Music on mission: Integrated perspectives on the shared song

Abstract

African Christian music is a culturally distinct and recognizable element of faith in Africa. This article argues that such music embodies interrelated movements, conceptual and physical. These movements are central to Christian mission that is responsible for Christian expansion in Africa. Little scholarly reflection on the relationship between music in mission in this era might suggest that music is peripheral to mission. Yet, music is an essential element in the practice of mission within and beyond regular worship encounters on the continent. This article contributes to discourse about Christian mission and its relevance in the unprecedented growth of Christianity in Africa in the late 20th century. A World Christianity approach here will apply the framework of translation to assess the missiological implications of movement in music. Case studies of popular Christian music from various parts of the continent will supply the data for this analysis. Drawing on the author’s experiences with music and mission on the continent the article provides insights on revitalization, conversion, and globality in African Christianity. In the analysis, music will be evaluated in its own merit as a critical component of the ongoing undertaking of mission. The article will demonstrate how music provides the context for multiple transformations through performance and belief. These insights contribute to the growing body of knowledge regarding mission in Africa.

Their distinctive sound pierces the evening air at a street corner in Nairobi’s Mukuru informal settlement area. It is a mix of repetitive guitar rhythms, playing the root, dominant and fourth chords in different permutations for the Swahili songs. The Swahili lyrics Ingia Ingia uwe mmoja wa kondoo ring out. The song invites the listener to be one of the Lord’s sheep. The session is one of three evening evangelistic events hosted by a Pentecostal church in the neighborhood. The guitarist, bassist, drummer, and keyboardist dutifully accompany the singers in the familiar Swahili medleys. The small choir of seven singers move with the mood and tempo of the songs. The opening set of fast-paced pambio/choruses are the occasion for dance, which the growing crowd enthusiastically takes part in. The second half comprises slow-paced songs punctuated by loud prayer in Swahili and glossolalia. The music draws in a crowd of about 100 who then listen to an hour of evangelistic preaching in Swahili. The sermon ends with a call for converts and more prayers for divine provision and miracles. Once again, the musicians return to the stage and play what sounds like a loud soundtrack over the intense prayer session. A dozen come forward indicating their decision to become Christians. This scenario repeats itself in many urban areas around the continent. Despite the absence of treatment in mission literature, music is not on the periphery but is a vital part of these mission proceedings.

African Christian music is a culturally distinct and recognizable element of faith in Africa. Music embodies transformations that are central to the growth that we see. Music in mission conveys both the theological and cultural elements of the community within which this Christian expansion takes place. Here, music embodies the relationship between the self, and the collective in a shared expression. Identity and culture are related concepts that are central to making meaning within the religion.

As a consequence of its role in religious meaning making, African Christian music influence grows with Christian expansion on the continent. This article reflects on the role of this music in mission. The dearth of scholarly reflection on music in mission might suggest that the worship arts in general, and music in particular, is marginal to mission. The purpose of this reflection is to explore music as an identifier of the core content of Christianity as represented in mission. We will first consider Christian expansion in Africa, then use the frame of “movement” to reflect on liturgy and mission. Building on this theme, I will then explore how music brings them together. Using my experiences in music and mission, I consider how the idea of movement helps us understand revitalization, conversion, and globality in African Christianity.

Wherever it is sung, though carrying a theologically particular message, Christian music acts as an important cultural identity marker. Music that resonates with Christian groups emerges from particular social, ethnic, historical and geographical contexts of the participants. For music to make sense to its audience, and carry religious content, it must have demonstrated cultural proximity to its participants. In this regard, music carries with it unique features in its form, style, orchestration, and performance.

As Christianity has grown on the continent, distinct forms of music have emerged that are African in their provenance and style. As the faith increases in its demographic strength, its music diversifies as new forms of musical expression emerge. The variegation of the music is, at least in part, the product of the diverse cultural expressions incorporated in the growing populations of Christians. These emergent forms fulfill the cultural and theological role required for mission at a time when Christianity is growing in the global South.

Understanding mission and liturgy as movement

How then do we understand mission in the continent given this rapid Christian expansion? Movement as a theme within liturgy and mission is one helpful way of appreciating Christian expression in this context. Movement frames the discussion in a way that brings together practice, content, art, and aesthetic into one discussion. Music as an essential element both in liturgy and mission embodies multi-dimensional elements of movement. I use the term movement in this essay broadly to refer to change or development either in the physical sense, or at the theological, conceptual plane. I argue that in the African context— with its holistic cosmology— these two planes of movement are interconnected. I will explore this connectivity using music as a cultural feature and religious expression.

