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Spirituality for Becoming Multicultural Adam Bond Elizabeth Conde-Frazier. ACCULTURATION. The process by which the culture of a particular society is instilled in a human from infancy onward. . Who I am shapes who my congregation becomes.
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Spirituality for Becoming MulticulturalAdam BondElizabeth Conde-Frazier
ACCULTURATION • The process by which the culture of a particular society is instilled in a human from infancy onward.
Who I am shapes who my congregation becomes • What are my religious convictions and who am I as a person of faith? • How did I arrive at these beliefs? • How are race and ethnicity a part of these? • What stereotypes and presuppositions come from these that I may have internalized and how do these affect my relationships with others in ministry and in my personal life?
Who we become shapes community building for the congregation • What are the steps to building community? • What are the primary obstacles to building community and why? • How should the church engage in removing these obstacles? • What does God require of me in the engagement of community? (as a Baptist, as US citizen, as a Christian…)
Humility • Humility is living with the understanding of what I am capable of and knowing what my limits are- a sober understanding (Roms. 12:3).
Grace… (Phil. 2: 13 • Is the other side of humility • “God is the one at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” NRSV • “Helping you want to obey Him and then helping you do what He wants.” LB
Grace and Salvation • “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12) • God initiates transformation by inspiring acts expressing that desire. We act on God’s inspiration. • Salvation= health, well being, shalom • Salvation= collaborative with God and in community.
Hospitality • Matthew 25 and Luke 14 • A place where we are connected to one another • Offers attentive listening and a mutual sharing of lives and life stories
Hospitality as recognition – respecting the image of God in another and seeing their potential contributions as being of equal value • Hospitality as resistance – acts of respect and welcome rather than disregard and dishonor
Encounter • “Who knows one culture, knows no culture. We come to self knowledge on the boundary.” (David W. Augsburger) • A place for the mixing up of our worlds • Where hybrid significations are created • Mestizo/a consciousness • The place for storytelling
Transforming MomentsJames Loder • Alter our ways of being in the world. • A convictional experience. • Disrupts our previous assumptive world by puncturing our previous ways of making meaning • Discloses to us dimensions of being not previously attended to • We can re-ground and realign our ways of seeing and being.
Within our encounters the Holy Spirit helps to birth new stories • Acts 10 • Ephesians 2:13-16, 19
Compassion: Doing justice “Justice is love correcting that which would work against love” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Compassion • Cum Patior- to suffer with, to undergo with • Connotes solidarity • Works from a place of the strength of mutuality • Involves imagination and action • Isaiah 58:6-7 • Micah 6:6-8 • I John 3:16-18 • James 2:14-22
Passion • Connected by a common wound in the place where our two worlds have encountered each other
Passion • Intimacy and sympathy with God and with humanity • Divine consciousness and neighbor consciousness engaging each other • A borderland between God and humanity • A prophetic space
Shalom • Every creature in community with every other, living in harmony and security toward the joy and well being of every other creature • A vision of connectedness by and for a whole community • Includes the process of denouncing, announcing and making persons and structures responsible for responding equitably and compassionately to all
Becoming cross cultural • Mutually reciprocal relationships among and between cultures. • Compassionate relationships are formed and people are transformed, shaped, and molded from each other’s experience. • Focus on relationship building and not survival. • Racial and cultural power imbalances are addressed.
Another way to see this: • Listening as savoring • Talking as leaving our aroma upon each other • Reflecting as seeing the perichoresis of God, you and I in community • Acting as participating in mutuality