Free Republic

A missionary cannot properly evaluate the differences among cultural expressions until he has understood their universals.At the root of the most thoughtful defenses of contemporary worship today is an appeal based on a missions philosophy that stresses indigenous ministry. If, as the International Missionary Council asserted as far back 1938, an indigenous church is one that "spontaneously uses forms of thought and modes of action natural and familiar in its own environment," then it makes sense that a church use those music forms that are most common in its culture. A pastor or a missionary should not expect a church...