[Worship] Multicultural Worship, Part II

["gabrieli gabrieli" <gabrieli@hotmail.com>]

Dear Followers of the Lamb--

     I would like to raise a few considerations for those implementing
Christian music from other cultures in worship services.

1. When teaching and performing music of another culture in your
     church (at least a culture your church is not familiar with),
     it is always helpful to teach--

     A. The BIBLICAL basis of using music from the whole world.
         In addition to the "Great Commission" emphasis of Jesus,
         we can also point to the numerous Old and New Testament
         scriptures that emphasize universal worship of Yahweh.
           We all need to understand that we are part of a continuing
         heritage with historical roots stretching back to the 
         of the universe--even if we were just born yesterday!

     B. The concept of multicultural music being part of the glorious
         INHERITANCE of any believer in Jesus. ALL the music(and dance
         and any other art form), of ALL God's people, in ALL times
         and ALL places is MINE, by virtue of the fact I belong to
         Yahweh, having been adopted into the "royal family." 
            Therefore, when I became a Christian, I inherited Indian
         ragas, Tuva throat singing, mbube sounds of Ladysmith Black
         Mambazo, Balinese and Indonesian gamelans, kalimbes of
         Kenya, Arabian doumbeks, Celtic reels and harps, the koto
         and bamboo flutes of Japan, white spirituals of Appalachia,
         Shoshoni dance, Cajun zydeco, Puerto Rican merengue, 
         plainsong chant, Black gospel, Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus",
         Church of Rhythm, Toccata & Fugue in D minor, gospel blue-
         grass, Polynesian dance and Thomas Tallis!!

      C. What is "foreign" or strange to us now, can become second
          nature a month from now. All culture is LEARNED, therefore,
          all culture CAN be learned. None of us were born a particu-
          lar culture--we LEARNED how to "be" African-American,
          Greek, Sioux, Inuit, Jewish, Chinese, Irish, English,
          Quechua, Italian, Yemenite or Afghani.
             If we sing/dance something "foreign" long enough, it
          will become a part of us, integral to our worship life.
          I can and did learn my culture; therefore, I CAN and WILL
          learn another culture in which to express the Christian
          faith. I did not learn all about my culture in one day,
          and it will take me time to absorb new cultural information.
          But I can absorb it slowly over time, and with time and
          repetition, I can express myself in ways I was hitherto
          unaccustomed.

      D. Your heritage/culture is just as precious as my heritage/
           culture. Each human culture reflects some aspect of God,
           in whose image each human was created. The best in any
           human culture comes from God, and should be CHERISHED
           and PRESERVED for the unique gifting Yahweh generously
           bestowed upon those He created. I should not have to give
           up my culture to "satisfy" you, and you should not insist
           that only your culture's music and dance be used to praise
           God! There really is no reason, short of ignorance and/
           or laziness, that we can't learn and ENJOY each facet
           of this jewel known as "the Body of Christ."

      E. We can encounter the Living God in and through any human
           language, including the language of the arts. I can feel
           His presence when I sing in my mother tongue, and I can
           feel His presence when I sing in another language I was
           not always familiar with.
              The Spirit of God is unlimited, infinite and boundless.
           This Spirit dwells in me, and enables me to see "God's
           mighty acts" through and in human cultures "foreign" to
           me. I am used to encountering God "my way", and I can
           learn to encounter Him "your way." When I fully and 
           ACTIVELY learn to participate in another language, another
           music, another dance or another visual art form, I enhance
           my own interior worship life and am enriched by your
           culture's gifts. In turn, you are "fed" and enriched by
           me, having tasted another "flavor" at the worship "ban-
           quet." And we have these treasures ALL OUR LIVES--they
           are a part of us--and we'll take them into heaven with us!
          

