people from the different regions of india look quite different. people from the south are much darker than the north and the north east look much more oriental. looking at a map i realise that the north east part of india is between bhutan and bangladesh so it is a long way - india is a big place!
i was chatting with a man from north east india and he related the following story to me after i had led a workshop on worship and the world. he knew a village in the most north easterly region of india where when the missionaries came they had a great response. the whole village (about 1500 people) were converted to christ. the missionaries were welsh presbyterian. but in 1945 the missionaries had to leave. after a while many of the converts returned to their hindu faith. the church that the man i was talking to was a part of sent some people to try and revive the christian faith in the 90% or so who had returned to their hindu ways. they asked them why they had done this. the answer given was that there was no one who knew how to play the church music and lead the hymns. and wasn't christianity a foreign religion anyway?
we then had a great discussion about indigenous worship in both music and things like sitting on the floor rather than pews, church buildings being shaped like ashrams or mosques rather than western churches and so on. he suggested that there was no problem with the western worship in the early days of the missionaries because it was all exotic and new. but after 30 years or so in a church, the legacy of that approach was that many other people now saw the church as foreign. it's such a shame that part of the legacy of western missionaries in worship has been to teach people round the world western songs and hymns (and buildings and prayer books and robes etc etc). i'm sure there are lots of exciting movements in indian worship - i hope so. i'd love to find the indian equivalent of alternative worship, the creative underground. it certainly sounds as though there is plenty of this sort of thing in the tribal areas i blogged about a few days ago. but there is also the legacy of poor missionary practice over the decades - the gospel wrapped in western culture leaves its murky trace once again...
Technorati Tags: india, india talkie, mission
Jonny have you come across the Mar Thoma yet? It's the version of Christian faith that has been in India for nearly 2,000 years -if the founding story is true. Might be interesting to do some compare and contrast...
http://www.malabar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/index.html
Posted by: andii | June 11, 2005 at 03:50 PM
Western missionaries going into foreign lands and imposing western Christianity is akin to Imperialism. It's so wrong.
Posted by: Existential Punk | June 11, 2005 at 06:01 PM
"Is akin to imperialism"? --- more like part and parcel of imperialism.
I keep wondering why we would be/still are engaged in proselytising and conversion rather than interfaith dialogue.
Posted by: michelle | June 12, 2005 at 12:08 AM
I was in India about 3 years ago to teach at a college our church supports. It is run by nationals and has a large variety of students from about every state in India. Some of my observations were as follows.
The people in general still have a very large interest in anything western. They have a desire to learn all the latest worship songs that we in the states are singing and for the most part have adopted a western style in the way they conduct their services and even go so far to have seperate English and native language services.
They do not have anything against doing worship in their own style and traditions but for the most part it is a lot more complicated than the traditional western style.
When we challenged them to think about how they could bring the gospel in their native language and traditions, they were very open to that way of thinking and have started preparing more worship and ministry efforts that way. I guess you could say they are making the gospel revelant to the ones they are serving.
I believe that we must be willing to think outside our traditions and experience and be led by the Holy Spirit in areas of ministry. When I read the New Testament it is just filled with new and creative ideas that expanded the gospel.
Posted by: Steve Kirkeby | June 12, 2005 at 06:18 AM
i haven't encountered anything like alt worship in delhi (though for sure in a city this big my slice of experience is tiny). it would be cool for someone to be doing banghra-pop influced worship music and visuals, but the means for that would only be available to the few and wealthy. what I have seen a LOT of is church musicans trying to emulate either the hillsong style or the hosanna/integrity style of worship (right down to harmonies, mic technique and dress sense). i remember speaking to a worship pastor who was sating that if only his church could afford an overhead projector they could get to the 'next level of worship.'
if someone wanted to go in search of a "creative underground" my guess would be that it lurks in the rock and hard rock scene that is growing amongst college and university students.
Posted by: Fernando Gros | June 12, 2005 at 10:02 AM
cool to see your musings ... on india.. I live in india and work with media and reaching indeginous people groups through media. I am very interested in the alternative worships and the creative worships..and have visited your site regularly.. its true about what the guy said about western music.. but i also think its time to contextualize worships for this is the heart beat of the people! i also believe in fusion music as its a higher level of developed music that can even become global.
Posted by: obed | June 12, 2005 at 05:59 PM
Phillip Tovey has wriiten an interesting book called "Inculturation of Christian Worship, exploring the Eucharist" which although it's focus is on the African Churches sets a Global context... from the back cover; "Looking at the relationship of worship and culture requires insights from both theology and anthropology; Tovey develops the tools to interconnect perspectives into an interdisciplinary exploration of different models of inculturation".. it isn't a "trendy/emergent/po-mo" type of book, Phillip is a Training Officer in the Oxford Diocese, but is quite academic and references ectremely widely.
Posted by: Mark | June 12, 2005 at 06:51 PM
interesting stuff... check out christianity rediscovered by vincent donovan... he had a similar experience with the maasai people in tanzania...also love to martin m who i think is also on your team!
Posted by: niallm | June 13, 2005 at 08:33 AM
Sounds like you're having some great conversations and meeting interesting people through the conference, cells, workshops etc. Look forward to hearing more next week! Hope the rest of your time goes well in Kerala. Greetings to the rest of the team!
Posted by: debbie | June 13, 2005 at 04:26 PM
For some great Indian Christian worship tunes- check out my good friends Aradhna, who are doing traditional indian music styles with christian worship lyrics in local languages. Very cool music! You can download full tracks from their website. They will be at Greenbelt this year if you want to check them out...
http://rivertribe.typepad.com/blog/2005/02/chris_hale_from.html#
Posted by: rivertribemike | June 14, 2005 at 03:44 PM
Of course Christianity is a foreign religion. It comes from the Heart of God, not UK, USA, France, etc...
Tim
Posted by: Timothy Wright | August 09, 2005 at 03:25 PM
I am an Indian hindu, have been educated in christian missionary schools, familiarised with christain ideals and christ has been presented as the saviour lord to me.
I beleive in the good will of christ and his life and accept him and the message of his life as divine.I have many other ideals in my relegion which has a 5000 years atleast of history in this land and has seen many saints and messengers. My relegion could not be defined untill the monotheistic relegions arrived in this civilisation.
Now some one there would be sure interested in telling me why should I acccept in one god only when we have experienced that faith and beleifs have always evovled for good . Why cant we just include his ideas in our own set of beliefs and be in the process of evolution.
If you agree that there is no relevance for such an action , then why should we have conversion by social coercion, why should there be projects,, missions towards prolytesing the monothestic relegion.
Why should a secular government allow such activities in india.
Why cant the christians just convicne me and people like me through word of mouth and action.
Why does it have to in numbers , when we know that numbers are nothing but means to political end,especially in a monothestic society.
Especially,in a country like india where christians dominate education, press and other fields of importance, why should there be a strive to increase the numbers.
Cant the christians be a powerful minority, like the jews in america, contributing to the indian society.
Posted by: Ramesh | August 20, 2005 at 02:13 PM
Hey Johny,
I am a Mar Thomite and our church has existed since AD 52 from the timje St. Thomas came down to Kerala! that's hundreds of years even before England even heard about Jesus... Christianity is thriving though it is a minority religion here in India. In fact, Mizoram, a north eatern state is nearly 10% Christian
Posted by: Mathews George | June 06, 2008 at 11:01 AM