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Music and Worship
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A Manual For The African Church
Author: Roberta King
Published by: Evangel Publishing House, Nairobi, 1999
Ever wondered how you can make songs in a more African style? Have you wanted to make songs that are closer to your heart and speak deep to your Christian faith? "A Time to Sing" gives you biblical guidelines for making and singing new songs based on scripture in your church.
Helps for Developing Indigenous Hymns
Authors: Brian Schrag, Paul Neely (eds.)
Published by: EthnoDoxology/ACT Publications
This “tool chest” of materials brings together a compilation of documents and research tools, each describing an idea, activity or concept to enable the missionary or Christian worker to encourage some aspect of indigenous hymnody.
Book & CD-ROM, available from Ethnodoxology at $29.00. [more...]
Link: Link to Publisher
EthnoDoxology is a journal devoted to the multifaceted music, arts, and worship of every tribe, tongue, and nation. Among the many people groups (ethnos) across the globe, God is raising up meaningful worship (doxology). Keep up with how God's Spirit is inspiring culturally appropriate worship throughout the world by reading this journal.
Lynchburg, Virginia, USA
Sponsor: Liberty University, Music in World Cultures
Music In World Cultures (MIWC) developed the graduate program in ethnomusicology at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. This new degree—a Master of Arts in Worship Studies (Ethnomusicology)—is housed at Liberty’s Center for Worship
Ethnomusicology is the study of music, in particular worship, in the context of culture. This degree prepares musicians to serve as missionaries focused on establishing worship programs specific to the culture and people of a particular nation.
 | Monday 20 August - Friday 14 September, 2012 The Wycliffe Centre, Horsleys Green, High Wycombe, UK Sponsor: European Training Programme |
This course comprises a number of short intensive modules, the availability of which varies from year to year depending on instructors. The modules that may be offered are:
- Research Methods for Performing Arts
- Applied Cultural Arts
- Audio Techniques for Field Workers
- Analysis of Music (Non-western)
'Arts' will encompass music (primarily songs or chants with communicative text); musical instruments; drama/ theatre; dance; and oral arts (story telling, poetics and proverbs). Visual arts (painting, sculpture) will also be discussed.
These modules are designed to help students with prior training/experience in an aspect of creative arts to develop a comprehensive approach to faith-based ministry using music and/or arts. They can be taken by anyone interested in using EthnoArts with any agency. [more...]
 | GIAL, Dallas, Texas, USA Sponsor: Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics |
Courses on ethnomusicology and arts include:
- Audio and Video Techniques for Fieldworkers
- Research Methods for Performing Arts
- Expressive Form Analysis
- Song Transcription and Analysis
- Applied Arts
Heart Sounds International exists to help ignite culturally relevant and biblically appropriate worship, especially in places where Christ-followers are restricted, persecuted or unknown.
Heart Sounds International promotes worship predominantly in the non-western world by providing services in audio and video production, training and teaching, and song writing workshops.
HSI is an international division of Operation Mobilisation (OM), based at OM USA.
Communicating effectively to non-readers
Author: Rick Brown
Published by: International Journal of Frontier Missions (21.4 Winter 2004)
In seeking to free ourselves from the biases of a print-oriented culture, we need to consider, not only the kinds of media and discourse genre (e.g. narrative) that are most appropriate for oral cultures, but also the most effective ways to use those genres and media. What do non-readers like to see and hear? What do they enjoy listening to? Their choices will not necessarily be the same as those of print communicators. If the styles of presentation are ones which oral communicators prefer, then they will be more likely to listen, to understand, and to remember what they hear.
In this paper, Rick Brown argues that oral cultures have their own preferences for ways to communicate truth, and that these are often different from what print-oriented people prefer. In order to share the message most effectively, we need to find out what media and methods work best for them. In most cases this will include a multi-media approach with an emphasis on memorizing the Scriptures with the aid of high-quality recordings from skilled actors or voicers. [more...]
Link: Article on IJFM website
A network for culturally-appropriate Christian worship
The ICE network exists to encourage and equip Christ-followers in every culture to express their faith through their own heart music and other arts. We facilitate online networking and provide resources for the development of culturally appropriate Christian worship, utilizing insights from ethnomusicology, missiology, worship studies and the arts.
Author: Mary E Saurman
"Learning takes place when the activity is (1) receptor-oriented, (2) context-oriented, (3) repetitive, and (4) participatory… Indigenous music embraces all four of these learning components. Not only are the words in the people’s spoken language, but the music is also in their traditional music system."
Research shows that music is an effective tool for memorisation. Mary Saurman describes what is needed for effective instruction and shows how music meets many of these requirements: it is receptor-orientated, uses repetition, is participatory, and has intrinsic motivation because it is a part of people’s culture. She offers examples of how music has enhanced literacy programs across the world. Finally she outlines several steps to incorporating music into a literacy program: consider music’s function in the community; ask questions of when it’s used; what it’s used for and who uses it; then consider which song categories and styles are appropriate for literacy; and finally begin to use it! [more...]
