The time has come for the last twist in my investigation of worship in Mavuno and Woodley. In my analysis so far, I have moved from ritualization and liturgy (orthopraxis), via embodiment and affection (orthopathos), to theologizing and doctrine (orthopistis), showing how each one is a lens through which to view worship. For analytic purposes I have kept the different dimensions apart, chiselling out the distinctive character of each as it is played out in context. Now it is time to tie it all together and look at worship as a unified whole, as orthodoxa. For as much as worship can indeed be seen as a specific rite within pentecostal liturgy; a holistic practice that involves body, heart, and mind; or as a carrier of, and creative force in pentecostal theology, it is nevertheless always more than that. In real life, the different aspects of worship intersect and integrate in myriad ways, reinforcing and deepening the experience for participants. Worship is all of them at the same time, and the whole is greater than its parts.
As will be clear from this chapter, for Pentecostals, worship is much more than musicking. It involves every aspect of life and travels far beyond the church walls. To worship is to live a life of love—loving God and neighbour—a life wholly surrendered to Jesus, walking daily in his presence, doing all for his glory, serving the community, and bringing about God’s kingdom on earth while longing for a better world to come. This life of love is the ultimate goal of human existence. Yet the ritual practice of worship is a facilitator, a fast-track to the transformational God-encounters that are at the very heart of pentecostal spirituality. Through worship, Pentecostals believe, communities are changed to change the world. It is this connection between a certain type of ritual action and the existential whole that make the practice of worship so central to Pentecostalism.
This chapter functions both as a conclusion, where themes from earlier chapters are integrated and given a theoretical and theological framework as part of a greater whole, and as an elaboration in its own right, adding new knowledge and new perspectives to the total picture. It begins with a few concluding theoretical remarks on the study’s contribution to the knowledge of pentecostal spirituality-as-theology, before continuing with a discussion of the link between soteriology, transformation, and song, especially in terms of how
1 Pentecostal Spirituality-as-Theology Revisited
1.1 Theoretical Remarks on This Study’s Contribution to Knowledge
Framing this study’s theoretical approach in Chapter 2, I proposed that given the holistic character of pentecostal faith and the close connection between spirituality and theology in this tradition, it makes sense to see Pentecostalism as “a form of life,”2 and worship (in the sense of congregational musicking) as a microcosm of pentecostal spirituality. The ritual practice of worship mirrors the dimensions played out in pentecostal spirituality and solidifies them by repeated practice. At the heart of Pentecostalism is its spirituality, which finds one of its major expressions in worship; thus, worship may serve as a window into the very heart of Pentecostalism.
As the book draws to a close, I return to this idea of worship as a microcosm of Pentecostalism, a multidimensional concentration of pentecostal spirituality-as-theology. The idea can be illustrated using the following model, one I have also used to organize my thoughts throughout the book (Figure 8; same as Figure 1).
The Orthodoxa-model has grown out of an iterative-inductive process whereby empirical data and theoretical frameworks have been put in creative dialogue. It works in two directions. On the one hand, it proposes that the pentecostal practice of worship (in the sense of congregational musicking, specifically the rite of worship and praise) can be theoretically understood and scientifically studied in a fruitful way using the three dimensions of ritualization, embodiment, and theologizing, underlining that these dimensions must be understood as intersected and integrated in actual congregational practice. On the other hand, it proposes that worship (as a holistic practice and
In this study, I have both confirmed earlier theories of pentecostal spirituality-as-theology, and taken steps to develop them. Most importantly, the study confirms and exemplifies in concrete terms: (1) the viability of a spirituality perspective on Pentecostalism; (2) the close connection between spirituality and theology in the pentecostal tradition; (3) the holistic and integrative character of pentecostal spirituality; (4) the centrality of worship both as ritual practice and as a core concept in pentecostal spirituality-as-theology; and lastly, 5) the viability of a ritual perspective on worship.
The study also develops earlier theories. The first development is to start with practice, and to do so using an empirical research method. Throughout my work I have kept coming back to detailed descriptions of what people do in church, and how they themselves understand what they do. Thus, in line with ritual theory and practice theory, the ‘how’ of worship has been the main point of departure. It is ritual practice that links doctrinal and affective aspects, through embodiment and action, not affection that links doctrine to practice, as earlier theories have stated.3 It is through
Another important development has been a revision of terms, meaning that orthopraxis in my work refers not to action in general or to social action (although in principle it could have), but specifically to ritualization, while orthopathos does not refer to affective dimensions alone, but is linked to embodiment, since bodies and emotions cannot be separated. And lastly, orthopistis is used to describe doctrinal aspects and theologizing, while orthodoxa is reserved for the totality of worship as holistic practice and holistic spirituality.5 From a pentecostal perspective, orthodoxy has more to do with right worship than right dogma, more with praise and prayer than arguments and academia. Theology starts with relating to God and fellow human beings, before reflecting on that relationship in light of text and context in a dialectic fashion. To be fair, Pentecostals have not always come to this second stage of theologizing, and this book seeks to demonstrate how such a theological dialectic may work in practice.
The study set out to answer two questions:
- –How and why do pentecostal churches practice worship as part of their spirituality?
- –Based on data from two concrete cases, how can worship be theologized from a pentecostal perspective?
The first question has been answered at length in previous chapters. Readers have been presented with two concrete cases of pentecostal congregational worship via detailed descriptions of observed services, extensive quotes from interviews, excerpts from songs, and results from research surveys. The account has depicted worship as a ritualized practice, an embodied practice, and a theologizing practice. The answer to the second question is built into the structure of the book via the theoretical framework of pentecostal spirituality as orthodoxa, and elaborated further in this chapter.
In this chapter, I move repeatedly between different dimensions and levels of worship and spirituality with the ambition of painting a total picture. I continuously pick up themes that have been discussed earlier in the book and seek to connect them with each other in novel ways. Throughout the chapter, I keep
However, painting a total picture is not easily done due to the way dimensions and levels consistently intersect and penetrate each other both concretely and conceptually, which is why the best understanding is probably received via a different route: by simply diving into a worship service and going with the flow, allowing oneself to be transformed through communal musicking as participants themselves prefer to do it.
2 Worship as Unio Mystica
From its inception, pentecostal spirituality has been perceived as a journey, a via salutis. At the core of that spirituality is a search for a transformational God-encounter, and not just as a one-time event but as a life totally immersed in God. The question, then, is where the journey begins, how it is completed, and the nature of the road in between. Commenting on early classical Pentecostals in the U.S., Steven Land reports, “The journey toward God was a journey with God in God. It was walking toward the Father with Jesus in the Spirit. But this journey was also fundamentally a journey into God: a kind of mystical, ascetical journey which was ingredient in knowing God and going further, deeper, and higher. To know God was to be directed by God’s will, motivated by God’s love, and strengthened by God’s power.”6
Thus, the journey has mystical dimensions, and can be perceived as a transformational unio mystica with the Divine. Using classic theological concepts, we could say that Pentecostals strive for participatio Christi, rather than imitatio Christi,7 for union with Christ rather than ‘merely’ following his example, although both participation and imitation are important. The order of things is key: first knowing God, journeying into his presence, then becoming directed by his will, motivated by his love, and strengthened by his power.
Worship (in the sense of congregational musicking) has a key role in that journey, ideally providing participants with an intense experience of God’s
In what follows, I discuss the mystical function of worship and relate that to soteriology and transformation as understood in the pentecostal tradition, showing how the rite of worship and praise is instrumental in embarking on the mystical journey into God. From the data available, I suggest that ritualized forms of worship serve as the prime location of union with God in the spirituality of Mavuno and Woodley. For local Pentecostals, the journey into God is experienced in a very real and tangible way through this ritual, an experience that is purposefully and carefully planned by the ritual specialists, the worship leaders and pastors, by virtue of a deliberate sequencing of songs and music. Communally and individually, worship becomes a rhythm that connects the human heart with the heart of God. And when so connected, his love and power start to flow through participants, transforming them into agents of change in society.
2.1 Transformation as a Key Concept in Pentecostal Spirituality
In the study of global Pentecostalism, transformation often surfaces as an explicit or implicit goal for the churches or people described. In fact, transformation has been at the core of the pentecostal tradition ever since its multi-local beginnings,10 although the term is not always used; renewal, re-birth, salvation, sanctification, new life, growth, and healing also serve to describe the many experiences of change that Pentecostals witness to having had as a result of encountering God.11 Christians who belong to congregations of the pentecostal-charismatic type are indeed often referred to as “Renewalists,”12
When church historian Douglas Jacobsen contrasts the self-understanding of Pentecostals with how sociologists have often described them in the past, he writes, “Rather than seeing themselves as the passive poor who need God’s help merely to survive, Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians see themselves as agents of God who are charged with transforming the world through the power of the Holy Spirit.”14 As will be apparent from the discussion below, both Mavuno and Woodley come across as typical pentecostal churches in this regard, with transformation the core issue of their spirituality and mission as highlighted in their respective mission statements: transforming God’s people to transform the world (citam) and turning ordinary people into fearless influencers of society (Mavuno).
According to pentecostal theologian Steven Land, “Pentecostal spirituality as theology”15 centres on the redemption narrative, and invites human beings to take part in this story by following Jesus and becoming his witnesses. Salvation is understood as a journey more than anything else. It is a via salutis16 rather than an ordo salutis.17 The Christian life is a walk, a way, a movement
However, Land points out that the journey was not understood merely as a journey with God or toward God, but “fundamentally a journey into God,”19 in order to know him in a deeper way and experience his immediate presence. Thus, pentecostal spirituality can be seen as a form of unio mystica20 with the Divine, an all-consuming and intimate metaphysical union with the triune God. And at the same time, that other-worldly mystical experience has a goal that is both historical and concrete: to mobilize the church for mission.21 The divine encounter is not an aim in itself but rather serves to transmute the individual and the community into agents of change in society.22
Where does this transformational encounter with God take place? Where does the journey begin? Among the early Pentecostals that Land studied, the primary place of encountering God and experiencing transformation—although by no means the only one—was considered to be corporate worship in different forms, such as prayer meetings, singing, witnessing, preaching, baptismal services, the Lord’s supper, and altar calls.23 I suggest that a similar pattern occurs in Mavuno and Woodley when people gather for services expecting to meet Jesus and be changed by his presence. The ritual acts that
Other pentecostal scholars have pointed in similar directions, highlighting the importance of both transformation and integration. Philosopher James K.A. Smith identifies five “prephilosophical commitments”24 that are latent or implicit in the pentecostal worldview: (1) a “position of radical openness to God, and in particular, God doing something differently or new”; (2) an “‘enchanted’ theology of creation and culture”; (3) a “nondualistic affirmation of embodiment and materiality”; (4) an “affective, narrative epistemology”; and lastly, (5) an “eschatological orientation to mission and justice.”25 Together they point to an integrated view of the cosmos, humanity, and knowledge, and an openness to and expectation of transformation that has eschatological dimensions.
Worship’s “character-forming potential is so subtle and barely noticed, and yet worship creates a great impact on the hearts and minds and lives of a congregation’s members.” It follows, therefore, that the worship of Pentecostals ‘forms’ who they are becoming. We might infer, therefore, that the ultimate purpose and goal of worship is to transform the worshiper into the image of God. The more we worship God, the more we become like God.26
In a typical charismatic worship service, participants are taken through a search-encounter-transformation cycle. This begins with praise, moves to prayer and the ministry of reading and hearing the Scriptures preached, followed by prayer over and for people via ‘altar calls’ or ministry times. The outcome of such encounters with the Spirit is transformation of the person in some way (edification, healing, cleansing, empowerment). Of course, these phases overlap and blur into each other, but the basic pattern is clear enough.30
In what follows, I demonstrate how this expected and sought-after transformation is connected to the rite of worship and praise and the songs that go with it; indeed, these rituals provide the vehicle for transformation.31 This is linked to the pentecostal understanding of worship, where the concept simultaneously refers to a concrete ritual practice and to the totality of life lived before God. It is also related to the integrative character of worship, where ritualization, embodiment, and theologizing together contribute to an experience that engages the whole human being.
2.2 Songs That Carry Salvific Transformation
Soteriology is a key aspect when considering transformation and integration in pentecostal spirituality. Mark Cartledge describes the nature of salvation from a pentecostal perspective as “holistic” and “multidimensional” since it “includes all aspects of life: spiritual, psychological, physical, material, social, occupational, global and cosmic.”32 A central metaphor is that of healing, where “to be saved is to be healed”—from sin, sickness and death—by “the
In an African context, the holistic view of salvation is especially salient because of its resemblance to the traditional framework of ‘abundant life’. However, socio-political aspects are not always thought to be part of what salvation entails, and so there is a risk of lop-sidedness or blindness in pentecostal theology that makes it de facto less than holistic. I have elsewhere argued that African Pentecostals would do well to learn from Liberation theology by including a systemic and structural perspective on sin—and so to understand salvation as truly holistic within an ‘abundant life’ framework—since this has great potential for creating a solid theological basis for sound pentecostal socio-political engagement.37 In the context of this chapter, I am especially interested in the connection between soteriology, singing, and transformation. How do participants see this relation, and how do songs depict change: what kind of change, and for whom? Later in the chapter I also discuss the connection between singing, transformation, and socio-political engagement in Mavuno and Woodley.
