Grazing and Growing

This book explores the impact of contextualized worship arts on the development of church ministry and missions in urban churches in Beira, Mozambique. This applied research, which took place over the course of two years, focuses on expanding the song-writing workshop model in an effort to enhance culturally appropriate worship in the local church. Results of this study include increased use of local hymnody, intentional use of worship to teach theological truths, engaged pastors and empowered worship leaders, and a greater missional involvement through the use of contextualized worship arts. This book clearly demonstrates the necessity of contextualized worship arts as a key component of local church growth and the development of its members, encouraging personal discipleship, growing local ministry, and empowering for mission. ""The newly-emerging ethnodoxology movement is rapidly gaining momentum due in large part to young scholars like Megan Meyers who are modeling how to do serious fieldwork and walk with faith communities around the world in integrating music and other arts more fully into the life and ministry of the church. If you are feeling any measure of passion about this issue--as indeed you should be--then this study is a great place to start "" --James R. Krabill, general editor of Worship and Mission for the Global Church: An Ethnodoxology Handbook ""Grazing and Growing addresses key concerns in Contextualized Worship Arts that speak directly into the hearts, spirituality, and theology of the burgeoning church in southern Africa. More than mere entertainment or performance, Meyers addresses essential cultural processes at work in music and the arts when local believers engage the scriptures and make them their own."" --Roberta R. King, Fuller Theological Seminary, Associate Professor of Intercultural Communication and Ethnomusicology ""Megan Meyers demonstrates the fruit of ethnodoxology best practices through her work with churches in Beira, Mozambique, expanding the song-writing workshop model to include interventions such as focus groups for discovering community needs, teaching, jam sessions, worship leaders' small groups, and composer's clubs. The results reveal transformational growth in the worship praxis of the local congregations. Meyers has provided us with a powerful story of how ethnodoxology methods can be effective in urban church contexts."" --Robin Harris, President, International Council of Ethnodoxologists Megan Meyers is an ethnomusicologist, working with WorldVenture Mozambique since 2009. She is a lecturer at the Bible Institute of Sofala and the Baptist Bible Institute in Beira, Mozambique, and an adjunct professor of Global Arts and World Religions at Fuller Theological Seminary.