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Featured Ethnodoxologist: Josh Davis

November 17, 2016Board of Directors, Dominican Republic, Embera, ethnodoxologist, Josh Davis, PanamaJosh Davis

joshmujerverdaderaName: Josh Davis

Organizational Affiliation: Executive Director, Proskuneo Ministries [bringing nations together in worship]  Co-founder, Multicultural Worship Leaders Network

How did you get started in ethnodoxology?
Google! Well, my growing up years gave me the interest and the background. Involved in music already from age 4 and active on worship teams at an early age, I became a missionary kid at age 12 when my parents moved to the Dominican Republic to help plant a church. When I was in college, the church leadership asked me to transcribe some of the songs of the church, so the next generation could learn to play them—the older musicians played everything from memory and their skills weren’t being passed on, so I charted everything out and taught the younger generation to read chords. Somewhat unusually, our Dominican church employed typical Latin American rhythms, exposing me to indigenous Dominican as well as some broader Latin rhythms.
Some years later, in 2003, I started Proskuneo, with a focus on multi-cultural worship in 2003, and began looking for connections with others who shared my passion. In 2005, Google searches on words like music, missions, arts, cross-cultural, and multicultural worship kept bringing up hits with Paul Neeley’s name. One time when I was going to be traveling through Texas, I asked if we could meet. Paul graciously drove to the Dallas airport and sat at the baggage claim with me for an hour, providing me with enough connections to keep me busy for years. He also invited me to GCoMM 2006, and I was hooked.

What has been one of your favorite moments in ethnodoxology?
In 2008, I got the chance to work with the Emberá people group of Panama. It all started at a concert at a church outside of Philadelphia, where I’d been asked to lead multicultural worship for a group of all white people. During the concert, I invited anyone from the audience to come up and share something. A young woman appeared on stage, asking to play my violin, and gave this back story: “My name is Kirsten, but people call me Kali because I was a peace corps worker with the Emberá group in Panama. The witness of this community brought me to Christ, and I have returned to the USA to pay off my loans so I can marry an Emberá man. They have asked me to help them 'bring back music,' since their current worship music is all imported and translated, not culturally based. Can you help me?” 

Taking her challenge, I posted a question on the GEN discussion forum to see if anyone had already worked with this people group. Through other ethnodoxologists active in the GEN network, I found some people working close by in similar situations and was able to bring eight organizations together to hold the first songwriting workshop for the Emberá. During the workshop, the people shared that previous missionaries had told them that local arts were not acceptable because, in their culture, they only sang publicly when drunk. I had always wondered why Ephesians 5.18-19 mentioned wine and music in close succession, but suddenly it seemed like God had written those verses directly to the Emberá people group, “do not get drunk on wine…but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs...sing and make music from your heart to the Lord”! God used this verse to free many from their fear of the traditional music. One of the local girls, being a “good Christian,” had never heard Emberá music before. When she heard the songs from the songwriting workshop, she started to cry, exclaiming, “These songs are in us!”

What do you hope will be different in 25 years through ethnodoxology?
I’d like to see greater numbers of younger people realize the beauty of their own music and also connect the dots between their passion for crossing cultures and their passion for music. Since the future of the church is multi-ethnic, people need to learn to value their own cultures and be comfortable with crossing cultures at the same time. I’d love to see the church on the front edge of creating some new styles that honor the cultures they come from but also include multicultural elements. What would it look like for an Emberá musician to partner with a tabla player from India and a geomungo player from Korea?

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Featured Ethnodoxologist: Ron Man

October 24, 2016ethnodoxologist, Ron Man, ScriptureJosh Davis

ron_manName: Ron Man

Organizational Affiliation: Director, Worship Resources International; Pastor of Worship/Missionary in Residence, First Evangelical Church, Memphis, Tennessee

How did you get started in ethnodoxology? I lived overseas for 10 years at 4 different times, but always in German-speaking Europe. God used my education (music studies and later seminary) and church experiences (as a pastor and as a worship pastor) to develop in me a passion for teaching on the biblical foundations of worship. That focus has enabled me to teach in 32 countries, since I present transcultural principles not tied to any particular culture or tradition.

I think my first contact in the ethnodoxology world was Frank Fortunato, and we have since ministered together in India and other places. As sort of a “worship theologian,” I have sought to encourage biblical rigor in the ethnodoxology movement; I serve on the teaching team for GEN’s traveling “Introduction to Ethnodoxology” course (teaching the segment on Biblical Foundations of Ethnodoxology) and on the Executive Committee of the Global Consultation on Music in Missions (and keynoted at the 2008 and 2010 events). I also help to found the Biblical Worship section of the Evangelical Theological Society.

What has been one of your favorite moments in ethnodoxology? My favorite places to teach have been in the Middle East. To see the love of Arabic peoples for their Savior, and to see my students apply biblical principles of worship in culturally appropriate ways, has been really moving. All the GCOMM events have tremendously encouraging too.