Liturgy might be understood as a series of movements. Liturgy is defined here as the form or formulary according to which public religious worship, especially Christian worship, is conducted. It includes both literary and oral forms. Each component of liturgy represents a different pace with which worship is performed. In this regard, every component of the liturgy whether literary or oral is, in a sense, a movement. Each element carries the congregation forward from one liturgical point towards a climax at some point in the service.

In historic mission churches, particularly those with high church traditions, the climax of a service is the Eucharist. In the traditional Roman Catholic traditional worship service, the elements of the service move together towards this historic ritual. The liturgy builds step by step with each element contributing a piece of what is needed for the culmination in the Communion event.

Reformed traditions carry forward movement with the kerygma or proclamation event. The sermon here marks the high point of the service. Though the Eucharist has a role to play, its function is subservient to the supremacy of truth shared through the sermon. I note here that each of these “liturgical movements” emerge from a particular cultural, historical, and theological heritage.

The Pentecostal service might also be considered within this framework of movements. The worship service builds towards a final high point of transformation. Worshippers consider this point as mediated by the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the individuals gathered. We can see how the elements of a liturgy constitute movement towards a particular end, each in a different way.

Components of the liturgy are also movements within themselves. Take the sermon for example. The sermon’s function within the service might be different depending on the liturgical tradition. Whatever the culmination of the service, the sermon itself carries forward as a series of movements put together to accomplish a particular goal. The sermon fits within the liturgy contributing to the end goal of the service. In high church traditions of historic mission churches, the sermon that leads towards the Eucharist progresses with a separate set of movements than the sermon whose function is to prepare for an encounter with the Holy Spirit through the miraculous.

The sermon constitutes a series of movements within this element: there is the reading of the word, an exposition of it, and oral elements that build together towards the goal of the sermon. These oral elements may include stories and propositional truths. In oral cultures, these elements are combinations of songs, poems, proverbs, and so on. The sermon carries forward in a culturally attuned manner to the context within which the sermon is preached.

Prayer can also be seen as a movement. While traditional Christian prayer is interspersed within the liturgy as a constituent element, other denominations do it differently. Prayer is an extended component of liturgy, which contains movements within it as well. Prayer could form the substance of an entire worship service in its entirety. Whether it is a separate dedicated event, or as part of Sundays’ liturgies, prayer can contain multiple movements. For example, within Pentecostal churches, the prayer might begin with music then the leader guides the communal prayer engagement. After this, the congregation joins in prayer at climatic points. The congregation express themselves as individuals but also within a collective prayer exercise in this moment. The congregation prays in different languages including glossolalia.

Similarly, music within liturgy also comprises a series of movements. It is common to find that in charismatic Pentecostal gatherings, music takes a form that has two or more movements. At least one segment includes a high tempo movement while another includes a slow, more reflective, and prayerful tempo. Different communities navigate these two tempos in different ways. Some will start with the reflective mode, while others might start with the high-paced movement. For instance, during their Sunday service the charismatic student group at Kenyatta University, in Kenya starts with reflective music, for prayer, and ends with high tempo music. In sum, the liturgical event might therefore be understood as a set of movements within a broader movement. The liturgical goal of these movements is to culminate in a particular liturgical end goal. Liturgies emerge from particular cultural, historical and theological contexts. Of the different elements, music is perhaps the most culturally embedded component.

Christian mission as movements

Christian mission can also be understood within this framework of motion. The idea of translation is itself about movement. We draw here from Andrew Walls and Lamin Sanneh, and others who advanced the idea of translation as central to Christian expansion. Translation here can be understood in two ways. Translation could refer to the linguistic activity of preparing and presenting scripture in new languages from extant languages.

Translation could also be considered in a broader, fuller sense. It refers to the entry of the Christian message into the lives of the recipients (Walls, 1996: 28). The idea of translation here draws from the incarnation. Incarnation is itself a movement. It encompasses the mystery of the ultimate sacrifice that produced the Christian events of the crucifixion and resurrection. God became man through Christ, in order to reconcile man to Himself. The entry of this message into the lives of individuals and the community is thus the process of translation.

Translation is therefore a movement, insofar as the message moves from the missionary into the recipient’s life and context. Translation assumes that mission has taken place across cultures. That is to say the Christian message moved from Christ’s immediate locality over the ages through the missionary (using the term broadly here), to the recipients globally. The recipients also become bearers of the message who in turn, become missionaries.

