Church music plays significant roles in social, religious, and social gatherings in Africa. God gave people the gift of music and commanded its usage for the edification of man. The term “Church music” covers three major aspects of ministry within the context of a local church, namely; Congregational music, choral music, and instrumental music. A piece of music with appropriate biblical text can serve as a response of prayer, praise, a testimony of God’s faithfulness, or a response to an initial revelation of God during worship, or any Christian convergence. Although there may be a lot of confusion on what may be termed as church music, this study seeks to identify the term and discuss the ideals of church music in worship and other Christian convergence from physical and non-physical (spiritual) perspectives of Church music and ministry addressing the problem of lack of structure in the organization of church music ministry. Church music ministry allows Christians to be stewards of their gifts and is a valid medium of propagating the gospel. The study adopts literary and theological approaches and notes that music gives room for the edification of Christians, contributing its quota in building a network of musicians as they unite with other church leaders in raising offerings of praise and thanksgiving to God. It notes that church music should carry a message, express heartfelt praise to God, and/or a divinely inspired message of God to parishioners. It argues that Church music, of necessity, should be from disciplined Christian minds, to prepare true worshippers, reconciling them back to God.
See Full PDF See Full PDFThe overall objective of this paper is to investigate and outline New Testament principles regarding the missional character of music in worship. In this paper, we are going to conduct a survey of music in worship in the New Testaments, which will help us see the growing use of music in worship to achieve God's mission. The exegesis of selected New Testament texts that are more relevant in defining the missional character of music in worship will be employed. While the focus of this paper is to outline the missional character of music in worship, it will reflect on the New Testament perspective of the missional church and worship as a basis upon which this article is based. This is premised on the fact that the missio Dei (the mission of God), gives birth to the missional ecclesiology and worship, which ultimately gives birth to the missional music. And at the same time, when we are conscious of the missional character of music in worship, it helps us to shape our theology and praxis of our missional ecclesiology and worship. This article is divided into five sections. The first introduces the article as a whole; section two deals with the New Testament perspective of the Missional Church. The third section is on New Testament perspective of the Missional Worship, and the fourth section deals with New Testament perspective on the Missional Music. Section five concludes the article.
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Music has always been the cradle of religion; without which religion will not have full expression. From the bible days, it is discovered that Christian response to God's intervention and revelation has often been communicated through song. Today, among members of African Pentecostalism, songs play significant roles during social activities, such as wedding celebrations, naming ceremonies, anniversaries, birthday celebrations and SO on. Music, as a combination of both vocal and instrumentals, accord people the opportunity to express their emotions fully. However, works on the role of music in African Pentecostal churches in SouthWest , Nigeria, as it relates to liturgical activities, have not been given adequate attention. It is evident that music in the contemporary society is not static, but dynamic and always passing through different stages. Therefore, at this time of spiritual reawakening in the history of the church, the objective of this study is to gain insights into the role of music in the African Pentecostal churches. This paper adopted sociological underpinnings with a more descriptive and analytical perspective, particularly participant's observation on the role of music in African Pentecostal Churches in SouthWest , Nigeria.
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Christian music in contemporary Africa: a re-examination of its essentials Christian music all over Africa (be it liturgical church music or gospel), in contemporary times has become so popular and well grown howbeit in divergent dimensions. As a result, there have been questions, debates and confusions both by insiders and outsiders of the Christian faith on what exactly constitutes Christian music. There then arises the need to theorise the fundamentals of Christian music, exhuming the Biblical, musical and socio-cultural basis for its performance practices. This article examines various principles that should guide contem-porary Christian musicianship, especially as contained in the Scriptures; arguing that the practice of Christian music cannot be divorced from Bible even when the principles of musical sound organisation and the socio-cultural needs of the society have to be observed. The tension created by the superim-position of the three is also resolved. This article is ther.
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EVOLUTION OF THE MUSIC MINISTRY IN DIVINE BAPTIST CHURCH OGIEDI-ẸLUMẸ
Abstract Music performs crucial roles and functions in the activities of religious bodies including the Divine Baptist church, Ogiedi. Visible music activities in the Church are apparent, but barely little written documents exist about its practice and key actors at the beginning of the Church. Possible data on the music ministry are, therefore, fading away in alarming tempo. It is therefore imperative to embark on a research into the trend of this ministry in the church through collection and analysis of relevant data in order to produce a document on this ministry, set needed records straight, evaluate prevailing standards and project for the future. This research adopted historical and descriptive designs relying majorly on oral data from purposively sampled subjects using interviews, focused group discussions and participant observation as tools for data collection. It revealed a vibrant music ministry that effectively served and produced capable manpower for the church and the society at large. However, there must be concerted efforts for increased indigenous music compositions, hymn translations and disc recordings for the largely non-literate congregation to find meaningful worship experience from the music ministry.