2.2.1 Transformation as a Theme of Worship Songs
It should be clear by now that transformation is a positive word in pentecostal thought; change is perceived as something good and the direction taken by a described change is always for the better. This is in line with the lexical
From my analysis of almost ninety songs sung in Woodley and Mavuno during my time in the field,40 transformation stands out as one of the main theological themes. Lyrics are dense with metaphorical language referring to personal change, communal change, societal change, physical change, and, not least, spiritual change. In fact, one of the lasting impressions of these songs is that they build on a before-and-after motif: ‘It used to be like this—but now it has changed, and not only changed, but improved’. For example, the believer testifies to having been sinful or sick before meeting with Jesus, but now he/she is purified or healed. In the following I discuss some songs that revolve thematically around transformation, understood in a rather loose way as relating to change, improvement, metamorphosis, and before/after encountering Jesus, and including such themes as salvation, redemption, healing, forgiveness, and the like.
Given the centrality of Jesus Christ in pentecostal theology, as discussed in Chapter 7, it is not surprising that many songs focus on transformation through his death and resurrection. Several songs speak about the blood or wounds of Jesus, such as the old revivalist hymn Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? and There is a fountain, as well as the contemporary Hillsong classic, Worthy is the Lamb and the Afro-American gospel, His blood still works, all part of the Woodley corpus. We could say that the focus in these particular songs is on why transformation works (because of the cross of Christ), and what it entails (cleansing from sin, forgiveness, removal of guilt, liberty, life). It is the atonement that guarantees or makes efficacious the change experienced by
From the Mavuno corpus a few songs can also be mentioned: the contemporary classics, How deep the Father’s love for us and Cornerstone/Cha kutumaini sina, as well as the Christmas hymns, The first noel and What child is this? In the Afro-American Gospels, Good and My God is awesome, the cross and its consequences have a central place. The latter says in the second verse:
In light of the earlier discussion about naming practices and the Trinity, we may note in this song how ‘God’ is used as a designation for Christ. He is called Saviour/giver of salvation, and it is said that healing comes ‘by His stripes’. We may also note how closely salvation is connected to healing, as discussed above.
Furthermore, some songs in the corpora do not focus specifically on the cross or the need for redemption but speak holistically of life being transformed by God through salvation. We could say that they focus on what transformation means to the human life as a whole. This is often depicted vividly, and is common in contemporary worship songs such as When I think about the Lord:
Salvation is here understood in the revivalist sense as a complete change of life, a radical experience for the individual and fundamentally a work of Christ. The worshipper testifies to how Jesus has turned him/her around, how he/she has been picked up, placed on solid ground, healed, and filled with the Holy Spirit. The status of the believer is changed in a way that makes life appear in a completely new light. The result is thanksgiving and praise on the part of the saved person.
A similar example can be found in Turn it around:
Building on a verse from Psalm 30:11,45 and appropriating a Ron Kenoly Gospel classic (Mourning into dancing),46 this song pictures salvation as a moving from a life of sadness to a life of joy and gladness. A radical ‘turn’ has taken place; life has been transformed. The embodied character of pentecostal worship and the role of dance and movement are once again evident, as discussed in Chapter 6. The next song, Moving forward, also has a similar air of optimism and forward-looking, as well as vivid kinetic-affective imagery.
Being saved is to be on the move, to be walking forward together with Christ on the via salutis. He is the ‘Healer’, the ‘Lord’, and the ‘Saviour’, and he ‘makes all things new’ for those who surrender their lives to him (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17, Rev. 21:5). We may recall how congregants in Mavuno were encouraged to visualize and embody this life transformation within the liturgy via a set of dance movements. The new life in Christ is taught via embodied, ritual action. By dancing the steps of faith, congregants together learn to walk with Christ on a daily basis. At the same time, they learn who he is, and effectively internalize biblical material. And so, orthopraxis, orthopathos, and orthopistis converge to form a life of worship, orthodoxa.
This relates to another, smaller theme in the sung corpora, which is transformation through the act of worship. In these songs, musicking becomes the vehicle or the tool that brings about transformation; we could say that that it is how transformation happens. Sing for joy, from the Woodley corpus, perhaps provides the clearest example but Arise and I give myself away also point to the transformation that takes place in and through the act of (sung) worship. The first song says:
The implicit logic in this song is that when the worshippers sing, they draw near to God and so enable him to heal and cleanse: ‘if’ the worshippers rend their hearts, he will ‘heal our land’. There is, thus, cooperation taking place between God and the church in bringing about transformation. Further, it is important to note in this song that transformation is understood on a communal rather than an individual level as in the songs above. God will heal not only ‘our hearts’ but also ‘our land’. I interpret this to mean that the act of worshipping (specifically singing) is in itself transformative as it connects the church community with God’s acts of healing and restoration in creation at large. Transformation is communal and not only individual; it is for the land and not only for the church, and singing is a vehicle for that process. I return to this idea again later in the chapter.
2.2.2 Expectations for Transformation in Worship
But I’m grateful to God because this is where I can serve him and continue bringing so many souls to Christ, even through our worship, because most of our songs they come, you see most of them they are from the Word of God. And through that, through our worship, so many people they give their lives to Christ, and also the healing, deliverance; so that is [why] I’m so grateful to be in the music ministry.49
Correlating with the theme of redemption and salvation in the worship songs, the singer says that in worship many people ‘give their lives to Christ’. The place and time for divine encounter and miracles in charismatic liturgy is thus not restricted to the preaching or the altar call but anticipated just as much in praise and worship; not only are people converted or born again during worship but, she says, it is actually the singing that ‘brings them to Christ’. Singing
You won’t go there and come out the way you were, you will come out from that place transformed and having something. … For me I would, at times, [come home] from work, [I] am tired, I was even like, “I won’t go at the pulpit, I won’t serve God,” coz really I’m down … frustrated in a way or something, but when I come out from that factor I come out with a lot of answers; [pause] I’m shaped in a way, even my physical body when it is so tired, I would come out really refreshed in a way, not the same way I was. You know you can go, at times you are like, “I’m not going to go for keshas, I’m so tired,” and you really sleep at home, and when you wake up early in the morning you are like the same way you slept really, but when you go for that kesha, you find you have really [pause] energized your body. You are not the same way you are. … Because when you go and do it, and do that which you have always been desiring to do, you will find fulfilment at the end of the day. You are not the same the way you were.51
Despite being tired, frustrated or down, and not wanting to go and serve ‘at the pulpit’, she still went to the overnight prayers, keshas, to lead worship. Walking out of there, she found herself to be different from before, ‘transformed’ and ‘not the way you were’. Leading worship is more refreshing than sleep, she says, and physically energizes the body. Referring to one of the other girls in
We’ve had testimonies where people have been healed as they were singing praises and thanksgiving—sometimes when the preacher is not even aware of that! Yeah, not during the altar call when we pray for people, there’s another part of, you know, worship, but that moment when people are releasing themselves before God and acknowledging God’s presence. Amazing things do happen when people are worshipping God through music. Yeah.53
The expected place for miraculous healings in a pentecostal service would be at the end of the liturgy, when people are invited to the altar for prayers, but Pastor Nyaga says that they have had testimonies that healing has happened during the rite of worship and praise as well. This power is miraculous, and extends beyond what a pastor can plan for or oversee. The most ‘amazing things’ happen when people worship God through music, he says with a smile, “I’ve seen drunkards singing some Christian music [laughs]. It looks harmless but is powerful.”54
This transformative power of music has to do with people ‘releasing themselves’ before God. There is an element here of losing control: for the pastor
Not all of my Kenyan interlocutors speak about worship as a place for miracles. There are also those who downplay the miraculous in favour of the relational or communicative aspect (in pentecostal idiom often referred to as ‘prophetic’). One person in the music team says about his experiences as a congregant: “And every time there was, people would worship, I would feel God talk to me, [pause] I’d feel like I get ideas; [pause] I just know God has told me to do this about this situation. Some people say, ‘Oh people get healed during worship, people get all these things during worship’. I haven’t experienced that, but I’ve experienced just God talking to me.”55
For this Pentecostal, worship is not so much about the miracles that one may receive but more about being close to God, communicating with him through songs and prayers and listening to his intimate voice within. Here possibly a negotiation is taking place between the classical pentecostal roots of citam and its current neo-pentecostal influences. I take this as their desire to distance themselves from a Christianity that is perceived to be far too concentrated on the supernatural effects of the divine encounter, rather than on the encounter itself. Below, similar sentiments are shared by Pastor Josh in Mavuno, who underlines that a worship leader must seek to take the congregation from a focus on God’s hand (his workings) to a focus on God himself (his person). In passing we may note how natural he perceives this communication: ‘just God talking’, as if the most natural thing, nothing special.
We may also note the cognitive aspect of the above quote. The speaker says that during worship God talks to him and helps him to solve problem situations in his life. At the same time, these experiences happen in a liturgical setting and come to him through feeling: he ‘feels’ that God gives him ‘ideas’. Thus, the practice of worship (orthopraxis) provides him with a space where he can connect with God in an embodied and affective manner (orthopathos) and get
To sum up this section: transformation, soteriology, and singing are intertwined in several different ways in local pentecostal practice. The theme surfaces in lyrics, as well as in interviews. It integrates ritualization, embodiment, and theologizing, and yet supersedes them by pointing towards life as a whole. The examples show how communal-ritual aspects interplay with affective-embodied and doctrinal-theological aspects, to create an understanding of worship as transformational and all-encompassing. Salvation involves more than the ‘soul’; it includes all of a human being, her body, mind, and emotion, as well as her relationship with God and fellow humans. Congregational musicking is an instrument that helps participants move ahead on the path of salvation. In the next section, I zoom in even further, and discuss concrete ways in which ritualized forms of music seek to facilitate recurrent transformational divine-human encounters in pentecostal spirituality.
2.3 Sung Worship as a Mediator of the Divine–Human Relationship
Much as the historic churches understand God to give himself to the church through bread and wine in the eucharist, Pentecostals think of music as a space where God grants his presence and endows his grace in a special way. There is “an implicit sacramentality”56 in pentecostal worship, in the sense that music and singing mediate divine presence through ritual and affective means, while becoming visible and audible signs of grace. “This relational aspect of sung worship illustrates the way in which pentecostal worship enables a different way into the traditional Christian experience and understanding of ‘union with God’.”57 For while worship and music are “not identical”58 in pentecostal understanding, music is nevertheless considered a core conduit of God’s presence and a prime facilitator of the transformative and intimate relationship with the triune God that is at the heart of pentecostal spirituality. We may say that musicking has a “mystical function”:59 it serves as a vehicle, a facilitator of recurrent divine encounters.60
In interviews, research participants kept coming back to the role of worship music in deepening the relationship with God. In community and in privacy,
2.3.1 The Mystical Function and Communal Musicking
Actually, the song works for us, it makes us to connect to God, it creates an atmosphere for us now to, our hearts to be ready for him. They actually sharpen our emotional aspect. … So, I believe a song, there’s a way that that song can prepare your heart now to connect, to be able to listen from God and even to, like, worship him. So, what I came to the conclusion is that it is about us, it’s like a vehicle for us as human beings, a vehicle to carry, to connect to his Spirit because God cannot be a God who’ll enjoy all this.61
To him, music creates an atmosphere that readies hearts for an encounter with God. This has an emotional side, songs ‘sharpen our emotional aspect’, he says, so the worshipper can ‘connect to his Spirit’. It also has a doctrinal side, in that God is understood as someone who is present and ready to speak to his people, merely waiting for them to open up and receive him. The songs ‘work for us’, he says. They are vehicles for the worshipper, elements that God uses to reach into their hearts. They ‘carry’ divine presence.
However, the songs are not for the sake of God, ‘because God cannot be a God who’ll enjoy all this’. We may compare this with the discussion in Chapter 6 on the role of emotion in worship, where Pastor Josh said that worship is “pleasurable” to the worshipper and also brings “pleasure”62 to God and fellow worshippers. Here, their views of God seem to differ: either God is someone who enjoys and takes pleasure in music, or someone who does not. Is God a passionate and personally engaged figure that rejoices in the relationship, even in music itself, or one that is above and beyond such emotion? Is he pleased with the offerings people bring, the songs they sing, or are songs rather ‘for us’ so that he mediates himself through songs, but takes no further delight in the process?
And God loves music. He does. He has a, he has a band in heaven, all these angels are saying, “Holy, holy is the Lord God almighty,” [Isa. 6:3, Rev. 4:8] you know, that’s the music. And Lucifer was a great angel in heaven. And so, this really is the centre of God’s heart, you know [laughs]. Music, we’ll hear it in heaven, I think. What we do here on earth is a shadow of what happens in heaven. We may not get to that level of heaven but it’s really a shadow of what we’ll be doing in heaven. Yeah.66
To him, there is no doubt that human worship through music pleases God. Musical forms of worship are at ‘the centre of God’s heart’ since ‘God loves music’ and enjoys it perpetually where he sits on his throne. Why else would he ‘have a band in heaven’ with all the angels saying ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’? Yet what happens on earth is just a shadow of what happens in heaven when it comes to worship and music; it can never reach the same level.67 The rite of worship and praise is thought to replicate heavenly worship and, by doing so, it becomes a mediator for God’s presence on earth. It is as if the intense, divine presence in the heavenly realms can be transposed down to earth via music, creating an intensified sacramental presence.68 However, he warns that Lucifer used to be ‘a great angel in heaven’, alluding to the traditional view of Satan as a fallen angel that was once in charge of heavenly worship (cf. Isa. 14:12).