At particular points in history, mission requires the physical movement of the missionary from their home to a new culture or context. This cross-cultural, geographic movement is true at least in the initial stages of Christian expansion in particular geographic locations. This encompasses a broader category of movement, which also results in mission and incarnational translation. This is the concept of migration. By definition that migration is about movement. People relocate either voluntarily or under compulsion to other places. They carry with them their culture and in many cases their religion. Migration is central to Christian expansion, and is also about movement (Hanciles, 2021). Mission, as a sub-set of this migration, is also movement. It is movement of the gospel message from one group of people to the recipients. Mission is not passively accepted among recipients. Effective mission requires agency on the part of the recipient. If the message communicates, the recipients either receive or reject it. Active reception occurs in places where Christianity has thrived.

How then is mission about motion? Location or place in mission implies motion where people carry the message in their physical translocation to other places. Mission is about motion in the theological sense as well. There is a spiritual content that carries forward and moves from the missionary to the recipient. In this way, mission requires motion; both in the physical sense as well as in the spiritual sense.

Here, we take revival as a sub-set of missionary activity. It implies movement in commitment from nominalism within a faith, to a place of engaged belief (Shaw, 2010). Whereas, like mission in general, there might be physical movement, revivals put the responsibility for spiritual awakening from nominalism on the recipients. Revival is as much about the missionary and their message, as it is about the recipients whose faith is revived.

Similarly, conversion requires movement of the message from the “outside” into the inner life of an individual convert. By conversion here, we refer to the ongoing adoption of the Christian belief system beginning with the early stages of the missionary process (Walls, 2017: 35–48). Conversion remains an ongoing process within the individual and in the society. It involves a transformation from one set of spiritual or theological priorities to another. This movement is an essential part of mission. It is also a crucial aspect of the missionary enterprise. Conversion includes within it, the invitation to engage with a new theological position. It also requires a submission to the tenets of this faith within the community.

Christian faith considers the world its mission field. From its inception, Christianity saw itself as a global religion. World Christianity studies is precisely about Christian expansion beyond the Jewish localities into the cultures of the world (Walls, 2002: 72–84). The gospel always resisted attempts to contain it within its Jewish roots (Sanneh, 2015: 56–95). Globality is therefore an essential element of Christian faith. However, globality of Christian faith involves a going out and bringing in. It requires a crossing of cultures through mission. Globality also appreciates within the Christian faith, the role of indigenous agency in carrying forward the global vision of Christian devotion. Through its central role in liturgy and mission, music embodies these multiple motions and movements encountered in Christian expansion. We now use the lens of music to reflect on revivals, conversion and globality within music in the African context.

Revival music: Early sounds of revitalization

Music has always been connected to revivals. The reawakening of spiritual fervor is the result of community encounters with Christian truth. In Africa, these encounters coincided with the availability of scripture in the local languages. Local preachers facilitated the incarnation of God’s word into the imagination of the people within their context. The people respond to the word in distinctive music that comes to be associated with the revival.

Tukutendereza: Reviving historic mission churches, 1940s

The East Africa Revival started in the 1930s in Gahini, Rwanda. It quickly spread to Uganda and by the 1940s it was in Kenya and Tanzania (Mugambi, 2020: 55–72). The revival initially started among the Anglicans but later took root among the historic mission churches in the region (Ward and Wild-Wood, 2010). Revivalists embarked on aggressive evangelistic missions in urban and rural areas. Those who were literate read the Bible and preached to their fellow revivalists in local languages, incorporating the oral epistemological tools derived from their cultural context. Thus, the East Africa revival fellowships became known for the telling of “testimonies.” These were a particular type of conversion story. It began with a self-introduction indicating that the speaker “is saved,” giving a date when this happened. Thereafter, the speaker would share their conversion journey outlining what they were before, and who they became after their conversion experience. They would often go into graphic detail that was in some cultures at the time, considered shameful for outsiders to know.

The song Tukutendereza came to be associated with the revivalists. The chorus was sung after each testimony was told. So strong was the legacy of the song that the revivalists are also known as the Tukutendereza people. Tukutendereza is Luganda for “we praise you.” Luganda is the language of the Buganda people, one of the larger ethnic communities in Uganda. The song is an interesting study in translation and movement.

The song, tune, and lyrics were based on the 1873 hymn “Precious Savior, Thou Hast Saved Me.” The song is also known by the title Full Salvation. The hymn was written by Louise M. Rouse and the music by Dora Boole.

