Many of you know that I served some 6 1/2 years as a Music Missionary to Zimbabwe. There are things to be considered and studied when doing music missions in another culture. We don't go to impose our own taste and cultural biases on people as we seek for them to hear and understand the good news. It is important that we help them in putting the gospel into their own heart language and their own musical language.
When I arrived in Zimbabwe most of the believers were singing many of our hymns translated into their language with "our" music, which quite frankly sounded like a dirge in that setting. I immediately went to work encouraging Christian nationals to write their own songs, starting with both their communication and musical languages. I studied and tried to write in their heart languages. That communicated the gospel far more effectively. The worship was more of the heart and freer.
Music used in the wrong setting can be a stumbling block rather than a stepping stone. Even here in our own culture there are numerous subcultures. Every Minister of Music must thoroughly know his congregation in order to use music that speaks to the majority of the congregation and covers all generations and subcultures. Our job is to build bridges not walls, which can be a real challenge today. We need both congregational participants and congregational worship leaders and hearers to experience the power of God through the power of music.
"State of heart" behind the music is the main thing. It is too often that other issues eclipse the main thing. We are really missing the boat when we create long discussions on style, what's modern and what's not, or insist on a steady diet of "traditional" hymns and anthems. Any music we do in the name of ministry that places art over heart is not pleasing to God in any culture.
May God help us see to it that music and musicians who know Christ place all their energies into the ministry of praising God; building up His people and reaching the unbelieving world with the clear, unclouded Gospel of Christ Jesus, our Lord! And, yes, your gifts to world missions help make that possible every day. mjm