I think the music, music, uh, brings God’s presence down. In a way it lifts people’s hearts. And this is very biblical, I think. When people begin to
praise God, they become more aware of God’s presence and I believe God ministers to people as we sing in praise and in worship. It’s like we are giving him praise and thanks and then that opens heavens for us [chuckles] together and God ministers to people.69
We may note how he connects several different doctrinal themes to explain the centrality of music: cosmology (earth, heaven, people, God, Lucifer); a view of God (passionate, especially about music, Holy, Almighty, seated on the throne yet ministering to people, transcendent yet immanent); evil (he warns that Lucifer used to be a great angel); revelation (Bible quote, music is biblical); church (communal singing replicates heaven and opens heaven); and eschatology (praising both now and in the future). Music is thus placed in a theological nexus that involves key aspects of Christian faith.
According to Pastor Nyaga, music integrates several seemingly contradictory dimensions of pentecostal spirituality. It has an emotional dimension in that it lifts people’s hearts, and a cognitive one, making them more aware. It has a good dimension, since God loves music, and an evil one, since Satan himself used to be a great angel. It has a human dimension, people singing, and a divine one, God ministering. It has an earthly dimension—musicking is in itself a rather mundane activity—and at the same time it brings heaven down to earth and so is an otherworldly, mystical experience. It has a contemporary dimension, praising the here and now, and a future dimension, praising when reaching heaven. Lastly, it is both sacrificial, as people ‘give him praise and thanks’, and sacramental, in that ‘God ministers to people’ via music. Hence, music mediates the relationship between the congregation and God in an integrated and interactive manner. To Pastor Nyaga this is a biblical pattern, one that replicates heavenly worship as well as descriptions of worship from the Old and New Testament, specifically Isaiah Chapter 6 and Revelations Chapter 4–5.
This mystical function of communal musicking is facilitated via ritualization, especially via a rhythmic sequencing modelled on a specific interpretation of the Old Testament tabernacle. To this we now turn.
2.3.2 The Mystical Function and Ritual Sequencing
When discussing ritualization of worship in Woodley and Mavuno in Chapter 5, I described ritual sequencing in the liturgy generally, and in the rite of worship and praise specifically, as well as the dynamic pattern of ritual sound that goes with it. I also showed how research participants draw on the Old Testament for
As previous discussion has shown, contemporary pentecostal-charismatic worship practice frequently utilizes a liturgical structure that combines musical, sonic, lyrical, and kinetic aspects, and this structure is often theologized as building on the structures—architectural and ritual—of the Old Testament tabernacle/temple. The liturgical structure is thus combined with what Monique Ingalls has called a “philosophy of worship,”70 namely, that worship can be likened to proceeding towards the inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies.71
When I teach the students, I say it’s like going into the tabernacle, with the outer court, inner court, and the Holy of Holies. So, I say the coming in is, is your call to worship, so the outer court you’re celebrating: “Come into his presence with thanksgiving in your heart” [cf. Ps. 100:4] or choruses or songs that are just thanking God and celebrating what he’s done. As you go into the inner court your songs get more reflective. They get more deep, more like, “Lord I’m a sinner, please forgive me.” And so sometimes a tempo may go down. It doesn’t have to, though. And then when you think that you’ve approached the Holy of Holies then you’ve done all the dancing and jiggling out here so you sort of tone down and, and it’s, you have a different outlook to whom God is and you’re taking it easy and you’re just honouring him and thanking him for receiving you as you are.72
Metaphorically speaking, the progression of worship is likened to proceeding gradually through the different parts of the tabernacle towards the Holy of Holies. Musically speaking, the different courts correlate with different types
Ritually speaking, three distinct phases of the worship period are identified by Pastor Rose: first celebration, then reflection, and lastly reception. Each has its own character and its own function: the first expresses joy and celebration before God, the second reflection and penitence, while the final one, closeness, affection, and gratitude. Together they aim to achieve a deep spiritual experience, even transformation. This three-phase structure can be compared to the two-phase structure of charismatic worship described by Monique Ingalls, where ‘praise’ is the first phase, characterized by up-beat tempos, lively rhythms, and communally oriented lyrics, while ‘worship’ is the second phase, featuring slower tempos and intimate lyrics.73 Both these models build on the same idea of a goal-oriented, ritual progression inspired by the Old Testament tabernacle/temple structure and resulting in an ever deeper experience of God’s presence.
Even in the worship of God, if you go even back to the temple, there was the outer court and then there was the inner court, and then there was the Holy of Holies. … I believe that God designed it that way because even that spiritual, that spiritual encounter is a journey. So, you don’t want to, you don’t want to walk somebody all the way from outside into inside; it’s a journey so you want it to be done gradually so they can, they can grasp the meaning of the journey but also so that they can actually connect, because we want the worship to be out of a place of conviction and not persuasion. So, you, I mean we start with upbeat songs to get people
engaged with what’s happening and just to get them excited about God’s presence and then we eventually slow it down to more, to songs that are probably slower, more meditative, more reflective. So, we come from a place of just thanksgiving and gratitude to a place of just actual, just worship … just calling on God and just, I mean, just focussing not on the goodness of God, and not just on the hand of God, but actually, the actual person who owns the hand, who owns all the goodness, who owns all the prosperity, who owns all the mercy and favour that we’ve experienced in our lives. So, it’s a gradual process all the way from outer to inner, from praise and thanksgiving to a place of just, of just focussing totally on the very essence and being of God. So, from the hand to the person.76
Again, the tabernacle/temple design is used metaphorically to describe a spiritual movement from distance to closeness, from self-reliance to faith. An encounter with God is not a static point but a journey, and the temple models that. It is not possible to walk somebody straight from the outside to the inside, he says; rather, it is a gradual process that helps people ‘to connect’ and to ‘grasp the meaning of the journey’ so as to be convinced.
Like Pastor Rose, he relates the spiritual process and the tabernacle/temple design to music. They start with up-beat songs and eventually slow down. The first set of songs are there to ‘get people excited about God’s presence’ and to remind them of his goodness. This awakens their thanksgiving and gratitude, and shifts attention from self to God. Yet these songs are not the endpoint, since they risk putting too much emphasis on God’s workings, instead of on God himself. The last set of songs are more reflective and meditative, and bring people to a place of ‘actual worship’. Rather than thanking God for all his great gifts, they are now able to focus on the ‘person who owns the hand’, the one who has brought them prosperity, goodness, favour, and mercy, and everything else they have experienced in life. A transformational encounter can take place.
This sought-after transformational encounter has a theological aspect to it that must not be overlooked. Pastor Josh wants his congregation to know ‘the actual person’, from whom all good gifts have come, and Pastor Rose points out that when the congregation reaches the last phase of worship the ‘outlook to whom God is’ has changed. Just as for the early Pentecostals in the U.S. described by Steven Land, theology is intimately connected to spirituality in that (a truer or deeper) knowledge of God is thought to spring out of a
Thus, the point of Pentecostal spirituality was not to have an experience or several experiences, though they spoke of discrete experiences. The point was to experience life as part of a biblical drama of participation in God’s history. The church was a movement from the outer court to the inner court to the holy of holies, from Egypt through the desert across the Jordan into Canaan, from Jerusalem to Judaea, Samaria and the end of the age (and the uttermost parts of the earth), from justification to sanctification to Spirit baptism and then, in justification, sanctification, and Spirit baptism into the harvest.78
My impression is that in Mavuno and Woodley one of the primary means available for church leaders to facilitate the via salutis is going through the steps of the praise and worship ritual: leading the congregation from the outer court to the inner court to the Holy of Holies. By repeating the process over and over, a cumulative effect is attained. The combination of ritual sequencing and repetition becomes a rhythm that, according to pentecostal understandings, takes the community closer and closer to God. Ritually speaking, we could say that participants ‘add up’ ritual time, and the more regularly this is done, the larger the effect.79 As observed in earlier chapters, anthropologist Joel Robbins has pointed out that vast amounts of “emotional energy” are generated in pentecostal churches because of their ritualization, and people come back for more. Through an efficient adoption of “chains of interaction rituals,” the church can become a “ritual hotspot.”80
Hence, the mystical journey into God directly corresponds with the embodied ritual sequences of praise and worship, together forming a holistic mind-body experience of encountering God and being transformed. This combination of a liturgical structure, a biblical model, an emotional experience, a
2.3.3 The Mystical Function and Personal Devotion
Josh:Um, worship for me is a—people express themselves differently—but as Josh the person, I find that, I find that music for me, music and words and lyrics are a very strong form of expression for me. So, as I, as I engage in worship, I find that it’s easy for me to, to tell God how I feel and it’s easy for me to hear what God is saying through other people’s songs, as well.I:So, it becomes both like a prayer, like how to express yourself in front of God, but also a prophetic message back?J: Yes, it’s a two-way street. I find that many times in the, at the place of deep worship that there’s a bursting of prayer, there’s a bursting of prophecy, there’s even a connection with God’s Word, just being able to come to a space where I’m reminded of what God says in his Word. So, for me I find the worship experience very holistic.81
Deep worship, he says, is a holistic experience where there is a ‘bursting’ of prayer and prophecy as well as ‘a connection with God’s Word’. Through worship, he can express himself before God, telling him how he feels, and he can hear God speak back to him on several different levels. The musical format suits him, since he is a person who expresses himself via music. He explains that this communication can happen through other people’s songs or his own compositions. By composing songs, he is able to put words to that relationship with God, and God uses those songs to speak to others as well. Similar to what we saw above, worship has a prophetic dimension; it becomes ‘a two-way street’ where he and God communicate with each other, and also a place where God communicates to the congregation through him.
As I sing that song it just brings me to a place where I’m totally submitted, totally vulnerable before, before my Heavenly Father, you know, which is a place where I wouldn’t say I was very, I wasn’t able to be that vulnerable in front of my earthly father. It would just be a place of just recognizing, okay, look, even if my earthly father doesn’t understand this, but I do have a Heavenly Father who knows my name, who’s okay with me being vulnerable, who’s okay with my weaknesses and my faults and all my mess-ups, is just able to just embrace that.82
Despite his experiences with broken human relationships, and a father who did not accept his ‘weaknesses and faults and mess-ups’, music enabled him to approach God in a different way. Through that song, he was brought to a place where he could be ‘totally vulnerable’ and understand God’s love for him: that he has a Heavenly Father who knows his name and ‘is okay’ with him being vulnerable. Thus, music facilitates a deep experience of being loved and accepted and received by God as a full person, faults and all. Music becomes not just a key expression, but a key enabler for the divine-human relationship: a mediator as it were.
Given the discussion on the Trinity and divine naming practices in Chapter 7, we may note how Pastor Josh approaches God as Father, or maybe God the Father, through worship. For although most worship songs are directed towards Christ, and pentecostal scholars tend to emphasize the mediation of the Spirit, local Pentecostals on the ground may still experience God as Father via worship. In fact, the surveys in Woodley and Mavuno reveal that many do. For while the survey results are flawed by methodological challenges,83 they still give an indication of the way participants experience God during worship.
When asked “who do you feel closest to during the worship time?” (Table 14), more than forty per cent in each church said that they felt closer to God, the Father, while less than thirty per cent said the same about Jesus. People in Woodley were more prone to experiencing the Holy Spirit than the Father, but
Experience of closeness to God, self, and others in worship
Who do you feel closest to during the worship time? (multiple answers allowed) |
Woodley |
Mavuno |
|---|---|---|
God, the Father |
45.8% |
43.3% |
Jesus |
23.6% |
29% |
Holy Spirit |
49.1% |
38.3% |
The congregation |
0.9% |
3.7% |
Yourself |
1.5% |
4.7% |
Ideally, the survey question should have had separate tick-boxes for God and Father, but neither I nor the local pastors with whom I checked the questionnaire observed this flaw. Collecting the results, I was aghast to discover I had made such a mistake. Yet between five and ten per cent of respondents ticked Father, Son, Spirit, and some people, especially in Woodley, wrote the word ‘Trinity’ in the margin. The congregants proved to be more theologically aware than the researcher. I take this to indicate at least two things (apart from the difficulties in conducting research): on the one hand, there is a tendency towards unitarian thinking with regard to God and a weak understanding of trinitarian grammar, even among theologically educated Pentecostals, while on the other hand, this does not mean that there is a general lack of trinitarian theology on the ground. It may well be that for Pentecostals, the Trinity is an experienced reality more than a cognitive structure. It is part of spirituality as much as theology.