The first verse of the hymn and the refrain reads:

Precious Savior, Thou hast saved me;

Thine, and only Thine I am;

Oh! the cleansing blood has reached me,

Glory, glory to the Lamb!

Refrain

Glory, glory, Jesus saves me,

Glory, glory to the Lamb!

Oh! the cleansing blood has reached me,

Glory, glory to the Lamb!

The translators changed the tune significantly. As a result, the translation did not render the exact same meaning. The song struck a chord in giving an oral, musical expression to the revival experience the people had:

Tukutendereza Yesu We praise you Jesus

Yesu omwana gw’endiga Jesus the lamb

Omusayi gwe gunazziza His blood washes me

Nebaza (Yesu) Omulokozi I thank Jesus the Savior. (Translation by Natukunda-Togboa, 2016:105)

The song was a translation of a Keswick Revival era song. The original song itself predated the tent revivals by two years, but would no doubt have been a staple in the revivals that followed. The Keswick revival, and the conventions that followed thereafter stressed the need to move away from nominal faith. Keswickian theology emphasized a second work, that catalyzed sanctification in the inner person, leading to the “higher Christian life.” Many see this as one of the antecedents of Pentecostal emphasis on the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Keswick had a profound influence on missionaries to East Africa, particularly Joe Church a medical missionary to Rwanda (Barringer, 2010; Bruner, 2011; Peterson, 2014). While it is easy to attribute the East Africa Revival to the Keswick movement, it is important to understand the centrality of African agency in the movement. The form and content of the revival only remotely resembled Keswickian revivalism. The East Africa Revival was an entirely new African movement. This song illustrates several ways this was so.

The song, while a translation of an actual hymn, differed in tune and lyrics from the original song. It represented an act of translation as described by Walls, where the message entered the minds and hearts of the recipients. It produced a response in song that resonated with the audience.

The role of the song among the revivalists also represented movement. Those who sung the song used it as a social, religious and even cultural identifier. It represented the social shift from being nominal Christians, into a new family of people bound by a religious kinship. Within this setting, Africans previously bound by strong kinship ties freely mingled with members of other families and ethnic communities. The revivalists owned the song, singing it in as many languages as they could translate it into. They put these translations as well as other songs important to their movement in a hymnal. They then made the musical symbol of their identity Tukutendereza the title of their hymnal (East Africa Revival Fellowship, 2015). A similar case could be made for the Somlandela Revivals of the 1940s in South Africa. The song Somlandela (I will follow) was a translation of the hymn “Follow On,” which also went by the title “Down in the Valley with My Savior I Would Go” or “I Will Follow Jesus.” Like the Tukutendereza hymn, this was also a Keswick Revival era hymn.

These songs represented a cultural shift where members of the revival movements entered into a new cultural world marked by a constant navigation between their traditional mores and western practices. Hymns from European revivals contained repositories of propositional Christian truths. Through the translations they provided a new way of delivering theological content that was coopted into the African religious experience. These songs did not have dances but focused the delivery of meaning on the propositional statements contained in the lyrics. This way of using music was added into the cultural inventory of religious expression. These translations provided a bridge to the later forms of sacred music that developed on the continent. This shift, like translation, was never complete to remain a constant negotiation. It is in a state of constant flux addressing emerging conflict as culture changes and is exposed to the questions raised by the gospel.

Pambio/chorus and the movement of conversion, 1970s

The most prolific period of growth happened from the 1970s to the 2000s. While the growth is found in all Christian expressions, the fastest growing set of expressions in this era were the Pentecostal-Charismatics. They brought with them a new genre of songs—the Pambio (Swahili) Chorus or Mabino (Lingala). The communities of faith introduced new elements to their songs in keeping with the new realities. The new songs were in the common languages found in cities. Zulu, and the related languages in Southern Africa, Kiswahili in Eastern Africa, various varieties of Pidgin in West Africa, and so on.

This genre of songs was closer to indigenous music in melodic structure and tonality. The content was conveyed in physical movement and also in the lyrics. The movements were taking from the existing repertoire of dance in the different localities. These forms of music were also more likely than hymns to use rhetorical questions, stories, and sayings in the call–response format. As products of modern times the songs included the use of modern electric instruments. In keeping with the pragmatic ethos found in these movements, the adoption of modern music instruments was admittedly faster than within historic mission denominations.

The songs adopted formats that made it easier for multi-ethnic gatherings to participate in the common experience. This was the antiphonal call–response style known as pambio. The song leader raises a series of questions, which the congregation repeat, respond to in a question–answer, or an A–B format, with a C or D section dedicated for movement.

