EMQ » January–March 2020 » Volume 56 Issue 1
By Robin Harris
The Global Ethnodoxology Network (GEN), formerly known as the International Council of Ethnodoxologists (ICE)[1], offers networking, training, and resources for the flourishing of biblical and culturally appropriate arts. With roots in disciplines such as missiology, anthropology, ethnomusicology, ethnoarts, and worship studies, our associates are comprised largely of cross-cultural workers, students, and professors of those disciplines, as well as creatives from more than eighty-five countries on six continents around the world. The vision that draws us together is one for a future in which communities of Jesus followers in every culture engage with God and the world through their own artistic expressions.
Filling a Unique Need
Other large networks like Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA), the Progressive Christian Artists Network (PCAN), International Association of Christian Artists and their constituent networks, serve an important need, focusing on providing encouragement for artists as they create for their churches and their communities. But they don’t specifically address the cross-cultural focus of ethnodoxology, an “interdisciplinary study of how Christians in every culture engage with God and the world through their own artistic expressions.”[2] And since ethnodoxology encompasses “all the arts, from all the world, for all of God’s Kingdom”[3] (Schrag 2013, xv), it isn’t limited to any one art, but embraces the vast array of artistic expression available to us and encourages local creativity in our lives of worship, witness, and loving service of others. Founded in 2003, GEN fills this unique need – facilitating the creation of culturally appropriate arts in Christian cross-cultural service. As a virtual network, it is also globally accessible.
Networking. Training. Resourcing.
GEN focuses primarily on three activities as it supports ethnodoxologists around the world: networking, training, and resourcing. In the area of networking, associates interact with one another on a members-only web-based email forum, and they enjoy special arts tracks and networking meals at several global conferences,[4] gatherings that also serve to provide training and resources.
The network’s focus on training has fostered collaboration between various GEN associates to develop and popularize two courses: Introduction to Ethnodoxology and Arts for a Better Future.[5] These courses have been adopted by schools and organizations around the world. While courses on ethnodoxology are expanding slowly in number each year, the one-week Arts for a Better Future (ABF) course has enjoyed strong growth world-wide since the launch of the course in 2011.
Over eight hundred people from more than sixty countries on five continents have taken ABF since then, either as a workshop or for credit through GEN’s educational partners.[6] Testifying to the global membership of the network, about thirty-eight percent of ABF participants are from the global south (including Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands, Latin America, and the Caribbean) Since many of the certified facilitators of ABF are speakers of other languages, the Global Ethnodoxology Network has developed materials for the course to be taught in Portuguese, Spanish, Indonesian, Russian, and French, with plans for Mandarin and Swahili in the next few years, all published through William Carey Press.
With regard to the third aspect of GEN’s mission – resourcing, collaboration within the Global Ethnodoxology Network has produced two books, both of which are used in the network’s training courses–Worship and Mission for the Global Church: An Ethnodoxology Handbook and Creating Local Arts Together: A Manual to Help Communities Reach Their Kingdom Goals. The first book (commonly known as the “Ethnodoxology Handbook”) features over one hundred authors from twenty countries around the world, and the DVD materials, now available online, include the full text of four ethnodoxology-related journals and six books in three languages as well as media clips and other resources. This would not have been possible without the broad collaboration that a global network facilitates. This 580-page Ethnodoxology Handbook serves as the foundational text for the Introduction to Ethnodoxology course, and the second book–commonly referred to by ethnodoxologists as the “CLAT Manual” – serves as the text for Arts for a Better Future.[7]
Other resources made available through collaboration within the Global Ethnodoxology Network include a free access, peer-review journal – Global Forum for Arts and Christian Faith.[8] In addition, multi-year members enjoy free online access to theGarland Encyclopedia of World Music, including photos, maps, and audio files.
Successes and Challenges
We are seeing success in popularizing the term ethnodoxology, something that people thought impossible when the network was founded in 2003, as the new term (based on the Greek roots ethnos, peoples; and doxos, praise orworship) was quite obscure at the time.[9]Now, an Internet search on the word reveals a wealth of possibilities for networking, training, and resources on the topic.
Our greatest strides have been made in expanding the network to be truly global. Fully one third of our associates have joined through an application for free membership for people from under-resourced countries. These international associates have greatly enriched the network’s understanding of the practice of ethnodoxology around the world. There are about a dozen regional networks that are in the process of becoming affiliate organizations. These affiliates are increasingly serving their regions by providing networking, training, and resources in languages other than English, or other contextualized services that meet the needs of those regions.
