Music Room

Music in Missions

Imagine you’re walking into a church for the very first time in your life. You may be a brand new Christian, or you may be thinking about becoming one. When you walk inside, some folks are playing music, but they’re using instruments that you have never seen or heard before and they’re singing in a language that is very different from your own. You wonder if this is something you really want to learn about -- or if it’s all just too difficult. Would you walk out?

This is, unfortunately, the reality for millions of people across South Asia when they walk into a church building. Many churches that choose to worship entirely in English or sing Western songs only reach the people who are able to speak English or are patient enough to keep coming despite the unfamiliarity. There are thousands of fellowships in South Asia that worship in other languages, but well-meaning missionaries in the last decades and centuries told new believers that their local music and instruments were evil. So the only choice was to translate European and American songs into these other languages.

Many of these hymns and songs are still heard throughout South Asian churches. Though they hold deep meaning and history for many, they are often awkward to sing because their language doesn’t match the Western melodies and rhythms, and the songs are very foreign musically to what they normally hear.

It is no wonder that Christianity, though Asian in origin, has a reputation of being “foreign” and is called the “white man’s religion” in South Asia.

Many other believers, though, felt God giving them songs of the heart that told the Gospel and praised the Lord, yet reflected who they were as South Asians. And Christian workers are increasingly finding in South Asia that when songs and music come from inside a culture, not only does worship in churches become more ardent and heartfelt, but also outreach to non-Christians in the communities is more effective as people hear the Gospel clothed in a musical cloak that is their own.

In his book Church Planting Movements: How God Is Redeeming a Lost World, David Garrison says worship in the heart language of the people occurs in most church planting movements around the world. “Worship in the heart language allows the gospel to flow freely through a people group,” he writes. “There are Church Planting Movements that have erupted among people groups who do not yet have the Bible translated into their heart language, but even then their worship, songs and prayers are expressed in their heart language” (p. 231).

In this music section, you will find articles and downloads that show examples of how this is popping up around South Asia. From the deserts of Pakistan to the Himalayas to the lush rice fields of Bangladesh, God is putting a new song in the hearts of His followers and setting them free to sing His praises and speak His name to the lost millions of South Asia. Languages and instruments that previously praised Buddha or Hindu gods and goddesses or other deities are now praising the Most High God as He prepares to gather all the nations around His throne at the end of time.

In the meantime, our prayer is may many believers sing His praises in their own tongue and in their own beloved musical style so that His name will be praised throughout the peoples of South Asia.