These songs also drew from the culture the genres that resonated with the emerging urban populace. The songs in West Africa had their ear on high life music while East and Central Africa resonated with Pachanga and Benga styles of music. In South Africa they listened to the spirituals, and township music. Songs in this era picked up on the practice of communal movement already prominent among the African Initiatives in Christianity. They reintroduced this element and made it a formal component with communal choreography.

These songs were the product of a generation’s worth of “labor of Christian song,” where musicians acting as religio-cultural translators reconfigured existing resources to articulate Christian belief from within their lived experiences (Kidula, 2019). The songs embody in their lyrics and concrete expressions the theological, social, and cultural transformation of a people grappling with what it means to enter into communion with one another as God’s community in a rapidly changing, urbanizing world. These were the songs of the crusade era, which went together with the mass conversions of the 1980s and 1990s. The songs found their way into the churches with the shift from the crusade era to church planting, thereafter the mega-church era. One illustrative example is Wa Milele, a Swahili song in the Benga beat sung in East and Central Africa. We show the lyrics with accompanying movement to highlight the integrated concept of motion embodied in the songs.

Wa Milele

[Movement—step movements to the right and to the left on the second and fourth beats of the bar, in the genre, sometimes accompanied by a clap on the second and fourth beats of the bar]

Wa milele wa milele (Everlasting/Forever) [gesture—rolling hand movements to signify eternity]

Mungu wa Baraka ni nani? (Who is the God of blessings?) [gesture—waving hands to signify blessing]

Wa milele wa milele (Everlasting/Forever)

Mungu wa Baraka ni Yesu (God of blessings is Jesus)

Mungu wa baraka, ni Yesu (God of blessings, is Jesus) [gesture—waving hands to signify blessing]

Mungu wa uzima, ni Yesu (God of life/wholeness, is Jesus) [gesture—scooping hands to signify wholeness]

Mungu wa upendo, ni Yesu (God of love, is Jesus) [gesture—hands crossed over chest to signify love]

Mungu wa amani, ni Yesu (God of peace, is Jesus) [gesture—waving hands to signify peace]

Anazungukia maisha yangu (he surrounds my life) [movement—turn around in four steps to signify being surrounded by God in every area]

Anasumbukia maisha yangu (he is concerned for my life).

This song like other pambio/choruses, goes beyond the cognitive dimension. It is an immersive experience where in singing the song the singer proclaims their theological commitments and enacts them through movement. In the process their heart, mind, and strength are engaged in proclaiming those truths.

The same is true of such songs as Siyahamba, a Zulu public domain song from the 1970s. The main lyric line Siyahamb’ ekukhanyen’ kwenkhos’ means “We Are Marching in the Light of the King.” Hamba Vangeli, popularized in the 1990s in South Africa means “may the gospel move (forward).” A similar sentiment was captured in the 1990s Swahili song from East Africa Iende Mbele Injili, which also means, may the gospel move forward. More recently in the 2000s, the South African song Wa Hamba nati means “You go with us, thank you.”

These songs demonstrate how conversion is in fact about multiple movements. They outline in their content, and illustrate in their dance, how the individual, and their community moves from one set of spiritual or theological priorities to another. This motion is both individual and communal. The songs are artistic, liturgical enactment of mission that constantly admonish the participant to accept the invitation to live in light of the gospel. Their iterative, repetitive format serves the same purpose as the chants of the ancient church. They teach and reinforce Christian truths in bite-sized portions to communities with oral epistemologies. Nested within these truths are the core elements of the gospel message and the injunctions for mission.

Globality: Music and African transnational movements

If mission and the essence of the gospel is about crossing cultures, then we can expect to see these movements in the worship arts of these cultures. Indeed, a close examination of worship arts reveals a constant crossing and recrossing of boundaries expressed through worship arts.

Discourse about worship arts around the world needs to catch up with the dynamic nature of these engagements. One argument to support ongoing missions in the global South, especially Africa, was that the “depth” of the conversion was found to be inadequate. Support for the arguments cited were the “lack of content,” in the music, and the “syncretism” found in the visual arts.

It is not in doubt that conversion is an ongoing process as the gospel permeates ever-changing aspects of a particular culture. After all, conversion of individuals and of cultures is never really complete. Aspects of cultures will struggle with their “human nature.” Other aspects will be overtly or covertly opposed to Christ. However, the heuristic process of determining the depth of content in a particular Christian expression is inadequate if it does not take into account the epistemological processes within that culture. To put it differently, analyzing the gospel content of music in one culture using the music of a different culture is bound to return an unsatisfactory result.

