GEN Blog

Featured Ethnodoxologist: Brian Schrag

March 6, 2017Congo

Name: Brian Schrag
Organizations/Affiliations: Ethnomusicology and Arts Coordinator, SIL International; Founder, Center for Excellence in World Arts; GEN VP of Education and Training

How did you get started in ethnodoxology?
By being friends with people who made up the word and then built the network: Paul Neeley, Robin Harris, and more. I came alongside what Robin and GEN were doing in the early 2000s. At that time, I already had an M.A. in ethnomusicology and had worked in DR Congo doing Bible translation and ethnomusicological research, encouraging people to use their arts in the church.
It was during my time in Congo, at a funeral in Bili among the Mono people, that the idea of a catalyst and research library first came to me—research connected with indigenous hymnody, connecting local, traditional music with the creation of traditional hymns. After receiving a PhD from UCLA, I came to Dallas as the SIL International Arts Coordinator and also taught principles of ethnodoxology in the linguistics school in Dallas. Ethnodoxology was a combination of what I had learned from Vida Chenoweth about ethnomusicology and other missiological principles; Tom Avery and I worked on extending these principles from music to the other arts.

What has been one of your favorite moments in ethnodoxology?
I was living in France after being in Congo. When I returned to Dallas for a conference, Paul and Linda Neeley took me to their church in Duncanville, TX, and after being away in foreign contexts for so long, it meant so much to worship God in my own heart artistic languages. Hearing songs that I knew and were familiar to me, I started weeping. This is one of the experiences that I want to help other people have—to be able to connect with God in the deepest ways possible.

What do you hope will be different in 25 years through ethnodoxology?
In 25 years I hope there will be no ethnomusicology, ethnoarts and ethnodoxology—instead, arts will be integrated into every central mission strategy in the world. Arts can be the most powerful forms of communication. Jesus is not just the written word; logos was also involved in causing the universe to come into existence through his words, creating things (flowers, animals) and cultures (various styles of singing, dancing, etc.). I hope that the use of arts will be second nature, the default stance in learning what God is creating in other people’s communities.

Featured Ethnodoxologist: Jill Ford

March 6, 2017All Nations Christian College, United Kingdom

Name: Jill Ford
Organizations/Affiliations: All Nations Christian College
Arts Release previously known as Resonance Arts/WEC: www.facebook.com/loveartsrelease
World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission
Arts Plus Europe
Christian Artists Seminar

How did you get started in ethnodoxology?
My journey in ethnodoxology began through my working partnership with Ian Collinge (of Arts Release), who introduced me to the concept back in 2004 when he ran the first World Worship Music module at All Nations Christian College. I caught the vision and subsequently made sure that we not only maintained Ian’s vital teaching role with All Nations but also that this concept expanded from music into all of the arts as we started to develop the All Nations creative curriculum. We also began to explore opportunities to foster multicultural worship training in the UK.
One area we have developed is through the practical ministry training at All Nations where we have a team called “Hearts for Mission.” This team goes into local churches to deliver “bespoke” services, designed for each church, incorporating multicultural worship and using art forms specific to that congregation. This helps to mobilize and encourage the churches in local, national, and international mission. We have also done a number of multi-arts events for churches in London as a group called “Imagine,” and recently we have been focusing on Indian contextualized worship in the framework of a “Satsang.” This is a model understood in the Hindu context that has been adapted and contextualized for Christian worship. This has been received very positively at the popular Greenbelt Arts Festival in the UK as well as in churches trying to reach out to the Hindu community.

What has been one of your favorite moments in ethnodoxology?
Modeling it through our Multicultural Events at All Nations. These are evenings where we celebrate cultural diversity through a range of art forms, showing members of local churches and the community how God can be worshipped in amazing and varied ways. For example, the program might consist of bilingual worship songs which are easy for the audience to join; art exhibitions showcasing student work where they have studied and produced art forms linked with aspects of our culture and identity; food from all over the world provided by international students; or guest artists like Suzanna Harrington, who danced the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 24 in the Indian Bharatanatyam genre, thereby demonstrating to the audience how dance forms from an Indian context can be used worshipfully. These Multicultural Events are the culmination of the multi-arts training that our students receive at All Nations, but they also demonstrate to the audience how God can be worshipped, praised, and celebrated in culturally diverse and imaginative ways, and that these artistic forms are accessible to the local church and can be used by them too.

