As Guest Blogger Week continues here on sojournmusic.com, Sojourn worship leader Michael Butterworth reflects on the question, “What is your wildest dream for worship in the church today?”
My wildest dream for the church today would be to see more churches contextualizing the gospel for their neighborhoods by using indigenous expressions of worship, which includes, but is not limited to, local styles of music.  It is amazing to see churches like Sojourn explore what this means, but our particular flavor of indie/folk/rock is not enough. This movement needs to be global.
The Bible paints a beautiful picture of the multi-cultural family of God in Revelation 7:9-10. Â Here John writes,Â
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”Â
I think it is significant that John specifies that people are present “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages”. The Greek word here for “nations” is “ethnos”, where we get the English word “ethnic”. In other words, John isn’t talking about geo-political boundaries but ethnic groups, each with their own distinguishable culture. John seems to be suggesting that God not only deserves to be worshiped by all people but delights in being worshiped in different cultures!
The best picture of this I have seen is my friend Ozgur. I met Ozgur this summer when I was blessed to spend eight weeks in Turkey. We quickly discovered we had a lot in common, including an affinity for football (soccer), indie rock, and theology. What we did not have in common was that Ozgur spent the first sixteen years of his life as a devout Muslim, praying five times a day at the local mosque and obeying the Islamic dietary laws. However, God did a radical work in Ozgur’s life and several years ago he professed faith in Jesus Christ.  His conversion brought persecution from his friends and neighbors, but his witness led to his father and brother also becoming Christians.Â
The church in Turkey is small in numbers (less than 4,000 believers in a country of 72 million people), but Turkish believers are attempting to do the exact same thing Sojourn is: find authentic ways to communicate the gospel within their local culture. Recently, this has resulted in Christian hymns being written by Turkish believers with Turkish folk instruments, such as the oud. The Turkish hymns I heard sounded very strange to my western ears, but for Ozgur and my other believing friends, it was a pure joy to worship with their own ethnic instruments and indigenous melodies. In a culture that equates being Turkish with being Muslim, these hymns remind our Turkish brothers and sisters they did not stop being Turkish when they became Christians.Â
As the gospel goes out to the ends of the earth, we see a more complete picture of our Christian family. More so, as each new culture seeks how to communicate what God has done in Jesus Christ, we here in the West are blessed to see a fuller picture of our infinite and unfathomable God.