We are now seeing this multi-level cross-cultural transmission with some songs composed on the African soil. Several songs have broken through transnational barriers. The songs carry with them the oral quality that makes them adaptable to multiple situations. Their lyric structure and cosmopolitan mix of languages allows them to be easily “transported” to multiple settings.

The songs carry with them physical movements and an aesthetic of movement. While the indigenous language words might not fully translate, the movements make up for the difference. The movements embody a more readily accessible “embodied” message of God’s immanence.

One song that represents the cross-cultural appeal of African songs is Onaga (Godfrey and Hairston, 2019). The most famous rendition of this song was recorded live by Tim Godfrey, a Nigerian, and J.J. Hairston, an African American. The chorus of the song is Onaga everything is working for my sake.

The English grammar is odd. However, this is one instance that demonstrates the influence of local languages on the use of English. When translated back into African languages, this phrase renders meaning that is closer to “God is working everything on my behalf.”

The lyrics and movements of the main sections of the song are as follows:

Onaga

Chains are breaking for my sake aye for my sake [gesture—crossed open hands to signify chains being loosed]

Mountains are moving for my sake aye for my sake [gesture—open hands pushing outwards to signify mountains moving]

Walls are falling for my sake aye for my sake [gesture—descending hands to signify falling walls]

Everything is working for my sake aye for my sake [gesture—hands circling over the head to signify God’s cover over one’s life]

Pre-chorus

Children of God—Yeah 4x

Children of God will you should hallelujah

Shout hallelujah to the lord most high

Chorus

Hallelujah.

We note here the very concrete themes contained in the lyrics. The song projects a hopeful vision of God’s involvement in the participants’ lives. In the song the participants use their hands to show victory and blessings. They also show chains breaking, mountains moving and walls falling. The performative aspect of the song is important because the gestures represent the singer’s aspirations of God’s intervention. Other songs of this nature include Most High God (Thompson, 2010), My God Is Good (Agu, 2009), Alpha and Omega (Houghton, 2005).

These songs carry the theological, social, and cultural movement of mission within their form and content. Their message carries across the borders to other African countries and beyond. The carriers of the music see themselves as global citizens, whether their migrations are voluntary or forced.

Their audacity is unaffected by the historic stain of the colonial enterprise on Christian missions. They are unapologetic as they carry their faith into the regions once responsible for Africa’s evangelization. They demonstrate the Christian imperative to reach the nations by welcoming others (often migrants), to partake in their vibrant worship. Music becomes a universal experience, which they share together regardless of the members’ ethnic or cultural background. These experiences provide one more example of the essential role of indigenous agency in mission.

Conclusion

Using the framework of “movement” we reflected on liturgy and mission; two elements of Christian expression brought together by music. Through several case studies of common songs from East, Central and South Africa, we showed how the mission themes of revitalization, conversion and globality in African Christianity are carried forward by music.

Though indigenous compositions permeate every facet of the African worship experience, the missionary genre has had an important role to play. It helped bridge the transition from local modes of religious content delivery to the propositional truth mode prevalent in western hymnody. In this way, the translated hymn catalyzed music for mission at the liminal periods of Christian expansion marked by the revivals. Language here was an important vector in the formulation of African agency in mission in the mid-20th century. This set the stage for the prolific growth witnessed in the latter part of the 20th century into the 21st century.

Though sacred music emerges from a particular sociocultural context, it is a shared experience. Its liturgical use implies a shared belief within a community. At its core, lies the message of the cross, the symbol of the incarnation, the basis of Christian mission. Christian conversion comes out of mission, and is itself a social, cultural, and theological movement, triggered by the incarnation.

Music embodies these movements through the performative dimension. It incorporates people’s voices and bodies in an enactment of this spiritual transformation. In the shared musical event, a communitas is developed where each participant connects with the other, and with the community. Orality of the performances makes each event a unique experience, as the leaders and the community customize their lyrics and performances to address the issues of the moment.

My thesis is that music embodies interrelated movements, conceptual and physical, which are central to Christian mission. Examining these movements provides us with one way of making sense of mission and the resulting Christian expansion. Music is an essential part of the ongoing task of mission, reenacting the multiple transformations on a regular basis within the church and in the mission context. Therefore, to understand mission among a people, sing their songs, moving as they move. The experience might offer powerful insights about who they are and where their Christianity is headed.