Interestingly, in Mavuno quite a few (almost nine per cent in total) said they felt closer either to themselves or the congregation than to God, indicating that worship sometimes has a different role than that intended by the ritual specialists. For while worship ideally facilitates an intimate and transforming God-encounter, this is not always the case in practice. Further studies might reveal how common this experience is and whether participants deem worship
Worship music [pause] for me is a rhythm that connects my heart with God. I may not be a gifted musician but I know how to make joyful noise [laughs]. And for me music is amazing. There are times you wake up in the morning and there’s a song, it’s a melody in your heart. And sometimes God has spoken to me through music. I wake up in the morning preparing to go to work, but there’s this song that is, you know, resonating in my heart. And when I sing that song probably God is maybe speaking to me through music. … And when I’m busy working I like music at the background because then my heart is in tune with God in the midst of the business of life. And that takes a lot of pressure from me because it calms my spirit, it calms my thoughts [chuckles]. I may have a lot of things to do, but my heart is in communion with God through music. I think we commune with God through music and also on an individual basis, then that is so critical in my personal devotional life, yes, yeah.84
Despite his reported lack of musical talent, Pastor Nyaga experiences music as ‘a rhythm that connects my heart with God’. Worship becomes the mediator of the divine-human relationship, even to a point where he experiences that relationship as having a flow or a rhythm. Although he is ‘not a gifted musician’ he still knows ‘how to make joyful noise’ and that is all that matters. Music is ‘so critical’ in his own personal devotional life. He describes how God speaks to him through music: waking up with a song or a melody in his heart and hearing God’s voice through that.
During the day he likes to have worship music in the background, since it calms him both mentally and spiritually. Functioning as a meditative practice comparable to contemplation or yoga, it reduces stress and keeps him focused on the right things. Listening to worship music reminds him of God’s presence in his life and the world at large, putting his life in perspective. Music becomes
Just as the rite of worship and praise has a certain kind of rhythm—a ritual sequencing designed to lead to the Holy of Holies—the relationship with God may itself be perceived as having a rhythm, a flow that is facilitated via the rhythms of music. Pentecostal music becomes a “portable practice”85 that connects ritualized (orthopraxis) and embodied (orthopathos) forms of worship with worship as life lived before God (orthodoxa). As it unites human hearts with the heart of God, it also has potential to unite ecclesial life with life in society.
2.4 Becoming Fearless Influencers: The Missional Goal for Worship
So, what is the goal of the ritual and spiritual journey? If Steven Land is right, the goal of pentecostal spirituality is not the experience itself; rather, it is to become part of the “biblical drama” of “God’s history.”86 The via salutis is a journey into God, to be absorbed in his presence and changed by it, but the journey does not stop there; it goes all the way into “the harvest.”87 For while “the earliest Pentecostals certainly understood the meaning of imputation and justification,” their ultimate concern was “the transformation of lives and the empowered mobilization of the church.”88 Pentecostal faith is an other-worldly unio mystica with a historical and concrete goal: to transform the community into a missional agent for God’s kingdom on earth.
This “pull” into an intense and often dramatic set of experiences is followed by a “push” outward in missionary love and service. The dynamic
experience of being loved by God and loving God in return produces what is often called “love energy,” which leads to a propulsion out into loving service toward the wider community and society. Empowered individuals explore how to love one’s neighbour as oneself, and this can be expressed in sacrificial acts of service for the sake of others.90
However, Andy Lord notes that while this link between spiritual encounters and social action, between worship and mission, was strong in the early pentecostal movement, it has not always been the case in later Pentecostalism, at least not in the West. Referring to Matthew 28:16–20, he says that worship was “the context for Jesus commissioning his disciples to make disciples of all the nations,” and so is about “world transformation and not simply personal encouragement.”91
Yet pentecostals have lost something of this link between worship and world mission, becoming more content often with the joys of singing together than pushing on into service and sacrifice. Sung worship should be the place of hearing the call of Jesus to share good news in word and deed, in evangelism and social action. … Such a holistic concern for the liberation of humanity has always been part of the worldview of pentecostals outside of the Western world and this is being increasingly recognized in understanding worship and theology today.92
In their global study of socially engaged Christian groups, Donald Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori found the so-called Progressive Pentecostals to be particularly active in society. Explaining the root of this pentecostal social engagement, they single out “collective worship”93 as a key factor. For while the energy released during collective rituals “can be used in the service of great evil,” it is also “a resource that can be channeled for good.” Hence, “worship may also be generative—creating the wellsprings out of which energized commitment to social service flows.”94
2.4.1 A Spiritual Journey Aiming at Societal Change
In the Kenyan context, missiologist and Mavuno pastor, Kyama Mugambi, has described how Progressive Pentecostals strive for a Christian faith that integrates love for God with love for community and society. Discipleship programs, such as the citam Safari (Journey) and the Mavuno Mizizi (Roots) and T-Loop (Transformational Loop), play a central role in the process. These programs take a holistic approach to spirituality, addressing a whole range of contextually relevant issues—social justice, corruption, environmental care, marriage, and child rearing—along with more traditional subjects in the Christian catechism, such as tenets of faith or devotional practices. Participants are encouraged to engage actively with the material and start to practice the principles in their own lives. The idea is that in the long run, this transformation of individuals and groups within the church will lead to societal change.95
It is not part of this study to evaluate whether such change indeed takes place,96 but given the testimonies presented in churches during my fieldwork, it indeed does. This can be exemplified by a gentleman who told the congregation that his family had a long-term vision for their household staff whereby ambitious girls from poor families were employed as housekeepers while being provided with paid education to improve their future possibilities. After a few years, the girl could move on to a better position and they would hire someone else and take them through a similar process. Over the course of a few years, this family had helped more than ten girls to a better life.
It’s just that instead of, instead of using the term ‘disciples’ we’re using the term ‘fearless influences of society’ which is what real disciples are. And ‘turning ordinary people’—basically if you were to use the metaphor of ‘fishers of men’ [Matt 4:19]: people, normal people with normal, in normal circumstances—um, in picking, taking those people and bringing them to a place of being disciples who will go out and influence their world in the different sectors of society … And so that, that is what the mission means. And that guides a lot of our, what we do, what we choose to do. There are many good things a church can do and, but, um, in order to focus ourselves we are very, we are very intentional about the discipleship of the individual that comes to the church because at the end of the day they need to be someone who will go out and fearlessly influence society, where ‘fearless influence’ means that they go in and, and apply godly values to, to the space where they are. So, so that’s, that’s what this means. Now, um, the process of ‘turning’ is a process of making disciples and that, that turning is done through the discipleship, the intentional discipleship process … Discipleship just doesn’t happen, you don’t just come here and you expect that somehow by hearing the sermon or being in a Life group something’s gonna happen.97
From their perspective, real disciples are those who are fearless and who influence society with godly values. To come to such a point, a change must happen in which ordinary people in ordinary circumstances become disciples of Christ. Mavuno is very intentional about the discipleship process, and very critical of other churches who seem to believe that the transformation will happen by itself. Instead, everyone who visits a service is invited to participate in the T-Loop (known as the Mavuno Marathon during my time in the field), and all who are in leadership positions at any level are expected to go through that process.
The program involves several different steps (courses), and builds on what Kenyan missiologist Kyama Mugambi has labelled “a cyclical approach to discipleship” whereby “a person came out of society, entered the gathered church, engaged with a microcommunity, and reentered society to influence those around them.”98 The impact is thought to happen in “concentric levels
No, no, no. Going to heaven is good but between now [laughs] and that time, the time Jesus comes back (and he’s coming back soon), between now and the time Jesus comes back or when he takes you, there’s life to be lived. And so, our theology’s very, um, to use a term that has often been used, we acknowledge and live in the tension of, of the now is the Kingdom … and the Kingdom is not yet … We believe that, that when Jesus said that the Kingdom is coming … and when he taught about, you know, ‘He goes to prepare a place for us’ [Jn. 14:1–4], all of that is in a continuum; it is not, we are not just, you know, marking time over here [laughs]. Uh, so, um, a life that is, is transformed by Christ is a life that first of all lives out a Christ-like lifestyle here, but a life that would also be acceptable when, when Jesus comes to take us, comes to take us home. So, on the one hand we are not a humungous ngo that is calling itself a church (to use the Pope’s terms) … Um, neither are we, you know, some sort of an incubator or a time capsule where you come in and you sit and you wait for when Jesus will come back and then you go. So, we believe that we are called to be hands-on Christians who will have an impact now and even in the future, yeah.100
They find that the eschatological tension of living in the Kingdom of God, which is already here but not yet in completion, motivates them to be ‘hands-on Christians’ with an authentic impact on society in contemporary times. However, they do not want to be ‘a humungous ngo’ under the guise of being a church, neither do they want to be ‘some sort of incubator or time capsule’, hiding away while waiting for Jesus. They are trying to walk a middle road where they live a transformed, influential, Christ-like life here and now, while never losing sight of Christ’s imminent return and, thus, preparing for the future to come. They think of time as a continuum; therefore, there must also be continuity in life.
So, worship is just, I think it’s just giving the glory back to who God is and that could be translated into everything and anything that we do. So, like I said, a lot of these things that we do, the music and the community and, and even the sermon, are, are tools to be able to achieve discipleship, tools to be able to like reconcile people back to God. So, it’s a means to an end, it is not the end to the means.103
Through music, human beings encounter God, and in that encounter and the reconciled relationship that follows they are transformed in order to transform society. In that sense, the rite of worship and praise is not an end in itself but ‘a means to an end’. It glorifies God in the moment, but must also translate into everyday life or else it has not achieved its goal. “Everything that we do as a church is an expression of our worship. Definitely. It’s a vertical relationship with God translating into a horizontal relationship with human beings.”104 Unless musical forms of worship, mediating the relationship with God, lead to love and service in the wider community, then they are fruitless and pointless.
2.4.2 Addressing Societal Issues through Song
It is in this context that the contemporary African gospel songs, I know who I am, and Africa yote—part of the Mavuno and Woodley corpus, respectively, and also discussed in Chapters Six and Seven—should be understood. In different ways, both address issues in the African context that are of relevance
Despite the circumstances, and despite what is apparent to the eye, the song declares that worshippers are ‘a chosen generation’. Life is no longer an existence of misery and scarcity (as it is all too often experienced on the continent); instead, they have been given all that they need. They have purpose and direction, and they are marked by his glory and excellence to the point where they become ‘wonders’. By participating in singing and dancing in church, congregants acquire a new mindset; they start to see themselves in a new light. They learn who they are in Christ. With this transformed self-image and a sense of belonging to a chosen people, they also find the strength to change society.
This interpretation of the song is strengthened by the context of communal musicking in which it is performed, and also by taking a look at the original music video by Sinach. For, while the wording of the song is mostly in the singular, and even says in the bridge, “I am holy, and I am righteous, oh-ooh, I am so rich, and I am beautiful”107—which may sound discordant if taken
When the prosperity gospel is transplanted to a wealthy culture it can appear to be nothing more than religiously sanctioned greed, but that is not the case globally. Most Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians understand how easily prosperity preaching can go awry, but they also genuinely believe that God wants people to prosper. To squelch the preaching of prosperity would thus be to deny part of the fullness of salvation, and no Pentecostal/Charismatic Christian would want to do that.111
Hence, this is a case where the lyrics with their obvious doctrines, the orthopistis, must be balanced against the embodied knowledge and social context that is conveyed via non-literal means, the orthopathos. And so, the orthopraxis offers an interpretative framework for the desired transformation.
The next song, Africa yote, addresses a different issue in the African context, namely, that of ethnic division and hatred. In Kenya, violence and division along ethnic lines have been huge problems in society, especially following the
Afrika, ni wakati wako! Afrika yote yakusifu, Afrika yote yakusifu. Wakikuyu, na Wakamba, Wajaluo, na Waluhya Hapa Kenya, Yesu, twakusifu. Hapa Kenya, Yesu, twakusifu. Wamasai, Wameru, Wapokomo, Mijikenda, Hapa Kenya, Yesu, twakusifu Hapa Kenya, Yesu, twakusifu Kikuyu, Kikamba, Kijaluo, Kimasai.a |
Africa, it is your time! All Africa praises you, All Africa praises you. The Kikuyus, and the Kambas, The Luos, and the Luhyas, Here in Kenya, Jesus, we praise you. Here in Kenya, Jesus, we praise you. The Maasais, The Merus, The Pokomos, The Mijikenda, Here in Kenya, Jesus, we praise you Here in Kenya, Jesus, we praise you In Kikuyu, in Kamba, In Luo, in Masai.b |
By naming several of the largest ethnic groups in Kenya, along with a whole range of African nationalities,112 calling on them to take part in the praising of Jesus in their own language—yet together—the song indirectly urges the groups not to fight among each other but to cooperate. It reminds them that this is Africa’s time to worship and that worship is best done in unity. Through
In these impersonal towns far away from their ancestral homelands, Pentecostals clustered together in new communities and formed a new sort of kinship. Their binding factor was the common testimony of salvation by Jesus Christ, the undisputed hero of their stories. Pentecostal churches and prayer meetings upset the order of ethnic kinship ties by making allegiance to Christ their primary bond.113
By partaking in the liturgy (orthopraxis)—praying and dancing and singing and story-telling together—new bonds of trust and loyalty (orthopathos) based on a particular understanding of salvation (orthopistis) were fostered within the community. Gradually, a life of worship, concretely manifesting love, unity, and peace, could begin to take form (orthodoxa).
