missionary

World Evangelization and Artistic Expression

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When an entire village of Bolivian Indian ranch workers came to the Lord a few years ago, some missionary friends of mine were faced with some steep questions. What do we do with this entire village of people that now know the Lord as Savior? How do we teach them to study the Bible when most of them don’t read? And when they have no Christian music, what do we suggest they sing?

My missionary friends encouraged the Bolivian Indians to make up their own musical expression. They understood the importance of culturally appropriate communication and affirmed the leadership in the village, that it would be appropriate to sing songs they composed themselves.

When evangelization happens in its fullness, culturally appropriate and sensitive communication is crucial. In many parts of the world, due to lack of literacy, such communication will be through artistic or imaginative expression. Music, drama, storytelling, painting, architecture, mime, puppets, crafts, festivals, movement, ritual, and on and on, are all forms of artistic expression.

Artistic communicators are Christians endowed by God with unusual wisdom in creative things. They may be pastors, teachers, musicians, painters, writers, managers, factory workers, farmers, or housewives. They are simply Christians with a vision and ability for actively incorporating appropriate artistic forms and methods into worship and evangelism.

People generally hear and understand with their hearts long before they hear and understand with their heads. And their heartstrings are generally plucked, not by the academic and the apologist, but by the artist and the poet. This reality leads me to shout from the rooftops that Christian musicians and artists play a critical role in world evangelization these days.

Where the Great Commission has truly been carried out, the penetrated cultures most often worship and proclaim their faith in their own mother tongues, heart-music, and cultural styles. These heart-languages and cultural styles are very often uncovered by indigenous artists or better stated, arts ministry specialists. Whether in ceremonies, liturgy, pageants, visual or movement expression, music, storytelling, or other dynamics of gathered expression, it is usually the arts ministry specialist who helps facilitate the believing community in its public and private expressions of worship.

The jewel of human activity is worship, worship that makes sense in the context of one’s own culture. It requires symbols and metaphors and rituals that help connect the people with the invisible realities of God himself. Those kinds of worship activities demand that we take the realities of God and His truths beyond the languages of the head into the languages of the heart. And that realm is so often the realm of artistic expression.

God has specially equipped present-day worshiping artists to express beyond words the realities of God’s supernatural person and Kingdom. We need to proactively recruit and deploy these worship and arts ministry specialists into the fabric of the church and its mission.

Conversion of Paul

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The growth of Christianity depended largely on its leadership. The Galilean leaders were an uneducated group who had never been outside of Palestine. Paul was well suited for the role of leader and organizer. Jewish by birth and training, he was reared in a Greek city and he inherited Roman citizenship. He was also a Pharisee and had been a persecutor of Christians at Damascus. Though at first distrusted after his dramatic conversion by those he had opposed, his abilities brought him to the forefront and after several years he was commissioned as a missionary by a conference of several members of the Church at Antioch.

Impact: Paul’s tireless efforts to spread the Gospel, his skills as a teacher, his compassion, and his inspired writings were key reasons why the early church survived and thrived.

von Zinzendorf, Count (Nickolaus Ludwig)

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Count (Nickolaus Ludwig) von Zinzendorf (1700-1760), the founder of the religious community of Herrnhut and the apostle of the United Brethren, was born in Dresden in1700. It is not often that noble blood and worldly wealth are allied with true piety and missionary zeal. Such, however, was the case with Count von Zinzendorf. In 1731 Zinzendorf resigned all public duties and devoted himself to missionary work. He traveled extensively on the Continent, in Great Britain, and in America, preaching “Christ, and him crucified,” and organizing societies of Moravian brethren. John Wesley is said to have been under obligation to Zinzendorf for some ideas on singing, organization of classes, and church government. Zinzendorf was the author of some 2,000 hymns. He died at Herrnhut. He used his wealth to further the work of God’s Kingdom and he helped finance many successful missionary campaigns.

Patrick

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Patrick (c. 389- c. 461) was a famous Celtic missionary to Ireland. Patrick (or, more correctly, Patricius) was captured at the age of 16 by pirates and was sold into slavery to sheepherders in Northern Ireland. After six years he escaped and made his way to Gaul (or modern day France) where he entered a monastery. He returned to England but had a vision where he saw the people of Ireland calling to him, asking that he minister to them. In about 432 he answered this call and began preaching throughout the Irish countryside, converting large numbers of people from both the peasant and the noble classes. He built dozens of churches, which led to the conversion and baptism of thousands. His efforts not only transformed the religious landscape of Ireland, he greatly influenced the work of missionaries in Britain and on the European continent as well.

Morrison, Robert

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Robert Morrison (1782-1834) was the first Protestant missionary to China. He began studying Chinese along with theology and medicine as a student in Northumbria, England. In 1807 the London Missionary Society sent him to Canton, China. He spent his early years on the mission field in near seclusion as he attempted to master the language. His proficiency grew to the point that he became an interpreter for the British East India Company. He worked on a number of printed translations including a collection of hymns, prayers from the Book of Common Prayer, and, eventually, a translation of the entire Bible – a mammoth project he completed in 1823. He went to England for a short time in 1824 but returned to China within two years where he spent the remainder of his life. He saw very few converts during his lifetime but his translation work and the establishment of a mission school laid a solid foundation for the missionaries who followed him.