 2. We should NOT expect the music and dance of other cultures to
     "conform" to what WE are most "familiar with." One problem
     Christians encounter in utilizing the music/movement of another
     culture in worship, is the temptation to simply use foreign
     language translations of things we "normally use."
        We should be able to learn and sing what God gave other people
     IN THE LANGUAGE AND STYLE IN WHICH THE COMPOSER "HEARD IT" FROM
     GOD. It is NOT necessary for me to demand, for example, that
     all quartertones be expunged from bouzouki music to "fit" my
     black Pentecostal "accustomed style".
        It is equally absurd to insist that only one style of music
     be acceptable as "praise and worship", and that we only have to
     "adapt" ethnocultural music to sound like something a particular
     company produces. "Praise" occurs in ANY and ALL cultural 
     contexts, and can be LEARNED and APPRECIATED as such. While it
     is natural that musics do "crossover" and get changed somewhat
     as humans of various cultures interact, there is little point
     in deciding that "only black gospel" or "only Vineyard" or
     "only Hosanna Integrity" music is "praise and worship" music.
         On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with setting a
     melody in a distinctive style or experimenting with different
     instrumentation. However, our goal should be to learn, sing
     and dance THE WAY THE MUSIC/MOVEMENT IS EXPERIENCED BY A BELIEVER
     IN THE CULTURE IN WHICH THAT ART FORM WAS PRODUCED. 

3. We should be willing to preserve the authentic sound/movement of
     any ethnocultural style. In so doing, we demonstrate that we
     accept the revelation of Jesus in all the materials humans use
     to create beauty. This includes, but is not limited to, such
     factors as:

        A. INSTRUMENTATION--the particular beauty and charm of
            ethnic music is often shaped by the distinctive timbres
            of musical instruments. Compare and contrast, for example,
            the irridescent sound of a sitar, the soft, birdlike
            quality of Peruvian ocarinas, the crystalline ring of
            a wire-strung Celtic harp, the deep buzz of the
            didgeradoo, the ethereal tones of Southeast Asian metal-
            lophones, the crisp "scratchy" sound of shells and sand
            falling through a Chilean rainstick, the bright "wail"
            of a shofar, the tinkly jingles on the legs of Morris
            dancers, the rich, vibrant "booms"--both felt and heard--
            in Senegalese drums.
                In these United States of America, we can purchase
            and study ANY and ALL of these instruments, and we can
            enrich our worship with a myriad of sounds, produced by
            human hands that used God's materials freely found in the
            natural world. This can range from a pink-and-salmon
            colored conch shell, washed up on a Pacific beach, to
            an elegantly lacquered balalaika, carefully crafted of
            fine woods.
                By playing these instruments, we hear and produce
            tone colors of every imaginable "hue", and catch a sonic
            "glimpse" of the colorful sound mosaic that God hears
            offered up to Him, every day in every land.

      B. AUTHENTIC MOVEMENT--we can approach styles of movement the
             same way we approach styles of music. Sometimes this
            requires that we "unlearn" what our particular culture
            taught us, in order to fully enter into movement that
            may strike us as "wrong" or "too different" at first.
               For example, contrast the hip-based movements of
            Yoruba dance with the elaborate arm choreography of
            traditional Chinese and Korean dances. There is nothing
            inherently "holy" or "unholy" about either form.
               Too many Christians have been burdened with false
            guilt by well-meaning, but culturally imperialistic, 
            believers who insisted that only "their" way of dancing
            in worship was "alright", and everyone else's was
            "fleshly."
                Christian dance books often abound with such comment-
            ary as "since dance is a visual art, we can't do anything
            that appears sensuous" or "some styles are not suitable
            for praise and worship." Of course, you are then forced
            to figure out which dance is praise, which is worship,
            and whose style or school will prevail. This is most often
            based ON THE PERSONAL PREFERENCE OF A WORSHIP LEADER OR
            PASTOR. 
                 Witness what happened when most European missionaries
            decided to go "preach to the heathens." It never occured
            to many of these sincere, but often misguided folk, that
            God was not interested in creating Eurocentric clones!
            People were taught that their own art forms were "not
            acceptable to God", so of course the pipe organ was
            holier than the conga, and if you really loved Jesus, you
            didn't move at all!
                  Congregations still struggle with issues of cultural
            imperialism, and we can and should not be so quick to
            assume that someone is "dancing wrong" just because we are
            "offended" or feeling "uneasy" about what someone else
            is doing. Again, what seems "pagan" to me now, may seem
            make me feel "tuned into the divine" two months from
            now. 

We are in an unprecedented period of church history--we can learn how
to love Jesus in our culture and everyone else's, all within the
space of a few hours, and right down the street at our local church/
synagogue! We are blessed to be able to enjoy our multinational
inheritance "in the Beloved", and we can worship the Living God through 
music and movement past and present, local and foreign.
     In the Father's House, we're all "locals", and there are no
"outsiders!"   :-)

Singing Palestrina, dancing Hebrew and
   directing Chinese hymns,

Charity Dell
gabrieli@hotmail.com    


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