“The key to this spirituality,” Mugambi states, “was a wider view of salvation and the work of the cross in the individual.” Salvation “was not an abstraction, but a tangible, concrete action of God in time and space.”114 Redemption had bearing on the here and now, not merely on the afterlife. Healing was for bodies, not merely for souls. And righteousness was about society, not merely about piety. Through a holistic soteriology, pentecostal churches “sought to come to terms with realities such as illness, pain, urban poverty, political dysfunction, and social upheaval.”115 The Progressive Pentecostals, among them Woodley and Mavuno, have been especially deliberate in their pursuit of bringing hope, continuously underlining the connection between practicing Christian faith and “broader social, economic, and political themes.”116
Again, we see how tightly linked soteriology is to ecclesiology and missiology in pentecostal thought, meaning that the salvation of the individual and the mission of the community cannot be separated from each other. Ultimately it is a vision of a changed world order, one in which Christ reigns and where both hearts and land have been cleansed and healed by his blood. But to reach into that world order, the church must play its part as a missional agent on
3 BTW, What Is Worship?
So far in this chapter, I have summarized the theoretical contribution of this study to the scholarly understanding of pentecostal spirituality-as-theology, as well as discussing the relationship between singing, salvation, and transformation, pointing out that pentecostal spirituality is transformational at its core: a journey with God and into God culminating in a mystical union that fuels missional agency. Pentecostal communal musicking, with its integrated character and processual structure, is aimed at facilitating this transformation.
In a last twist of the argument, I ask the most basic question of all: what is worship? For while earlier chapters have given partial answers, and I have utilized a working definition to focus my research project, emic conceptualizations of worship must still be explored. Here, I move away from a strict focus on the ritual practice of worship to the deeper layers of meaning attached to the concept by practitioners.
It might seem a bit odd to postpone the discussion of the most central concept of the book until the last part of the last chapter, but it is a deliberate take. I have wanted to show the richness of the worship practice in my two case churches—in matters of ritualization, embodiment, and theologizing—before discussing local conceptualizations, in order to add weight and depth to the discussion. When research participants speak of ‘worship’, the rich liturgical-communal-musical-experiential-doctrinal practice, with associated texts and narratives from the Bible, form a sound box to their explanations, becoming a well from which to draw water. At the same time, such practice also acts as an interference, meaning that they must position their understanding of worship (as a theological concept) vis-à-vis the ritual practice of worship (‘the rite of worship and praise’) as well as in relation to any number of potential usages the word has in the pentecostal idiom. Here, readers are reminded of the many layers of meaning attached to the word ‘worship’ among pentecostal-charismatic Christians, as presented in the Introduction and throughout the book.
Several times in the interviews, I was asked to specify what I meant when I asked about worship, whether it was the church service, music, or a more general question: for example, in the interview with Pastor Kamau I asked, “So,
Below, I summarize emic conceptualizations of worship around three themes that were commonly brought up by my Kenyan interlocutors: worship is a lifestyle, worship is biblical, and music is critical for worship, before concluding both the chapter and the book by connecting worship and spirituality with love. First, however, readers should be aware that in this context, ‘worship’ is not a specific type of music. Although there is a musical genre often referred to as ‘(contemporary) worship’ or ‘praise and worship’,118 this is not how my informants use the word, and nor how I utilize it in my study. The starting point of this critical case study is ‘the rite of worship and praise’, that is, the ritualized use of music and singing in a congregational context. Neither Mavuno nor Woodley uses a specific musical genre for this purpose; rather, they have an eclectic and pragmatic approach, combining music from different sources and genres and adapting them for their purposes, as described in previous chapters.
So, if worship is not a music genre, what is it?
3.1 Worship Is a Lifestyle: It Encompasses Everything
When I asked the research participants what they understood worship to be, most of them started by pointing out that worship includes all aspects of life, not just music. Singing is one possible expression of worship among many, but the most important form of worship is the personal life of the believer. What counts for these Christians is lived faith, that faith becomes tangible, personal, and all-encompassing. Worship cannot be separated from life in Christ: the participatio Christi and the via salutis are basically one and the same thing. As many of the interviewees phrased it: worship is a lifestyle.
However, when people in Woodley and Mavuno speak of worship as a lifestyle, I understand them to mean something rather different from how it is used among some Evangelicals in North America, where the same expression seems to funnel a consumerist approach to worship. Monique Ingalls describes how worship concerts invite Evangelicals “to enter into a ‘worship lifestyle’ through
Worship leaders contribute to this consumerist approach by emphasizing “the importance of a lifestyle of worship from the stage through speech and song, and frame their products as resources for living this life.”123 Ingalls does not explain the theological understanding of transformation in this context, nor does she relate worship to larger issues in theology, such as creation and redemption, which is why it is hard to assess whether her informants in fact do have a deeper understanding of ‘worship as a lifestyle’ than merely a consumerist one. Nevertheless, in her analysis, the expression has little to do with spirituality or theology, and much to do with consumer society and popular culture. My Kenyan interlocutors explain the matter differently.
3.1.1 The Very Essence of Life as a Born-Again Believer
Pastor Nyaga, in Woodley, narrated his testimony to me in the interview, saying that worship is linked to the born-again experience that he had on campus, where he walked into a Christian union meeting and heard a “powerful message” from a preacher. At that moment, “I gave my life to Christ and that was something that altered my perspective to life and to my purpose in life and so I began a new walk with Christ. I got born again.” Remembering the exact day and time, he says it was a “defining moment” when he “began a new journey in the faith.”124 Previously, he had been “an Adventist boy,” following their traditions, being baptized, and going to church on Saturdays, but that “did not really change my life,” he says. “But this experience in campus transformed me. It’s like ‘Eureka! I think this is it!’”125 His via salutis had begun.
And I think for me that, that’s the experience of being born again and then of course now beginning a relationship with the Father and a communion with the Father. Yes. And that can happen anywhere and not just on Sunday. And this is what we challenge our members: your worship is a lifestyle. Ultimately this experience changes every facet of your life. How I treat people is worship. How I serve in the workplace, whatever I am in the marketplace is worship. If I’m contradicting everything I do on Sunday during the week days then I think I’m misrepresenting the Father because you see Jesus said as well, you know, how do I put it, you know, “Do good things so that those who do not even know the Father can praise your Father in heaven because of the good works you do” [Mt. 5:16]. In other words, your service, your act of service in the community must represent God. In another way, it should be worship to the Father. Yeah. And that’s the place where people can know God. And so, worship is not limited to prayer, you know, singing a wonderful song or being caught up in that holy moment, [laughs] it’s beyond. It defines what you do. It should be everything that we do as believers, yeah.127
Pastor Nyaga says he challenges his congregation with this notion of ‘worship is a lifestyle’, wanting them to understand that worship is much more than singing. He is eager to underline that worship can happen anywhere, not just on a Sunday; it is beyond a holy moment or a wonderful song. Rather, the everyday life of a believer must be in line with Sunday worship so that both represent and honour God. Echoing the Sermon on the Mount, he makes the connection between ethics, worship, and witness. Via acts of service towards the community, the believer can become a witness to those around, so that they too will ‘praise the Father’ and get to know him. There is, thus, an ethical and moral obligation that comes with being born again, and an expected lifestyle that goes much deeper than merely buying the right commodities. When a believer fails to live a life that faithfully represents the Father—does not worship authentically—the witness also fails.
Again, I borrow heavily from my background of being in many churches but then, um, apart from the theoretical descriptions of worship being declaring the worthship of God and now going into my music area, even though theologically I know, I keep bumping into my colleagues who say, “You know Rose, it’s not just about singing.” I say, “Um, yeah, I know it’s not just about singing, it is our hearts, how are we before the Lord? What’s our life like?” Um, and then we talk about worship being a constant, it’s a lifestyle, it’s your daily life. So, it’s, it’s pretty much connected with my personal walk with the Lord. For me it’s my daily devotion, it’s my daily reading of the Word of God, it’s my interacting with my family and worshipping God, that’s how I interact with them, my lovely teenagers [chuckles]. You know, with my husband. With every situation and circumstance God brings my way, you know, am I giving, am I worshipping him? … Am I honouring him in my life?128
Theoretically, she says, worship is ‘declaring the worthship of God’, and for her as a music person, it is easily interpreted as singing. However, the correct interpretation, of which she constantly reminds herself, is that it should rather be theologized as a ‘constant’, a holistic way of life. This involves the ‘heart’, the inner being, as well as a very practical, down-to-earth ‘personal walk with the Lord’ of cultivating spiritual practices and moral virtues. Checking herself in
Again, we see how a believer is expected to live his or her life in a manner that brings glory to God, and how this is the essence of worship. Worship is walking together with Jesus, Father, and Spirit on the road of life, pamoja na Wewe as the hymn Bwana u sehemu yangu says, and doing so in a way that honours (the triune) God.
Pamoja na Wewe, pamoja na Wewe, Katika safari yangu nitatembea na Wewe. Pamoja na Wewe, pamoja na Wewe, Katika safari yangu nitatembea na Wewe. Leader: Tembea, tembea, Response: Tembea, tembea, tembea na Wewe. L: Tembea na Yesu, R: Tembea na Wewe. L: Tembea na Baba, R: Tembea na Wewe. L: Tembea na Roho, R: Tembea na Wewe.a |
Together with You, together with You, On my journey I will walk with You. Together with You, together with You, On my journey I will walk with You. Leader: Walk, walk, Response: Walk, walk, walk with You. L: Walk with Jesus, R: Walk with You. L: Walk with the Father, R: Walk with You. L: Walk with the Spirit, R: Walk with You.b |
The above examples come from Woodley, but leaders in Mavuno shared similar sentiments. Pastor Josh was quoted earlier in this chapter as saying that worship is “giving the glory back to who God is” and that this “could be translated into everything and anything that we do.”129
3.1.2 The Ultimate Purpose of Human Existence
Drawing from his Anglican background, Pastor Kamau utilized the Westminster Confession to explain that human beings are “created or built to worship God” so that “our chief end” is to “live a life that is of pleasure to God.”130 Bottom line, this is what constitutes worship. To him, this Christian “life of worship” includes “all our activities” (such as marriage, children, and work) as well as
I think it’s been said before, I did not invent this statement, “Worship is a lifestyle,” but I agree with it completely. Because for me worship is the purpose of our existence and just being, living, existing in a love relationship with God and being where he is, living for him in every single thing, in every conversation I have … the way that I dress, in the way that I speak, in the way that I work and what I decide to do with my time and how I relate with people and how I treat people, for me that’s worship. And what it means, how I translate it for myself is does my life at every moment rise up as sweet smelling incense to him? It doesn’t all the time because I’m a fallen human being, but for me worship is working towards that and living for that, so that everything I do is pleasing to him, you know—I think that’s worship, ja.132
Pastor Nelly explains worship as a sacrifice to God, a gift given to him in every aspect of life. While she is aware that her life does not always honour God, she is still ‘working towards that’. Just like Pastor Rose above, she checks herself against the higher end, asking, ‘[D]oes my life at every moment rise up as sweet smelling incense to him?’ Her life is likened to the sweet incense that was offered by priests in the tabernacle/temple according to the Torah. However, for sacrifices to be accepted by God, they must also be accompanied by hands-on obedience to His word, walking in “the good way.”133 Again we see a connection between pentecostal interpretations of worship and Old Testament rituals, as recorded in the biblical text. We also see a connection between worship and the via salutis as described above.
Thus, worship is connected to life as a whole: life in creation (‘purpose of our existence’, ‘created to worship’) and fall (‘a fallen human being’), as well as life in Christ (‘existing in a love relationship with God’, ‘being in communion with the Father’, ‘daily walk with the Lord’) and everyday life (conversations, work, dress, relationships, time, etc.). Creation, fall, and redemption are kept together in the theologizing of worship, and to these theological loci a moral
3.2 Worship Is Biblical: It Is Modelled on Scripture
To motivate their view of worship as essentially incorporating all of life lived before God, my Kenyan interlocutors repeatedly take their cues from the Bible. Some refer to specific texts, even quoting them verbatim like Pastor Nyaga above, while others paint a more general picture, referring loosely to a concept or motif. Many use a narrative format, retelling a story from the Bible and drawing on it for guidance in a similar manner as they would with a sermon. Sometimes the biblical narrative is connected back to their own life experience in some way or other: their story of being born again, or of coming to that specific church, or of growing in faith, and the like. The text or narrative from the Bible becomes a model for worship in their personal life as well as in church. We could say that the Bible is re-oralized, not just in lyrics (as was discussed in Chapter 7), but more broadly as a framework for interpreting life as a whole.