What do you hope will be different in 25 years through ethnodoxology?
That Gatherings of mission-minded global world leaders seeking advancement of the Kingdom would embrace the beauty and power of ethnodoxological expressions, and that this perspective would infuse all Christian gatherings around the world, as well as the local church.
That theological and mission training schools would seek to foster and incorporate the arts and principles of ethnodoxology in to their curriculum, and that they would value and affirm the relationship between the arts, culture and faith.
To see towns and cities transformed for the Kingdom through worship and the arts. Again that the principles of ethnodoxology—using culturally appropriate art forms to express our relationship with God—would impact major cultural events. That people would see afresh the relationship between art, culture, and faith, and that the church would take a positive lead in recovering, restoring, and celebrating that connection.

Featured Ethnodoxologist: Paul Shelton

March 6, 2017

Name: Paul Shelton

Organizational Affiliation: Latin American Association of EthnoArts

How did you get started in ethnodoxology?
While studying music and missions with T.W. Hunt at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, I read articles by Paul Neeley and Tom Avery, which started my passion for ethnodoxology. Later, working in Argentina as a music missionary, I found the people wanted Western music, not indigenous, so I had to redirect my emphasis, but my desire to incorporate indigenous music never faded. The Global Consultation on Music and Missions (GCoMM) in Minneapolis (2006) was an answer to those desires. I joined GEN at the conference and met some of the prominent leaders of the network. After this I also attended GCoMM in Singapore (2010) and Chiang Mai (2015). What I heard and learned at various GCoMMs helped me gather helpful illustrations, contacts, and ideas that we used in supporting the formation of the Latin American Association of EthnoArts (ALDEA) in Bogota, Columbia.

What has been one of your favorite moments in ethnodoxology?
I’m a mobilizer, so I love finding people who say “that’s what I’ve been looking for for so long.” Sylvia was an artist in Argentina, and she had gone on a couple of short mission trips as an art teacher. Over time she ended up in Myanmar, then at GCoMM in Thailand (2015). For her, learning that she could use arts for her work was revolutionary. Another key moment for me happened with John Henry, who worked with the Ngöbe tribe in Panama. When visiting him, he introduced me to the man who had played a key role in the creation of the first Christian Ngöbe worship song and showed me where the recording of that song had been done. Going there, feeling the ethnic group and environment, knowing that this wasn’t just any song, but it was truly at home in the culture—that really gave life to the idea of ethnodoxology!

What do you hope will be different in 25 years through ethnodoxology?
The circle will be completed when the Western church is actively creating music that’s personal to each congregation. Each congregation has a personality; music they create should be relevant and grow out of the life of that congregation. It doesn’t need to be global. Especially in Latin America, where worship is largely imported, we want it to be localized and personal. Texas, where I am now, is different from the Georgia church where my mother was from. I want the missionaries going out to be very familiar with the principles of ethnodoxology and allow it to guide how they do missions.

Featured Resource: Avery Scholarship

December 12, 2016Avery Scholarship, Donate, Philippines, Roce Anog

Tom Avery is smiling because Roce is smiling. Of course, Roce always seems to be smiling. And I can’t imagine Tom not smiling, since he’s living a life of eternal creativity with Jesus in Heaven. But Roce and Tom are linked in a unique part of God’s mission on Earth that makes them happy.

Tom influenced the birth of the ethnoarts movement in profound ways. Gifted, gregarious, and huge-hearted, he set a tone of love, joy, humility, and dependence on God that continues to flourish. Tom’s death in 2008 opened a door to fulfilling the dream that aroused some of his strongest passions: seeing gifted, motivated people from everywhere encouraging kingdom creativity no matter their material wealth or passport country. His family and friends started a fund to help gifted leaders benefit from ethnoarts training that helps them grow in skills, wisdom, and influence.