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This bibliographic study explores the interplay between the Bible and music within the context of African Christianity. Underpinned by the theory of syncretism, the paper employs a contextual thematic analysis to unravel the nexus between African indigenous music and Christian worship and draws implications for both scholarship and practice. Findings indicate that early European missionaries incited a satanic impression against the use of African indigenous music among Christian worshippers. It was contrarily revealed that Bibleinformed use of African music in Christian worship is imperative for evangelisation, deeper spirituality, and faster church growth in Africa. In conclusion, the paper emphasises that the Bible and (indigenous) music are inseparable. It also maintains that music has the transformative power of fostering community cohesion, religious identity, and spiritual devotion among African Christians. Finally, the paper recommends greater collaboration among scholars, theologians, music educators, and gospel music practitioners in the African context in accomplishing the goal of the gospel.
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The presence of at least two prominent streams of church music within the DRC is evident – this is also true of most other Protestant and Reformed churches. There is tension between the ‘old music’ and the ‘new music’; traditional church music and contemporary church music; the official repertoire of church music and the utilized repertoire of songs. Liturgical singing often includes various free songs (songs outside the official hymnal). Songs from various traditions are cut and pasted or copied and merged into liturgy through a process of bricolage. Within bricolage liturgy there is a growing tendency towards bricolage liturgical singing. A brief overview of the history of church music illustrates the complexities regarding church music. The official song of the temple was often complimented by the ecstatic song of individuals. The more formal and official song of the church often stood in contrast to the song and music that were played and sung in houses and elsewhere. Christian believers in different eras expressed themselves in different forms and genres of music. The Bible does not support a blueprint for church music. There is no Biblical church music, mainly because no ‘melodies’ could be preserved (cf. Mowinckel 2004:9). The latter is further complicated by the culture-bound nature of Biblical music and songs. The Biblical data mostly provides snapshots of instances where God’s people utilized music and singing in their interaction with the Almighty and covenantal God. Certain principles and guidelines for church music could be drawn from these, although the danger of fundamentalism, relativism and subjectivism remains. A study of liturgy illustrates the important role of music and singing within the dialogue of the liturgy. Recent studies emphasize that church music could function as a ritual symbol within a specific cultural or sub-cultural community. As such church music is closely related to the culture (or sub-culture) of a given community and can never be evaluated apart from that culture. Within a postmodern culture, church music will be greatly influenced and coloured by the values and attitudes of postmodernism. The latter have major implications for musical styles, genres, repertoires and the sanctification of church music. Within postmodernism the borders between sacred and secular are not so clear, neither between sacred (liturgical) music and secular music. Within Western culture and postmodernism there is a growing need for an inculturated and an inter-culturated song, expressing the smaller narrative(s) of the local congregation in idioms, language, metaphors and styles true to the local culture. Church music is closely related to the spirituality of the local congregation. The dominant type of spirituality will necessarily have a sound influence on the musical genres, accompaniments, styles and repertoire of the local congregation. The growing phenomenon of popular spirituality has definite implications for church music. At least three circles of spiritualities must find expression in the song of the local congregation, namely an ecumenical spirituality, a denominational spirituality and a congregational spirituality. Where the official song (Liedboek van die Kerk) gives expression to the denominational or Reformed spirituality as well as the meta-narrative, the free song often gives expression to the congregational spirituality as well as the smaller narrative. It is argued that the freely chosen song is an important means of expressing the spirituality of the local congregation (culture). In this sense, it does not threaten the official church song but compliments it. These two could stand in a positive and creative tension. Regarding liturgical singing, the DRC is presently moving from a societas through a phase of communitas to a new societas. It is impossible to predict the outcome of this process. As Burger (1995:31) indicates, a communitas-phase releases a lot of new energy that could be of great value to the church. Church music, as folk music and cultural music, will have to be faithful to the culture and spirituality of God’s people living in the twenty first century within a given context. The age-old tradition must continue hand in hand with a new song. Vos (2009:5) summarizes accurately: “However, each generation of believers must interpret the ancient sources and traditions of the Church anew, within the demands of their time, without being unfaithful to the traditions in which a definitive liturgy exists”.
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Music and Worship in Africa: Adventists' Dialogue from Biblical, Historical, and Cultural Perspectives
The paper surveys the function of music in the Bible, critiques the philosophy of Contemporary worship music and makes recommendations for Seventh-day Adventists
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