3.2.1 Bringing Sacrifices to the Altar
God created us to worship Him. And this is really a theme throughout the Scripture. Any time someone had an encounter with the Lord the natural response was worship. Talk about Moses and the burning bush; it was an awesome sight and then he sees this strange sight and he draws nigh and then God speaks to him, “This is a holy place,” [Exod. 3:5] you know. He had to kinda, you know, worship God in some sense through that encounter. Noah, Adam, Eve, the issue of sacrifice from the Old Testament, it’s
a type of worship really acknowledging that God is worthy of reverence and so that sacrifice was a way of worshipping God. And so, um, God created us that we may know him and worship him. And really worship means to give him, you know, reverence, to honour him. Sacrifice and giving is part of worship, praise and thanksgiving, singing is really part of [chuckles] really, worship, so it encompasses everything we are really in that broad sense. Worship … describes our relationship with God which is just, uh, giving him honour and reverence that is due his name. Yeah.135
The theme he sees in Scripture is one where worship is the most natural response to an encounter with God. The unio mystica evokes reverence and that reverence is expressed in sacrifice. He mentions Moses, Noah, Adam, and Eve as characters who responded in this way to God, building altars to sacrifice before the Lord. The reason it is such a natural response, he says, is that ‘God created us to worship’. It is in the very nature of human beings to give God honour. That is why worship ‘encompasses everything we are in a really broad sense’ and essentially ‘describes our relationship with God’. Sacrifice is interpreted metaphorically to mean acts of service, songs and words of praise, or any kind of gift (verbal or tangible) given to God in order to show gratitude, submission, and reverence. Again, we see how ideas of worship are intertwined with ideas about life in creation and redemption; the via salutis restores human beings to the right relationship with God so that in everything they can give him the reverence ‘that is due his name’. Worship becomes the essence of life as a created being and as a born-again believer.
Later in the interview, Pastor Nyaga read parts of Psalm 96 to me—“a powerful Scripture”—a song that summons the people of the earth to sing a new song to the Lord.
Commenting on the text he says, “That’s really worship. … I think from there, our attention [is] drawn to this great God who created the heavens and the earth, and that’s coming before him with offering, with thanksgiving, praises, clapping, singing, dancing—whatever [laughs] manner of expression to just acknowledge that we have a great king.”137
We may note the connection he makes between worship as relating to God, and worship as various forms of kinetic, oral, and embodied expressions. The text itself does not say anything about either dancing or clapping, yet to him this is a natural way to interpret the meaning; also note the connection between worship, creation, salvation, and proclamation, as well as between different aspects of God’s nature, thus integrating them into the overarching concept of ‘worship’. God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, he brings salvation, and, he is a great King. Musicking is a way to acknowledge who he is and to make that known to others. It is a tangible way of doing what human beings were designed for in the first place: to live a life of worship. Both life and musicking become sacrifices to God that bring witness to who he is. The embodied (orthopathos) and ritualized (orthopraxis) practice of worship, is theologized (orthopistis) in a way that points towards orthodoxa.
The sacrificial theme is also common in songs, as in the up-beat and rhythmic Good from the Mavuno corpus.
This motif is also behind the serene and intimate Withholding nothing, a song sung in both churches during my time in the field, where the refrain repeats the same phrase over and over again:
Life in the via salutis is a life of surrender, of giving oneself wholly and fully to Jesus as King and Saviour. It is a total sacrifice, encompassing everything. To live that life, a person may not withhold anything from him, but must give everything away. When encountering God and being transformed, all of life must be put on the altar. The unio mystica leads to orthodoxa, and songs are vehicles for that sacramental and sacrificial process.
3.2.2 Worship in Spirit and in Truth
In the New Testament what comes quickly to my mind is the book of John chapter 4, that experience at the well where Jesus meets the Samaritan woman and they have an encounter, she has an encounter with him.
Let me get the, um [pauses as he opens his Bible]. And Jesus comes and meets this woman there. She’s a Samaritan woman, he’s a Jew and he’s asking her to give him water and she’s like, “No, this is not how we do things. You’re a Jew, I’m a Samaritan, there’s no dealings between you and me.” But he says, “No, woman, I wish you knew who it is who was talking to you, you would have given me water and then I would have given you
living water and you’re never thirsty again.” And the story goes, “Oh, so who are you?” “Okay I’ve had so many husbands,” and the long and the short of it. Something that stood out, stands out here is where she says, um, let me read to us, um, where she says in verse 20: “Our father worshipped on this mountain and you Jews say that” (and she was theological here) [laughs]. “Our father worshipped on this mountain and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming.” Verse 23 of Chapter 4 of the Gospel of St John says, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” God is spirit—in other words, not limited to geographical location—he’s a spirit and ‘those who worship him’ must worship him ‘in spirit and in truth’.
I think Jesus just opens this new realm about worship, from geographical location, from features, mountains, the sacrifices, things—Jesus is saying now things have changed from the Old Testament way [chuckles]. Now an hour has come when those who worship the Father must worship him in spirit and in truth. And that goes for our relationship with the Father and being born again; you’re a child of God, you have the Spirit of God inside you. And now that Spirit of God inside you can worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. And this is not limited to a geographical location.
For me Jesus sums pretty well what worship is all about. It involves the Spirit[/spirit] … for when the Spirit of God comes and indwells you, you’re a child of God, your spirit that was dead is made alive in Christ. And that spirit now can commune [chuckles] with the Father through the Holy Spirit of God and is resident in your life.140
Pastor Nyaga explains that while the Old Testament is an important model, worship in New Testament times—of which Pentecostals think they are part—is still not exactly the same. There has been a transformation of ritual forms,
Pastor Nyaga thinks Jesus sums worship up ‘pretty well’, saying that it involves the Spirit[/spirit]. When I asked him to specify what ‘spirit’ meant in this context, he said that it refers both to the Spirit of God and the spirit inside the human being. For when the Holy Spirit makes a person alive in Christ, then that spirit can start to live in close relationship with the Father and begin to worship ‘in spirit/Spirit’. Here we may recall discussions in Chapter 6 about becoming spiritually alive through faith, and how dance teaches the body to know what the heart has already conceived. The rite facilitates the process that leads to true worship, orthodoxa.
In his explanation, different theological loci and different phases of the redemption history are intertwined. Worship is essentially about the relationship between human beings and God the Father (created order), and that relationship is made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (redemptive order), and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (pneumatological order) in the New Covenant (eschatological order). Hence, the whole Trinity is thought to be involved in transforming the person into a true worshipper. As for the Samaritan woman, the unio mystica includes an encounter with Jesus, as well as an experience of deep communion with the Father through the Spirit. The unio mystica is a participatio Trinitatis, a mystical union with the triune God, one facilitated by, and resulting in, worship.
For while we observed in Chapter 7 that lyrics are mostly Christocentric and focused on the Jesus story, this still has to be weighed against the total theological and liturgical context. Theologizing through song does not happen in a vacuum. It may well be that lyrics in and of themselves give a slightly different picture of local pentecostal theology than an integrated study would reveal. At the same time, pentecostal churches should still be wary of imbalance in their theology, which may not be as trinitarian as they hope and profess and, further, that may become less trinitarian over time due to the formative effect of worship songs on theology, as Michael Tapper has underlined.141
And, um, you know, worship not being locked to a mountain. And worship being, being available or accessible, which is what I think Jesus was telling the woman at the well. I think worship is really, is really not locked up in some sort of liturgy somewhere or locked up in some tradition somewhere. Worship, worship really is where Jesus says ‘where I am’ (as he was telling the woman).142
Worship is deeply connected to being in Christ, through the Spirit, and can happen only where he is. By singing and making music, Christ is invited into the space, meaning it becomes a worship space, regardless of what it was from the beginning.143 As Christ gives his sacramental presence to the community, the community can give their songs as sacrifices back to him, based on his own sacrifice. The way they interpret the Bible, worship is at the same time both sacramental and sacrificial.
3.2.3 Praise the Way King David Did
When discussing the scriptural basis for worship theology, one additional biblical model stood out for my Kenyan interlocutors (apart from descriptions of Old Testament worship, and the text in John 4): King David. His story was given as an example of what it means to live a life of worship, as well as to explain the importance of singing and dancing.
I think my number one praiser would probably be David, in the Bible. David was somebody who God promoted and just established but yet still even … while he was a poor shepherd boy and even when he was lifted to the place of being King of Israel, he still never forgot the place of worship and never forgot that everything about him, whether it was the battles that were won, whether it was the buildings that he had built or the children that he had, everything about his life was about giving glory to God—just everything was a worship for him. So, the songs that
he wrote, everything that came out of his mouth, in spite of his situation that he had with Bathsheba, God still called David “a man after his heart” [Acts 13:22]. Why? Because in spite of his weaknesses, in spite of his faults, David always went back to God; David always made his whole life about God. So that would be a biblical model that I would follow.144
In a very personal way, he calls David ‘my number one praiser’, almost as if he knew him. This is common when research participants speak of the biblical characters; they relate to them as friends and role models in life. David represents a person who ‘never forgot the place of worship’, which means that he never forgot that ‘everything about his life was about giving glory to God’. Regardless of human circumstances (poverty or affluence, lack of power or power), David chose to worship God and God rewarded him for it. Despite his moral shortcomings, God still called him ‘a man after his heart’. That, to Pastor Josh, has to do with worship, with making his ‘whole life about God’. Therefore, the songs David wrote were but one aspect of this life of praise.
King David is one of my key characters, I love him because of his joy in just loving God and dancing for Him and, and just being so real. He’s messed. He’s messed. “Lord help! I need to run away Lord, they’re after me.” And he runs, you know, hides in the caves of Adullam. And, um, the Lord still, um, delivers him from King Saul. And just that knowing that his literal life was a worship to God.145
The narrative element is again there, where the story comes alive and David becomes a real person, almost a friend, someone to relate to and look up to. What she loves most about him is his ‘being real’, expressing his joy and love for God. Despite his many problems, he presented himself as an offering to God via dance. His way of praising motivates her too to sing and dance and express herself before God in embodied, unrestrained, and personal ways. Reflecting later on other characters and texts from the Bible, she nevertheless comes back to say, “Yeah, but David tops the chart for me.”146 His authenticity in worship
Again, we may note an oscillation between worship as embodied, ritualized, and theologizing practice (dance, songs, and sacrifices), and worship as the totality of life lived before God, as if there is no way to speak of one without the other. For research participants, worship is both at the same time. This is the way they understand it, and this is the way they read the Bible.
3.3 Worship Is More Than Music, Yet Music Is Critical for Worship
Above we saw how music facilitates the journey towards the Holy of Holies, becoming a rhythm that mystically unites worshippers with God, integrating their spirituality and transforming their lives. But—why music? If worship involves the entirety of life and can translate into ‘anything and everything’, then why are musical forms of worship such a big deal? Could the church do without them? When asked, my Kenyan interlocutors all answered unequivocally in the negative. Worship is a lifestyle, yet music is critical for worship. In a sense, this entire book is a way to explain why this is so. Among other things we have seen that: (1) music is a key form of pentecostal ritualization, it creates meaningful, structured, and multi-layered rituals that tie participants together; (2) music is a key form of pentecostal embodiment, creating a rhythmic synchronization of bodies that is essential for community and identity and engaging participants on a somatic, sensory, and affective range; (3) music is a key form of pentecostal theologizing, which expresses and shapes doctrine and re-oralizes Scripture in local settings; and (4) music is a key form of pentecostal spirituality, with a mystical function that unites participants with the Divine and carries salvific transformation. Together they point to the centrality of music for worship.
I:And would you say that, that worship in the forms of songs and music is essential to the church?Kamau:Oh yeah!I:Or could you do without it?K:No, we couldn’t do without it [both chuckle]. We couldn’t do without it. I think, I think of all cultural elements, um, music is one of the most readily, readily accessible. So, if you are looking … to bring abouttransformation of any kind—and in this conversation, transformation of a community—then music, music is very easily accessible.147
We both laugh at my question, because the idea of worship without music is such an odd one, almost unthinkable for a pentecostal mind. Music, Pastor Kamau states, is readily accessible as a cultural element, and effective in bringing about transformation, which is exactly what the pentecostal liturgy aims to achieve. Therefore, music is essential for worship, and the church ‘couldn’t do without it’.
Pentecostal philosopher James K.A. Smith agrees with these sentiments, saying that the importance of music in pentecostal spirituality can be explained by its ability to connect with the “affective core”148 of a human being. It is this affective core that must be reached in order to achieve durable change in a person’s way of life. Pentecostal worship is “primed to reach us on a different register”149 and, therefore, is efficient in bringing about transformation.