All of the organizational partners, affiliates, and educational institutions that are a part of the network are engaged and play key roles in achieving the goals of the organization. GEN members know they can go to these organizations to find places to serve and learn. The network, in turn, serves these schools and organizations by promoting their distinct ethnodoxology-related contributions in our newsletters, forums, and on the website.
The challenges for the network have largely resulted from its virtual and volunteer aspects: utilizing up-to-date technology and software for networking and keeping fresh content on the website and our social networking platforms.[10] Although historically the only paid position in the network was the webmaster, we eventually hired a Facebook content curator and a Resource Coordinator to keep the Virtual Library content (much of which is behind a members-only firewall) up-to-date.
Connecting with GEN
There are several ways to connect with GEN. There is a free email newsletter for those who wish to receive updates every four to six weeks on what’s happening in the world of ethnodoxology (worldofworship.org/newsletter). To enjoy the full benefits of GEN membership, sign up to be a one-year, five-year, or lifetime member (worldofworship.org/signup). If you’re interested in attending the Global Consultation on Music and Missions (in Dallas, July 20–23, 2020), you’ll have an opportunity to learn about ethnodoxology in a conference setting (gcommhome.org). If you need training in ethnodoxology to make your ministry more effective, check out the training options at worldofworship.org for workshops, intensive courses, and options for BA, MA, DMiss, or PhD degrees in ethnodoxology-related subjects.
Conclusion
The driving motivations behind the founding of the Global Ethnodoxology Network in 2003 were:
- to help counter the isolation that many ethnodoxologists felt, since there were so few of them and there were no easily accessible ways of interacting;
- to popularize among missionaries the idea that music is not a universal language[11] and to turn mission methodologies in the arts from a “bring it – teach it” approach to a “find it – encourage it” approach;
- and to provide ongoing training and resources for those involved in this new discipline, preparing them to facilitate a flourishing of local creativity and a life of worship for every people on earth.
We are delighted to see that by networking and collaboration, we are beginning to achieve those aims. Furthermore, the outpouring of local creativity for Kingdom purposes around the world, and the visible changes in mission approaches in the arts toward a “find it – encourage it” model (ethnodoxology) is tremendously encouraging. Our blog (worldofworship.org/blog) is full of stories about the difference that ethnodoxology makes in people’s lives.
Check us out online at worldofworship.org.
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Dr. Robin Harris served for decades in cross-cultural contexts, including ten years in northern Russia. In addition to serving as director of Dallas Int’l University’s Center for Excellence in World Arts, she serves as president of the Global Ethnodoxology Network (GEN), an organization she helped to launch in 2003. Her publications include co-editing Worship and Mission for the Global Church: An Ethnodoxology Handbook (William Carey Library).
Notes
[1] The network has just recently changed its name after operating for sixteen years as the International Council of Ethnodoxologists (ICE).
[2] For this, and other commonly used definitions of the term ethnodoxology, see http://www.worldofworship.org/what-is-ethnodoxology/.
[3] Brian schrag, Creating Local Arts Together: A Manual to Help Communities Reach their Kingdom Goals (Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2013).
[4] Regular “GEN and friends” gatherings are attached to the Calvin Worship Symposium (https://worship.calvin.edu/symposium/) and the Global Consultation on Music and Missions (https://gcommhome.org/). Arts tracks are coordinated by GEN associates at the Evangelical Missiological Society (https://www.emsweb.org/), meetings of the World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission (https://weamc.global/), and the Int’l Orality Network (https://orality.net/).
[5] Descriptions of the two courses can be found at the website: Introduction to Ethnodoxology (https://www.worldofworship.org/introduction-to-ethnodoxology/) and Arts for a Better Future (www.artsforabetterfuture.org).
[6] The two schools hosting Arts for a Better Future on an annual basis are All Nations Christian College (https://www.allnations.ac.uk/courses/short-courses) and the Center for Excellence in World Arts at Dallas International University (https://www.diu.edu/cewa/intensives/).
[7] See https://www.worldofworship.org/ethnodoxology-handbook-manual/ for details, including author information, table of contents, DVD materials access, and e-book or hardcopy ordering information (also available at the publisher’s site, William Carey Library, https://missionbooks.org).
[8] See www.ArtsandChristianFaith.org.
[9] See http://www.worldofworship.org/what-is-ethnodoxology/.
[10] Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ethnodoxology/), Twitter (@ethnodox), and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/ethnodoxology/videos).
[11] See my article from the Ethnodoxology Handbook, “The Great Misconception: Why Music is Not a Universal Language” (William Carey Library, 2013), available by permission at the GEN site here: https://www.worldofworship.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Robin-Handbook-Article.pdf.
