EMQ » Jan – April 2025 » Volume 61 Issue 1
Evolving Cultural Expressions
Summary: About 50 years after evangelical missions started among the Xerente people of Brazil, singers and other musicians started composing their own songs. These compositions blended traditional Indigenous elements with aspects of popular music typical of the region. This fusion is a result of the cultural shifts that occurred over many years. But are these fused compositions authentically Xerente? Should outsiders insist Indigenous peoples restrict themselves to what we think is historically authentic?
By Elsen Portugal
Music and the arts are no strangers to missionary work. Wherever the message of Christ has been preached around the world, they have often been present from day one. We see music in Paul’s instruction to be filled with the spirit by “singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (Ephesians 5:19, ESV).
We see it in the hymns missionaries taught to African Christians in the nineteenth century. We also see it in lively musical worship scenes in the Majority World in our generation. But determining what music or art is appropriate for Christian worship has often been contentious.
Many missionaries may have thought, “If we are bringing the true message of Christ to those in darkness, isn’t it then our responsibility to decide what music or art is good for our hearers?” And out went most local musical and art forms …