Wow, it’s huge. Um, first of all music generally in life is, is core. It’s um [pause]. There’s so many clichés of what music is. It’s the language of the soul, it’s, you know, the quickest way into the mind. And there’s so many things I can say about music. And so, then, hence, therefore [pause]. I don’t think it’s realistic to have a human experience—whatever kind it is, whether it’s an opening ceremony for blah blah blah or a birthday party for blah blah blah, or a church service—without having music as part of it. I think that is a, I think it’s an incomplete life experience when you have a life experience that excludes music. That’s part of it.151
Music, she says, is essential for life, and therefore essential for worship. Without music, life would be incomplete, since music relates to deep aspects of a human being. This is why each human experience of any value, be it an
I think it’s a, it’s a translation of inner emotions or inner feelings or who God is in your life. And I think Africans, we are very musical. Um, we used to, in the olden days they used to use music to, um, translate emotions or how they feel. So, you’ll find a very sad song and once you hear it, you’ll know that someone has died in that family; or a very happy song, you know there that someone is getting married or a child, a child has been born. And coming from that context of the African culture, um, music translates to, um, expressing to God where you are at life, you know. I’m saying, “Thank you God for my life”; also, I’m saying, “Thank you God for everything around me.” But also, a place where I reverence just God for who he is, not just because of anything he has done in my life. I think even in African culture there has to be some things like that. And again, we borrow a lot of that.152
Music, she says, is ‘a translation of inner emotions or feelings’ or ‘who God is in your life’. Theology—who God is—is intimately connected to spirituality—who he is for you—and music becomes a vehicle to express that connection. Ritualized forms of worshipping through music (orthopraxis), thus integrate emotion (orthopathos) with doctrine (orthopistis) into a larger whole, and mediate the divine-human relationship as a form of life (orthodoxa). To Pastor Deborah, this is connected to the African culture. Just like in African tradition, music still has a major role in contemporary African culture. Again, referring to the role of music in major life events—death, marriage, birth—she says that the church borrows that function, utilizing music to translate inner emotions and feelings. For her, music is an African way of expressing feelings, it is the culturally appropriate way to express to God ‘where you are at life’.
I:And would you say that worship in the form of songs and music is essential to the church or could it be all the other things but not music?Nyaga:Music is critical in terms of worship. If you look at it from the Bible, especially the psalmist, you know, ‘praise the Lord with all sorts of stringed instruments, with the lute, with the harp’, you know. ‘Dance before the Lord’ [Ps. 150]. I think worship and emotions cannot be separated [laughs]. As I said when people are so fanatical about soccer, or whatever it is, you know, in your culture that people like about games and someone scores and ‘Yay!’ I find myself sometimes, you know, [claps his hands]: ‘Yeah, that’s it!’, you know [laughs].153
Nyaga:And so, uh, music is so, I don’t know how I can put this, but music is that part of worship, it’s like, uh, can I call it worship—organized worship. And we are created musical beings. And there’s certain music, part of music that really connects our hearts with the heart of God—I have no words to explain that! [both laugh]I:But [tails off]?N: But it strikes a chord. … It strikes a chord in us and then you should see when people sing a song that connects with people’s hearts, and it’s so beautiful! And yeah, so it’s a very essential part of worship and if you divorce that from worship then, there’s that, you know, um, beauty, that aroma that is missed out if you miss music as part of worship, yeah. So, it will be in a way, limited without music, yeah.156
It is almost like something dawned on him as we spoke, as if he had never really thought about the role of music, and yet felt its importance intensely. He has ‘no words’ (this is said by someone who is usually a master of words, which is why we both laugh), and then a second later, what comes to his mind is a very poetic expression: ‘it strikes a chord’. As if the heart of the human being were an instrument, and the Holy Spirit connected with that instrument through music, striking the chords of the inner, stringed instrument at every beat of the drums. When that connection happens, it ‘is so beautiful’. As quoted earlier, even in his daily life, music becomes a “rhythm that connects my heart with the heart of God.”157
At the end of the interview, he admitted that he had not properly realized the importance of music before, and that this should be taught to the congregation, so as to give them a more “enriching experience”158 on a Sunday morning. They too need to understand that, without music, the ‘beauty’ and ‘aroma’ would be missing from worship.
Musical forms of worship seem to have the same function in both communal and individual forms of spirituality. They are a core way of connecting with God individually and corporately. In interviews, the two often flow into each other: worship and music as part of congregational, communal settings, and as integral to the personal experience of living in a relationship with God. Earlier in this chapter, Pastor Josh was quoted describing how music helps him to be emotionally vulnerable before God as his Heavenly Father. Other informants shared similar sentiments on the function of worship in their personal life.
One young adult in Woodley struggled to explain the role of worship, saying that she does not know why, but sometimes it just breaks out in a song: “I just sing. It’s like I can’t control it. … it keeps me in touch with God in a way that, it’s like, it’s not exactly expressed in words, it’s only expressed, flows through
We may conclude that through practice, the different levels of worship are intertwined and reinforce each other: worship as musicking, and worship that encompasses all of life. There is a certain ambiguity (or richness, depending on how you choose to see it) in the understanding of worship from a pentecostal perspective. Worship is a lifestyle, it is beyond music, and yet music is crucial for worship. Worship is modelled on biblical material, yet it also connects with African culture and universal human experience. Worship brings sacrifices to God, yet it also brings God’s sacramental presence to earth. Worship is all about God, and yet it aims at transforming human beings. It is a concrete musical-ritual practice and holistic spirituality at one and the same time.
4 Living a Life of Love: Worship as Orthodoxa
In this chapter, I have explored the connection between the mystical function of worship, salvation, transformation, and singing, as well as that between ritualization, embodiment, and theologizing, from the vantage point of local voices in Mavuno and Woodley. Arguing with the help of pentecostal scholars, I have demonstrated that the rite of worship and praise is a prime location of union with God in pentecostal spirituality, ultimately aiming at profound personal, missional, and eschatological transformation. Towards the end of the chapter, I elaborated on local conceptualizations of worship, showing how the different semantic levels are intertwined, almost impossible to separate. In this last section, I return to the idea of worship and life being one and the same, and put that once again into the matrix of pentecostal spirituality-as-theology.
Evangelical theologian Dennis P. Hollinger has called for a Christian faith that integrates “thought, passion and action” into “a whole faith for the whole
Throughout this study, I have demonstrated how the rite of worship and praise in Mavuno and Woodley incorporates dimensions of ritualization (orthopraxis) and embodiment (orthopathos), as well as theologizing (orthopistis). I have also showed how fluid the boundaries between them are. It is not self-evident that ritual practice has to do with the ‘hand’ (action); it is also a matter of the head and heart. Similarly, it is not self-evident that theologizing happens in the ‘head’ (thought); it is as much a matter of the heart and hand. And affection and emotion are not necessarily things of the ‘heart’ (passion); they are also matters of the head and hand. For in the end, the body/Body is one and the same, and head, heart, and hand belong to it. Therefore,
However, it does not stop there; the body/Body is made for movement, and Pentecostals are on the move to change the world. Integration and transformation through worship has a concrete missional and eschatological goal. In this last chapter, I have therefore linked the ritual practice of worship to larger issues in pentecostal spirituality-as-theology, arguing that in the theology of my Kenyan interlocutors, worship defines the relationship with the triune God and translates into every facet of life, with the ultimate goal of transforming the world. Using Hollinger’s vocabulary, I have described a spirituality that is ‘deeply rooted in the Word and the reality of God’, that creatively uses ‘the full range of emotional and aesthetic gifts’ and that ‘brings the whole self into an encounter with God’ in a way that spurs action and is ‘evident to the watching world’. Worship becomes orthodoxa.
However, Hollinger is right that there is that risk of an overemphasis of emotion in the pentecostal tradition (a risk of which research participants were acutely aware), but to understand pentecostal spirituality as entirely focused on affection is an oversimplification. Their aspiration is clear: they do not want worship to be “a Sunday thing” but rather strive for “life and worship” to be “one thing.”167 They want a spirituality that is integrated and transformative, and they regard ritualized musicking as a vehicle for achieving that lifestyle of worship.
My life verse is Ephesians 5:2 and it says, “live a life of love.” And that’s, that’s it for me. I think God’s reason for doing everything is love. His motivation, his inspiration, his, who he is, is love. And love is awesome and it’s a good enough reason to do anything and everything. Um, ja, it’s for me, love inspired the cross, love inspired creation, love inspires eternity, so for me love inspires worship. Ja, love is worship, I think. When we’re living in light, when we’re living a life of love and we’re loving, we’re loving God and we’re loving people and we’re loving the world and the earth and the things around us, and we’re loving the resources that are in our hands, I think we are living a life of worship, ja.168
This is in accordance with the way academic pentecostal theologians have described pentecostal spirituality. Steven Land has famously stated that the “heart of Pentecostal spirituality is love” since a “passion for the kingdom is a passion for the king,”169 while Amos Yong has insisted that “the pentecostal baptism of the Spirit” is in effect “a baptism in divine love” with “affective, practical and theological consequences related to the Christian mission in the world.”170
With the gift of the Spirit, then, comes not only God’s greatest gift but, in effect, the person and reality of God: “Love is God’s supreme gift, for it transcends all emotion, conceptuality, and action only to inspire all three. It gives us life and that more abundantly. Love is not only God’s supreme gift; it is at the very essence of God’s nature as well.” Thus, the reception of the Spirit is a reception of divine love that fulfills the life of
faith and drives earnest and fervent hope in God’s capacity to transform the world.172
Love transcends emotional, cognitive, and behavioural dimensions of faith, yet inspires all of them. Through the gift of love—that is, the baptism in the Spirit—the church is filled with love for God and neighbour, and empowered to give that love to the world. It is the love of God that “motivates us,” Yong says, “to love one another, to love our enemies, to love the world that God has created and through all of this, to love the God who first loved us.”173
Here, the rite of praise and worship functions as the response of a “desiring heart” “to the reception of divine love,”174 a way to express and receive the gift of grace through communal-ritual means. This relates to the argument put forward by Mark Cartledge above, that the “‘pull’ [into worship] is followed by a ‘push’ outward in missionary love and service.”175 The sacramental presence of the person and reality of God transforms God’s people, and propels them out into “loving service toward the wider community and society.”176 The unio mystica translates into a concrete and holistic via salutis marked by love.
Undoubtedly, in Kenyan pentecostal practice, the via salutis is best accompanied by rhythm. The sought-after mystical experience, and its desired result—life-change—are facilitated by the ritual progression of praise and worship. By dancing steps of faith, congregants learn to walk together with the Divine You (‘pamoja na Wewe’, as the song says) on their journey of salvation. Singing and dancing and clapping and playing music are not optional or random activities, but constitute a core ritual practice providing congregants with a viable route to the central goal of pentecostal spirituality: transformation. It is exactly here, in corporate worship, through a deliberate sequencing of ritual acts and utterances, that the pentecostal journey into God takes place. And it is here that God’s people are transformed into fearless influencers of society who are set to transform the world through love. Pentecostal worship practices function as a channel for God’s transformative presence, with worship songs forming a bridge between the idea of change and the experience of change for the individual and the community. For the research participants, singing and making music is a powerful instrument to bring people to Christ, and through that, ultimately, to bring about a new world order.
It is precisely this connection between an embodied and ritualized form, and the essence of faith—a whole life lived in communion with the triune God—that makes worshipping through music so central to the pentecostal-charismatic tradition. The rite of worship and praise becomes a fast track to everything that salvation entails. And so, worship, understood at both levels, encapsulates the essence of pentecostal spirituality-as-theology.
Music becomes a rhythm that connects human hearts to the heart of God.
Parts of this chapter have previously been published as Martina Prosén, ‘Songs That Carry Transformation: Pentecostal Praise and Worship Rituals in Nairobi, Kenya’, Mission Studies: Journal of the International Association for Mission Studies 35, no. 2 (1 January 2018): 265–85. Published with kind permission from Brill.
Smith, Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy, xx. Quote from Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations (1958).
This discussion is summarized by Archer, The Gospel Revisited: Towards a Pentecostal Theology of Worship and Witness, 11–13; see also Yong, Spirit of Love: A Trinitarian Theology of Grace, 75–91.
See discussion in Chapter 2 and Csordas, ‘Somatic Modes of Attention’; Luhrmann, ‘How Do You Learn to Know That It Is God Who Speaks?’; Luhrmann, ‘Metakinesis: How God Becomes Intimate in Contemporary U.S. Christianity’; Smith, Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy.
The last revision is based on Archer, The Gospel Revisited: Towards a Pentecostal Theology of Worship and Witness, 11, 46.
Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom, 69.
Imitatio Christi is a theological expression that originates with Thomas à Kempis, while Participatio Christi originates with John Calvin. See also discussion in Cartledge, Mediation of the Spirit: Interventions in Practical Theology, 54–56.
Poloma, Main Street Mystics: The Toronto Blessing and Reviving Pentecostalism, 41.
Poloma, 43; see also Albrecht, Rites in the Spirit: A Ritual Approach to Pentecostal/Charismatic Spirituality, 238–40.
Jacobsen, The World’s Christians: Who They Are, Where They Are, and How They Got There, 60.
Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity, 25–38. As a curiosity one may note that there is no specific entry in the Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements for the words “renewal,” “revival,” or “transformation,” although all three of them are frequently used in other entries, Stanley M. Burgess and Eduard M. Van der Maas, The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements / Stanley M. Burgess, Editor; Eduard M. van Der Maas, Associate Editor (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002).
David B. Barrett, ‘The Worldwide Holy Spirit Renewal’, in The Century of the Holy Spirit. 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal. How God Used a Handful of Christians to Spark a Worldwide Movement., ed. Vinson Synan (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2001), 381–414; Yong, Renewing Christian Theology : Systematics for a Global Christianity, 1–27. See also the Pew Forum, for example: “Spirit and Power—A 10-country Survey of Pentecostals.”
