Report from ‘Global Consultation on Music and Missions’ 2
From Bert Polman (previous report):
Here are my comments on the final days of the Global Consultation on Music & Missions in St Paul, MN, which I attended during July 11-15 with some 200+ missionaries, ethnomusicologists, and other musical types interested in indigenous styles of Christian music. (You may recall that this event was partially funded by a grant from CICW.)
The plenary sessions for Thursday and Friday morning were led by Ron Man who did solid biblical teaching on worship and cultural engagement. Thursday evening, John Witvliet led worship (with Randy Engle at that sizeable ethnic instrument which western peoples call a pipe organ), and shared ”vertical habits” (among other things) with the conferees. During one of the breakout sessions I attended, the leader gave a wonderful talk about how worship is first of all our whole life and only secondly a specific event. Ironically for a conference so dedicated to redeeming and transforming many elements of culture, the concluding gospel hymn for that session featured the escapist sentiment, “You can have the whole world, but give me Jesus!”
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