Ethnodology? Part 2

In part 1 of this post I shared from an article by Robin Harris (December issue of Worship Leader) which argued that our responses to music are learned, not intrinsic. Because of this, in regards to cross-cultural missions, we need to be sensitive to helping people worship God in their "heart music," instead of forcing a particular Western style on them and expecting that they'll adapt (as was done during periods of European colonialism ).

In another article in this same issue of WL I found an interesting thought on Revelation 21:26. This passage is describing the New Jerusalem and says that "The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it." I had never thought much on that verse. What is the glory and honor of the nations? According to Frank Fortunato it is "their redeemed cultural expressions." If he's right, that means there will be a great variety of worship music styles in the world to come. Mark Noll, a Notre Dame professor, gives us a great picture of what this could look like in his multicultural interpretation of Psalm 150.

"Praise Him with syncopation and on the beat. Praise Him with 5-tones (the Thai xylophone), 12-tones (most Western music), 24-tones (Arab music), and all scales in between. Praise him a cappella, with orchestra, and with drum set. Praise Him with works of supernal intelligence and greatest simplification. Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Together!"

Our desire should be to see different cultural expressions redeemed, not automatically discarded because they have an association with something "un-Christian."' We're in a fallen world, everything has the potential to be connected with something negative. But is the style itself really sinful, or is it just the way that it has been used by sinful or misguided people that is the issue?

For example, does a muezzin (muslim prayer singer) have to stop singing that style because he's now become a follower of Christ? I don't think so, but the theology of his songs will change and obviously he's not going to be able to sing for a mosque anymore. We all know that rock music (which is a broad term) has been used to encourage people to engage in various sins. But does that mean that it can't be redeemed and used to get us excited about living for God? Perhaps the volume needs to come down a little and the words need to be sung more clearly, but God can certainly be praised with it. Or how about a drum circle? In some cultures a style like that is used in ancestor worship and going into trances. But that doesn't mean Africans have to forsake their drum music. In fact I think drum circles, when removed from idol worship contexts, can be uniquely used to encourage unity amongst believers and participation in worship because of how easy it can be to join in on them.

These concepts of "redeemed cultural expressions" and "heart music" could be applied right here at home in any churches where worship wars still rage. After all, division over worship styles is often caused by a clash of sub-cultures (age groups, ethnicities, denominations, social classes). The most difficult part is probably getting certain groups of people to acknowledge that most styles are in fact redeemable and valid for use in worship. After that, a body of believers could then focus on "loving one another" (1 John 3:11) by encouraging the use of whatever styles helped different members of the congregation to worship in their "heart music," rather than complaining because a certain style isn't their preference. Worship leaders could be intentional about finding out different people's heart music. There will still probably be one or two dominant styles that suit the majority of a church body, but worship leaders could still change things up from time to time in order to give a smaller minority in the body the chance to worship in their heart music.