What do you hope will be different in 25 years as a result of your work in ethnodoxology? I hope to see churches worldwide be ever more intentional in reading, singing, praying, portraying and enacting the Scriptures in their corporate worship services, through an expanding range of creative means to “let the Word of Christ dwell richly among” them (Colossians 3:16).

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Featured Ethnodoxologist: Stephanie Biggs

October 24, 2016ethnodoxologist, stephanie biggs, tanzaniaJosh Davis

stephanie-biggs-ethnodoxologist-of-the-month-pictureName: Stephanie Biggs

Organizational affiliation: HeartSounds International

How did you get started in Ethnodoxology?
Not long after I graduated from college, I began to wonder how music was made in places outside the US. I'd learned so much about Europe and the US (in one way), but what about other places in the world? I was also beginning to feel like I wanted further education that would somehow combine my BAs in Music and Religious Studies while also giving me good reason to travel. So, I found this thing called Ethnodoxology, and an MA/certificate program at Bethel University (now at Liberty University) via the internet. I enrolled for the MA, and thought that even if I didn't like it and didn't want to pursue it further, downgrading to a certificate was possible, and didn't waste too much in time and resources. The more I learned, the more I enjoyed, and now, eleven years in, it's amazing to think back to where God has taken me.

What has been one of your favorite moments in Ethnodoxology?
In recent history, hearing how Taturu people on the western side of the Serengeti in Tanzania are believing in Jesus because they are hearing about Him in the Taturu language and through Taturu song and dance. I, and the other members of the Heart Sounds International team that led a seminar in Taturuland in July 2014 were only part of what God is continuing to do in the people of that place.

What do you hope will be different in 25 years because of your work with Ethnodoxology?
If God keeps me going in the same way I'm going, I hope that in 25 years Tanzanians will know that they don't need to leave any part of who God's made them to be at the door when they enter The Church. I am praying that in 25 years, Christians in Tanzania will have learned something about how to celebrate and honor the depth of diversity present in this country while remaining unified not only as Tanzanians, but even more so as Christians.

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Featured Ethnodoxologist: Michael Hawn

October 5, 2016Ethnodoxologists, NigeriaJosh Davis

michael-hawnName: Michael Hawn

Organizational Affiliation: Perkins School of Theology; Southern Methodist University

How did you get started in ethnodoxology?
I had been noticing the appearance of some non-western hymns in selected hymnals. When God opened the door for me to substitute for a furloughed music missionary in Nigeria in 1989 for a semester, I jumped at the chance. My five months there changed my world view and reshaped my understanding of my vocation. I was teaching in a seminary and working in a variety of churches. The Nigerian Christians taught me how to make music with people and not just for people. I also learned that music making was an entire body experience, and not just from the neck up.

What has been one of your favorite moments in ethnodoxology?
So many, but I'll stay with Nigeria. I was studying the talking drum with one of my students. In a conversation with him at the conclusion of a lesson, I asked about all the drummers I saw in the seminary. Each morning in seminary chapel a different drum ensemble would participate in the hymn singing. So, I asked my instructor, "Who is the best drummer in the seminary?" He became quiet and seemed not to know how to respond. Finally he said that my question really didn't make sense. "An individual drummer without the ensemble is nothing." This totally reoriented my understanding of music making as a community experience and not a solo performance.

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Featured Ethnodoxologist: Frank Fortunato

October 5, 2016Board of Directors, EthnodoxologistsJosh Davis

Frank FortunatoName: Frank Fortunato

Organizational Affiliation: Operation Mobilization & The Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies

How did you get started in ethnodoxology?
I had the privilege of working with the person God raised up to birth the term ethnodoxology. Dave Hall, a missionary at the time with Pioneers Mission coined the phrase while serving on the Worship and Arts Task Force of the AD2000 and Beyond Movement, co-founded by Byron Spradlin and me. Dave went on to write various articles in the mid and late 90s with the purpose of defining the new term theologically through the 90s for the Worship and Arts Track and for various mission agencies and mission journals. In the late 90s, I took the initiative with two friends to start a ministry in OM devoted to ethnodoxology called Heart Sounds International (HSI). HSI was influenced by SIL, who popularized indigenous songwriting events and field recordings at the time. In 2003, at the first Global Consultation on Music and Mission, the term took on new traction when Robin Harris and colleagues started what became known as the Global Ethnodoxology Network.

What has been one of your favorite moments in ethnodoxology?
A series of small events have provided ongoing influence in the emerging ethnodoxology movement. Building on the influence generated by the Worship and Arts Track and GEN, I had the privilege of working with Robin Harris and others to help launch two other ethnodoxology networks, the Arts in Mission Track of the World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission, and the Music and Arts Track of the International Orality Network.

What do you hope will be different in 25 years because of your work in ethnodoxology?
Over the next 25 years, I envision joining my efforts with others to influence efforts that lead to vibrant worshiping communities of Jesus followers in marginalized people groups and regions across the earth.

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