In 2010, Roce, a Filipina, became one of the fund’s first recipients, allowing her to attend an ethnoarts and multilingual education course at Payap University in Thailand. Here’s how she closed her letter of gratitude:
“I pray the Lord may use me to bless the people in places He may send me. May our God continue to bless you and your work for Him that more lives be touched and changed. May His Kingdom be extended and His name be glorified through you and your ministry.”

Roce now leads ethnoarts initiatives in Wycliffe Philippines and SIL Philippines, and teaches at Payap on occasion. God has indeed blessed people in many many places through Roce, and the Avery fund played a crucial role in her formation.

It’s impossible to paint the direction of missions today with a single brush stroke. Or even two or three or four or a dozen strokes. Missionaries traveling from the “West to the Rest” exist. But so do those from South to North, North to North, East to West, Outer to Inner, poorer to richer, and so on and so on.

The Avery Fund is poised to inject the insights and energy of ethnoarts into this beautiful mess, for His kingdom. We have a wise, experienced committee to evaluate applications and guide recipients. But we’ve been limping along financially and need many generous gifts and long-term partners.
To learn how to invest in people like Roce, or find out about applying for an Avery Ethnoarts scholarship, click here.

Featured Ethnodoxologist: James Krabill

November 17, 2016Africa, Board of Directors, ethnodoxologist, James Krabill, Liberia, West Africa

Name: James Krabill

Organizational Affiliation: Senior Executive, Global Ministries at Mennonite Mission Network

How did you get started in ethnodoxology?
When I was invited to West Africa as a Bible teacher, we landed in a church that had been composing all their own music for more than 60 years, never importing or translating an outside song. I was curious—how had they come up with this unusual tradition? My research drew me into the world of ethnodoxology. I discovered that an evangelist from Liberia had encouraged them to take a traditional category of music and rework it for church purposes. Since he was an itinerant evangelist who spent only a few days in a community before moving on, never to return, he left them only with ideas for how to create worship within their church. Spurred on by his encouragement simply to compose their own music, the community went to work and created over 500 hymns, passing them along orally over the years to three generations of church members. I started to realize that the words they used in their songs to describe their relationship with God would be important for me in teaching the Bible and helping them access Scripture more deeply. In the absence of written documents, the content of their hymns also became one of the primary sources available for reconstructing the history of the church.

What has been one of your favorite moments in ethnodoxology?
Years later, in 2003, I had stored away the newly created West African hymnbooks I had worked with the church to publish and was on an administrative trip to Mongolia. Having arrived on a night flight and now taking a bus at 2 a.m. into the city, I discovered that the man next to me was working with musicians to create music for the church. His name? Paul Neeley. The Paul Neeley from Ghana! I had read his writing on ethnodoxology, and he had read my thesis, too. So there we were, in the middle of Mongolia, and Paul invited me to the first Global Consultation on Music and Missions (GCoMM), happening that fall. It was a highlight for me finding out that I wasn’t alone in doing this kind of work in ethnodoxology. Back in those days, especially in the French/Catholic context of West Africa, I knew of virtually no one else working out these concepts and had assumed I was just on my own. Now the world of ethnodoxology opened up to me as I made personal connections, had access to good literature in the field, and even started meeting people who had resonated with my own thesis work.

What do you hope will be different in 25 years through ethnodoxology?
My hope is that there would be more of a hybrid integration in the global church of people accessing a variety of music outside their own culture(s) but also looking seriously at what God has given them and finding ways to incorporate those artistic resources creatively into the life of the church. As I’ve traveled around the world visiting people in the 55 countries served by our organization, I’ve noticed a massive undercurrent in the young people—they are desperate to connect with others and believe music like Hillsong will link them with others around the world. Similarly, I heard a paper recently that proposed Hillsong as the indigenous music of second-generation immigrants in places like London, who are looking to identify with anything “not their own” so they can access the broader world. I hope we can get past the idea that we have to choose between “local” and “global” arts and instead find ways to incorporate both sets of values into the church.