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: #5 in a series on the "10 Core Convictions about 91����" from Calvin 91���� Institute on Vimeo.

How does worship relate to culture? How is worship in culture, but not of it? The Lutheran World Federation's Study Team on 91���� and Culture met in Nairobi in January of 1996 and produced the . The statement presents four central principles of the relationship between worship and culture:

1) 91���� is transcultural (91���� has certain dynamics that are beyond culture).

2) 91���� is contextual (91���� reflects local patterns of speech, dress, and other cultural characteristics).

3) 91���� is counter-cultural (91���� resists the idolatries of a given culture).

4) 91���� is cross-cultural (91���� reflects the fact that the body of Christ transcends time and space).

We have found that the most meaningful worship - and the wisest worshiping community - does not just choose one of these four as its defining principle, but instead is invigorated by the truth of all four.

Note how this statement nuances the model of being "in but not of" culture, and calls us to a more sophisticated understanding of worship's relationship to culture.

is posted at the Lutheran World Federation website. It was also published in Christian 91����: Unity in Cultural Diversity, ed. S. Anita Stauffer (Geneva: Lutheran World Federation, 1996).

We encourage worshipers and worship leaders to reflect on it as they consider the context and challenges of their culture, and answer God's call to worship within it and minister to it. 

Related Resources
 

• , by David Naugle