Contextualizing Worship and Music in a Multicultural Church: A Case Study at Christ Fellowship Miami

Christ Fellowship Church is a Southern Baptist, multicultural, multigenerational, and multilingual church with eight local campuses, which hosts worshipers from seventy-six nations every weekend in Miami-Dade County. While the worshiping body of Christ Fellowship Miami is extremely diverse, the music and worship genres and styles are predominantly homogeneous. This case study serves the worship ministry at Christ Fellowship Miami as they seek to engage in more culturally conscious methods of worship and music by exploring the diverse cultures, languages, and music styles represented in the congregation. It discusses the planning, development, and execution of a global worship experience at the church that facilitated the exploration of creative approaches to worship through ethnodoxology in a safe and controlled environment. The results of the study revealed several practical approaches to engage in more culturally conscious worship through the contextualization of language and music in worship gatherings. Additionally, this case study not only benefits the existing worship ministry but can be used to further edify the church and equip their mission and vision to continue launching Christ Fellowship campuses throughout Miami-Dade County, online, and globally