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Ethnodoxology Seminar & Workshop

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary is holding a seminar and workshop July 20-29 on multicultural worship and global Christian musics. The seminar is a collaborative effort involving a team from the International Council of Ethnodoxologists (ICE) and the seminary.  It is designed for church musicians, students, pastors, missionaries, and local church members interested in missions.

In addition to the interactive, media-rich learning sessions, workshop participants will take part in group projects, and participate in a global hymn festival on July 28 at 7 p.m. on Southeastern’s campus.  The festival, which is free and open to the public, will include music from several Raleigh-area churches that represent cultures from around the world.

This seminar and workshop are part of the study called “ethnodoxology.”  Ethnodoxology involves the theological and anthropological study of culturally relevant worship, and it aims toward practical application.  The seminar will help participants consider their roles in the vision of global worship--every cultural group being able to use its unique and diverse artistic expressions appropriately to worship the God of the Bible.

The ICE team, coordinated by Robin Harris, crafted the seminar in consultation with John Boozer, professor of Church Music at Southeastern Seminary.

“Praising God with music and arts from cultures around the world is an innovative vision and yet so natural,” said Boozer, who has led a number of musical mission trips around the world.  “Southeastern Seminary is seeking to equip musicians, pastors, laymen and missionaries to encourage biblical worship by using each people group’s heart music and heart language.”

Paul Neeley, president of ICE, speaks about the importance of ethnodoxology in examining people’s attitudes and practices of worship, which affect every area of their lives. “Worship intersects with culture constantly: in congregational life, in our individual lives and in the way we live in our social settings. Ethnodoxology helps us think through some of these things,” said Neeley, who teaches classes in multicultural worship and ethnomusicology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and other schools.

“How can biblical worship be fleshed out in particular cultural forms that are appropriate, relevant and meaningful? Whether we are involved with worship ministries in multicultural congregations in North America or doing church planting among unreached people groups, we need to ask these questions and see what types of answers people have reached before us.”

For more information about ICE, visit www.worldofworship.org.