Lifting Every Voice in a Southern Baptist Cooperative Church: Spiritual Formation by way of Multiculturalism at Sunrise Church of Rialto, California

Abstract

This study investigates how the recent celebration of the African-American Juneteenth holiday by Sunrise Church of Rialto, California, has benefited the spiritual formation of their multicultural fellowship, a church that remains in full cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention. While it is not uncommon for churches in the United States to celebrate extra-biblical holidays such as the Fourth of July or Memorial Day, there has been an increase in ecclesial observation of other culture-specific markers. Also, the study explores the deeper spiritual significance of their corporate singing of The Black National Anthem for the Juneteenth holiday, attempting to uncover any positive reflections, spiritual enhancements, and ecclesial encouragements that may have resulted from the practice. Moreover, consideration is given to the sensitivities involved in such cross-cultural endeavours while also evaluating what motivated this ethnic-specific holiday observance. A synthesised research approach of phenomenological observation, interviews, ethnography, ecclesiological perspectives, and cultural intelligence review has been employed, also considering matters of critical contextualisation and potential parishioner pushback.