Cultural Sensitivity Speaker Guidance
We are grateful and rejoice to be a part of the International Churches of Christ worldwide fellowship. It is an honor to have brothers and sisters from our family of churches visit and address our members. We wrote this Guidance to offer brief insight into the diversity and cultural awareness focus of our Southern CT Church of Christ (SCTCOC) body of believers.
The SCTCOC congregation is a truly diverse family. While we do not keep demographic data on our members, we know our family well enough to note that we have strong representation from Black (primarily African American and Caribbean), Hispanic (primarily Caribbean and South American), and White (primarily North American) people. To a lesser degree we have Asian members, primarily from China. Our church is based in Fairfield County, CT, which is majority white but rapidly changing with an influx of New Yorkers throughout the COVID pandemic and in 2020/2021 the relocation of a substantial number of refugees from Afghanistan for humanitarian relief. In sum, we are becoming (or already are) a church with no racial/ethnic majority in a geographic area with similar diversity.
As you prepare to speak God’s word with love and compassion, we ask that you are mindful and aware of the possible detrimental effect on our brothers, sisters, and visitors of some topics, images, and symbols that are used in the secular world. If you are planning to touch on a sensitive topic, please use wisdom and discernment on how you will get your message across with respect to the diverse cultural backgrounds of our members. People receive information, images, and symbols very differently and it may help to clearly explain your intent for using sensitive content to communicate your message.
If you have any concerns or want to ask for advice on a speaking point, feel free to get in touch with us as leaders of our Social, Cultural, Unity and Diversity (SCUAD) team through our ministry staff.
We thank you for understanding as we all work together towards creating a loving, safe, and inclusive environment for our members and visitors.
In Him,
Fred & Denise Goodman
SCUAD Leaders
“He has done this intentionally so that every member would look after the others with mutual concern, and so that there will be no division in the body. In that way, whatever happens to one member happens to all. If one suffers, everyone suffers. If one is honored, everyone rejoices.”
1 Corinthians 12:25-26 TPT
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
Ephesians 4:2-3 NIV
Learn more about the SCUAD here: https://sctcoc.org/scuad/