Miller and Yamamori, Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement, 28–34, 99–128; see also Mugambi, A Spirit of Revitalization: Urban Pentecostalism in Kenya; Prosén, ‘Songs That Carry Transformation: Pentecostal Praise and Worship Rituals in Nairobi, Kenya’; Prosén, ‘Abundant Life—Holistic Soteriology as Motivation for Socio-Political Engagement: A Pentecostal and Missional Perspective’.
Jacobsen, The World’s Christians: Who They Are, Where They Are, and How They Got There, 51.
Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom, 3–48.
Via salutis is originally a Methodist theological term, coined by founder John Wesley, meaning “the way of salvation” Kenneth J. Collins, The Scripture Way of Salvation: The Heart of John Wesley’s Theology (Abingdon Press, 1997). The Methodist roots of classical Pentecostalism have been observed by many scholars, perhaps most notably by Dayton, Theological Roots of Pentecostalism.
Ordo salutis is a theological term meaning ‘order of salvation’. This refers to different ways of understanding salvation (and more specifically how the individual may receive it) in Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed Churches, Walter E. Elwell, ed., ‘Ordo Salutis’, in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1984).
Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom. 63–74. See also Archer, The Gospel Revisited: Towards a Pentecostal Theology of Worship and Witness, 43–82; Cartledge, Mediation of the Spirit: Interventions in Practical Theology, 141–63.
Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom, 69.
Unio mystica (mystical union) is a theological term used primarily in mystical theologies, referring to a “direct union or communion with God that is quite different from the general union in Christ that is the privilege of all believers.” D.D Martin, ‘Unio Mystica’, in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter E. Elwell (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1984). Here I use the expression to underline the intensity and depth that marks pentecostal spirituality. However, Land does not use this expression, but speaks of a “fusion or union with Christ” that joins the believer to the Father and Spirit and results in transformation, Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom, 97. See further discussion below.
Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom, 68.
See also discussion in Hegertun, The Spirit Driven Church: Signs of God’s Graceful Presence; Yong, Spirit of Love: A Trinitarian Theology of Grace, and Poloma and Green, The Assemblies of God: Godly Love and the Revitalization of American Pentecostalism.
Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom, 67.
Smith, Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy, 11. Emphasis in original.
Smith, 12. Emphasis in original.
Martin, ‘The Book of Psalms and Pentecostal Worship’, 64–65.
Cartledge, Mediation of the Spirit: Interventions in Practical Theology, 25.
Cartledge, 16.
Cartledge, 25.
Cartledge, 26.
The connection between ritual and transformation is well established in ritual theory, see for example Bell, Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions, 210–52; Grimes, The Craft of Ritual Studies, 312–17; Barry Stephenson, Ritual: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 54–69.
Cartledge, Mediation of the Spirit: Interventions in Practical Theology, 159; on soteriology, see pages 141–163.
Cartledge, 150.
Cartledge, 150.
Cartledge, 149.
Cartledge, 148.
Prosén, ‘Abundant Life—Holistic Soteriology as Motivation for Socio-Political Engagement: A Pentecostal and Missional Perspective’. Originally published in Swedish as: Martina Prosén, ‘Överflödande Liv—Holistisk Soteriologi som Motivation för Socio-Politiskt Engagemang’, in Teologi för Hela Skapelsen. En Studie om Teologiska Grunder för Engagemang i Miljö och Samhälle, ed. Ulrik Josefsson and Magnus Wahlsröm (Alvik: Institutet för Pentekostala Studier, 2017).
’Transformation’, Cambridge Dictionary,
‘Transformation’, Oxford Dictionaries,
By VaShawn Mitchell.
By Charles Jenkins.
By James Huey.
By Aaron Lindsey and Israel Houghton.
Cf. Isa. 61:3, Jer. 31:13.
By Tommy Walker, performed by Gospel singer Ron Kenoly.
By Israel Houghton and Ricardo Sanchez.
By Lamont Hiebert.
Interview Woodley Music Team 2014-02-08.
Cf. Rom. 10:9–17, and Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom, 66.
Interview Focus Group Woodley 2014-03-16.
Interview Woodley Music Team 2014-02-08.
Interview Pastor Nyaga 2014-03-21.
Interview Pastor Nyaga 2014-03-21.
Interview Woodley Music Team 2014-02-08.
Cartledge, Mediation of the Spirit: Interventions in Practical Theology, 69.
Lord, ‘A Theology of Sung Worship’, 90.
Poloma, Main Street Mystics: The Toronto Blessing and Reviving Pentecostalism, 43.
Smith, Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy, 78, fn. 72. Emphasis in original.
See further Albrecht, Rites in the Spirit: A Ritual Approach to Pentecostal/Charismatic Spirituality, 141–49, 237–40; Cartledge, Mediation of the Spirit: Interventions in Practical Theology, 64–79; Ruth and Lim, Lovin’ on Jesus: A Concise History of Contemporary Worship, 121–43; Vondey, ‘Pentecostal Sacramentality and the Theology of the Altar’.
Interview Woodley Music Team 2014-02-08.
Interview Pastor Josh 2014-02-12.
A term built on Aristotle’s ontology and later picked up in Christian theology.
McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction, 248–56. See also Yong, Spirit of Love: A Trinitarian Theology of Grace, 3–19.
Cf. 1 Sam. 15:22, Isa. 62:5, Amos 5:21–24, Mal. 3:3–4.
Interview Pastor Nyaga 2014-03-21.
Cf. Heb. 7–10.
Cartledge, Mediation of the Spirit: Interventions in Practical Theology, 78–79; on the throne motif, see also Grey, ‘The Book of Isaiah and Pentecostal Worship’.
Interview Pastor Nyaga 2014-03-21.
Ingalls, ‘Introduction’, 6.
Ingalls, 6–7. For an overview of the historical development of the tabernacle-model in contemporary worship, see Ruth and Lim, Lovin’ on Jesus: A Concise History of Contemporary Worship, 32–36, 112–14, 124–31.
Interview Pastor Rose 2014-01-31.
Ingalls, ‘Introduction’, 6–7. Compare Poloma, Main Street Mystics: The Toronto Blessing and Reviving Pentecostalism, 37–58; and recurrent discussion in Ruth and Lim, Lovin’ on Jesus: A Concise History of Contemporary Worship.
Interview Pastor Josh 2014-02-12.
Interview Pastor Josh 2014-02-12.
Interview Pastor Josh 2014-02-12.
Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom, 67–68.
Land, 67.
Rappaport, Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity, 169–87. See further discussion in Chapter 5.
Robbins, ‘The Obvious Aspects of Pentecostalism: Ritual and Pentecostal Globalization’, 61.
Interview Pastor Josh 2014-02-12.
Interview Pastor Josh 2014-02-12.
Interview Pastor Nyaga 2014-03-21.
Csordas, ‘Introduction: Modalities of Transnational Transcendence’, 261, see also Lindhardt, ‘Introduction’, 26–27.
Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom, 67.
Land, 67.
Land, 68.
Cartledge, Mediation of the Spirit: Interventions in Practical Theology, 115. The phrase ‘love energy’ was originally coined by Pitirim A. Sorokin (1954). See further discussion in Poloma and Green, The Assemblies of God: Godly Love and the Revitalization of American Pentecostalism; and Yong, Spirit of Love: A Trinitarian Theology of Grace.
Cartledge, Mediation of the Spirit: Interventions in Practical Theology, 115.
Lord, ‘A Theology of Sung Worship’, 91.
Lord, 91.
Miller and Yamamori, Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement, 132.
Miller and Yamamori, 142.
Mugambi, A Spirit of Revitalization: Urban Pentecostalism in Kenya, 161–94. The T-Loop was initially known as the Mavuno Marathon, see also Gitau, Megachurch Christianity Reconsidered: Millennials and Social Change in African Perspective, 66–88.
But see discussions in Gitau, Megachurch Christianity Reconsidered: Millennials and Social Change in African Perspective; Miller and Yamamori, Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement; Mugambi, A Spirit of Revitalization: Urban Pentecostalism in Kenya.
Interview Pastor Kamau 2014-02-11.
Mugambi, A Spirit of Revitalization: Urban Pentecostalism in Kenya, 182.
Mugambi, 182; compare Acts 1:8. See also Martina Björkander, ‘God’s People: a Missionary Community’, in Called to the Nations: Swedish Pentecostal Mission, ed. Andreas Svedman and Gunnar Swahn (Örebro: Libris Förlag, 2023).
Interview Pastor Kamau 2014-02-11.
Interview Pastor Kamau 2014-02-11.
Interview Pastor Kamau 2014-02-11.
Interview Pastor Josh 2014-02-12.
Interview Pastor Josh 2014-02-12.
Compare discussions in Mugambi, A Spirit of Revitalization: Urban Pentecostalism in Kenya; and Gitau, Megachurch Christianity Reconsidered: Millennials and Social Change in African Perspective.
By Sinach
By Sinach
Prosén, ‘Abundant Life—Holistic Soteriology as Motivation for Socio-Political Engagement: A Pentecostal and Missional Perspective’.
Jacobsen, The World’s Christians: Who They Are, Where They Are, and How They Got There, 56.
Jacobsen, 56.
The following groups are mentioned in the song: Somalis, Congolese, Rwandese, Ugandans, Nigerians, Zimbabweans, Liberians, Moroccans, Kikuyus, Kambas, Luos, Luhyas, Maasais, Merus, Pokomos, Mijikenda. Also mentioned are the following countries: Madagascar, South Africa, Senegal, Namibia, Tanzania, Burundi, Angola, Comoros; and languages: Kikuyu, Kamba, Luo, and Masai.
Mugambi, A Spirit of Revitalization: Urban Pentecostalism in Kenya, 292, see also pages 131–159, 287–296.
Mugambi, 290.
Mugambi, 290.
Mugambi, 290.
Interview Pastor Kamau 2014-02-11.
Compare for example Ingalls, ‘Introduction’; Ruth and Lim, Lovin’ on Jesus: A Concise History of Contemporary Worship.
Ingalls, Singing the Congregation: How Contemporary Worship Music Forms Evangelical Community, 64.
Ingalls, 64.
Ingalls, 64.
Ingalls, 67.
Ingalls, 67.
Interview Pastor Nyaga 2014-03-21.
Interview Pastor Nyaga 2014-03-21.
Interview Pastor Nyaga 2014-03-21.
Interview Pastor Nyaga 2014-03-21.
Interview Pastor Rose 2014-01-31.
Interview Pastor Josh 2014-02-12.
Interview Pastor Kamau 2014-02-11.
Interview Pastor Kamau 2014-02-11.
Interview Pastor Nelly 2014-02-11.
Jer. 6:16, niv, cf. 6:16–20. Cf. Exod. 30:1–10, 32–38.
Interview Pastor Rose 2014-01-31.
Interview Pastor Nyaga 2014-03-21.
Ps. 96:1–2, 7–10a, nkjv (the version Pastor Nyaga read).
Interview Pastor Nyaga 2014-03-21.
By Tye Tribett.
By William McDowell.
Interview Pastor Nyaga 2014-03-21.
Tapper, Canadian Pentecostals, the Trinity, and Contemporary Worship Music: The Things We Sing.
Interview Pastor Kamau 2014-02-11.
See also discussion in Chapter 5 on church as ritual space, Mavuno and Woodley thinks differently on this issue.
Interview Pastor Josh 2014-02-12.
Interview Pastor Rose 2014-01-31, referencing 1 Sam. 20–24, 2 Sam. 6, and the many instances in the Psalter where David cries for help in the face of his enemies.
Interview Pastor Rose 2014-01-31.
Interview Pastor Kamau 2014-02-11.
Smith, Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy, 77.
Smith, 77.
Interview Pastor Nelly 2014-02-11.
Interview Pastor Nelly 2014-02-11.
Interview Pastor Deborah 2014-03-21.
Interview Pastor Nyaga 2014-03-21.
On the similarities between ritual and sport, see Grimes, The Craft of Ritual Studies, 213–16.
Compare discussion in Martin, ‘The Book of Psalms and Pentecostal Worship’.
Interview Pastor Nyaga 2014-03-21.
Interview Pastor Nyaga 2014-03-21.
Interview Pastor Nyaga 2014-03-21.
Interview Focus Group Woodley 2014-03-16.
Interview Focus Group Woodley 2014-03-16.
Dennis P. Hollinger, Head, Heart & Hands: Bringing Together Christian Thought, Passion and Action (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 32.
Hollinger, 24–26, 98–104.
Hollinger, 176.
Hollinger, 177.
Hollinger, 180.
Hollinger, 180.
Interview Pastor Deborah 2014-03-21.
Interview Pastor Nelly 2014-02-11.
Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom, 175.
Yong, Spirit of Love: A Trinitarian Theology of Grace, 91. Compare Lord, ‘A Theology of Sung Worship’; Smith, Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy.
Yong, Spirit of Love: A Trinitarian Theology of Grace.
Yong, 88. Quote from Frank D. Macchia (2006) page 259.
Yong, 160.
Yong, 53.
Cartledge, Mediation of the Spirit: Interventions in Practical Theology, 115.
Cartledge, 115.