), this article examines multiracial church pastors’ stories of how they achieve ethnic and racial inclusion in their congregations. We pay particular attention to how these leaders reference and draw upon four contestable cultural worship elements—language, ritual, dance, and music—that operate as primary terrain for collective identity construction. Integrating theories on identity, race, ethnicity, and culture, we take a realistic context-sensitive approach to the nature of how worship works as a bridge, recognizing that cultural markers are not neutral but can simultaneously activate ethno-specific identities in racially and ethnically diverse spaces, instantiating hierarchies of value and thus making worship a potential barrier to the formation of a unified diverse community.

Reminding Myself That I Am a Jew

Jewish migrants to the United States reveled in their ability to move, but also struggled to adapt to the distinctive social and economic relations of the United States, which was a “world of strangers.” This chapter shows how Jews created a wide range of social ties and institutions—not just congregations—in search of stability, trust, and identity. They entered into friendships and voluntary societies with non-Jews, but also sought out coreligionists through informal ties, newspapers, kosher boardinghouses, fraternalism, and worship services. Gradually, they moved to create Jewish organizations that were public and recognized by the state, including mutual aid societies, literary societies, fraternal lodges, charities, and congregations. Voluntarism did not perfectly map onto Jewish communalism, however, even more so because mobile Jews were rarely consistent, stable, or religiously uniform. This was especially problematic for congregations, which struggled to determine the boundaries and meaning of “membership” as well as the nature of congregational identity, liturgy, and worship.

Transnational Christianity and Converging Identities

This study of Arabic speaking Protestant churches in New Jersey adds to the limited amount of existing scholarship on Arab American Protestantism and aims to make Arab Christianity a topic of discussion within studies of world Christianity and mission. After considering the historical and demographical data on Arabic speaking churches in the United States, it examines the ecology and culture of five Arabic Protestant churches in New Jersey and identifies key factors in individual and congregational identity formation. The study recognizes the converging identities and multiple reference points for first and second generation Arab Protestant immigrants in America and the challenges and opportunities their congregations face in facilitating members’ transition experiences.