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I can hear you
Yohannes, Addis, Teunis and Joseph (L-R). (Credit Teunis van Woudenbergh.) Addis, Yohannes, and Joseph had normal childhoods in rural Ethiopia. They enjoyed going to school with friends and playing sports. But that was interrupted when they fell ill one day...
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How Should Missionaries Help Create Indigenous Worship Music?
Let’s face it: we humans like neat categories. We prefer classifications that are easy to grasp. Take music, for example. We classify music into genres, which are perceived as static and “pure” despite the fact that they are always evolving.
Singing the Gospel: How Oral Learners Encounter Truth
In Africa, many village women sing to stay motivated as they work. Children are taught cultural values through songs and stories recounted during initiation rites. The Toposa people of South Sudan are no different. They sing about harvest time or a favorite...
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Influencing the Hearts and Minds of the Youth
The youth of every generation all over the world strive to break free of tradition; to be different from what they know and find their own identity. Considering that the arts and creativity strongly influence culture and the hearts and minds of any given co...
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Music & Drama in Tanzania
Harvest season (June-August) is when ngoma (traditional music, dance, and storytelling) is danced, people have time on their hands and a little extra money in their pockets. It’s the best time to visit. We shared stories, studied the Bible together and cre...
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Igniting New Albanian Worship Music
Heart Sounds International (HSI) is a ministry of OM Arts that helps churches all around the world create new worship songs, using their own local expressions of music and arts. In April, a team of five traveled to Kosovo to hold songwriting workshops for l...
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The Power of the Family of God
A woman listens as another sings. Tears flood her eyes. This is the first time that she has attended a prayer meeting that has ended with music ethnically her own and not borrowed from another language. She only knows of perhaps 60-70 believers in her coun...
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2018 NAR Conference – Arts and Culture Gateway Breakout
Catch up or refresh yourself with the audio recordings of the Gateway breakout session "Arts and Culture" from ION’s 2018 North America Regional Conference, which took place in Orlando, FL in September 2018, with the theme 'Many Applications - One Mandate'.
Sign up to access content2018 NAR Conference – Arts, Orality and Culture Workshop
Catch up or refresh yourself with the audio recordings of the workshop session "Arts, Orality and Culture" from ION’s 2018 North America Regional Conference, which took place in Orlando, FL in September 2018, with the theme 'Many Applications - One Mandate'.
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Witness to New Beautiful Worship
Three years ago, a team from HSI and an American church visited South Asia to survey the worship life of churches and make plans for a songwriting and recording project with local musicians and pastors. After many years of prayer and preparation, this proje...
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Becoming Fishers of Men
And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19 One of the most rewarding parts of working with a culture is when you witness an amazing new connection of that culture and the Gospel.
Praise Is Rising
Praise is rising! This is the message that kept coming to the Heart Sounds International team, even as they prepared to travel to Tanzania. The group felt that they should continue in this attitude of praise, and that they would be breaking up ground for se...
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Finding New Ways to Pray
"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Heart Sounds International (HSI), works with artistic people who create new indigenous worship music. This creativity often transfers into ...
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ION Southeast Asia Convergence 2017
The vision of oral Bibleless unreached people groups began in 2010. A strong conviction to develop a training program in response to that vision. In 2013, we had the first graduates of the Language and Culture Institute deployed to some of this oral Biblel...
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Capturing New Songs
Over the decades, the Great Commission mandate has resulted in various calls for involvement. OM’s Heart Sounds International adds its own slight variation: “to see vibrant worshiping communities of Jesus-followers planted.”
God Works Through Numerous Art Forms
It was with great pleasure that HSI entered into its first project last autumn within a particular East Asian region. Our focus was to offer a songwriting workshop and make a recording of ten previously composed worship songs. In addition, the team offered...
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Mining for Local Art Gems in the Philippines
We were a team of almost 20 people (Filipino and American), representing multiple organisations and a variety of art disciplines: music, dance, visual art, photography, audio recording, drama, storytelling, jewelry-making, 3D paper crafts and even quilling....
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Impacting the Youth Through Music
In January, Heart Sounds International sent a team of five to South Asia to work alongside the longest established Christian rock band. For 18 years, this group of men has impacted the lives of youth through its music, inspiring hundreds to become musicians...
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Remember to Expect the Unexpected
Sometimes things don’t go as planned. Sometimes when what has been prayed over and carefully prepared begins, it becomes messy, tangled, and unpleasant. If this is true anywhere, it is true in Africa. But, messy, tangled, and unpleasant is not always disast...
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New Indigenous Worship Recording
It was with great pleasure that HSI entered into its first project last autumn within a particular East Asian region. Our focus was to offer a songwriting workshop and make a recording of ten previously composed worship songs. In addition, the team offered...
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Multicultural Worship Collective
The Multicultural Worship Leaders Network has released their first compilation album with contributions from several different worship leaders, bands, languages and musical styles.
The Importance of Sound
Sounds have a profound impact on people. Audio engineers play a crucial role in Heart Sounds International because they capture the locals combining their indigenous sounds with songs steeped in scripture. In the past several months, audio engineers have be...
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Foundation 2: Artistic Expression in Early Christianity
This brief survey of artistic expressions within the Early Church invites contemporary application within today’s worship community.
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Application 1: Arts Open Tibetan Hearts to the Gospel
A synthesizing of Tibetan cultural arts and the Christian message of hope enables Tibetans to believe in Jesus.
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Application 3: Community Engagement through Ethnodramatology
Dance, drama, and the blurring of the line between “performers” and “participants” are ways in which the presentation of the gospel is engaging local cultures.
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Application 4: Engaging People through Visual Arts
God can work in relationship-building ways in non-receptive areas when an artist remains available and accessible to local viewers.
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Application 5: Sharing Faith through Contextualized Visual Arts
Whether henna “storying” in South Asia or “contemporary indigenous art” in Australia, the visual arts provide a means of sharing the love of God.
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Application 6: Church Planting with Bible Storying and the Creative Arts
By combining storytelling with various artistic expressions, effective strategies are developing for communicating the gospel in culturally relevant ways.
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Application 11: Arts Enliven Scripture-based Storytelling
An organization has experienced the favor of God as a result of its commitment to oral communication strategies
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Using Rituals to Disciple Oral Learners: Part 1
What can we learn from the powerful effects of rituals from cultures and how can rituals be used for meaningful discipleship.
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Arts & Culture
Pathways include: narrative; drama; poetry; music; visual; rituals; ceremonies; traditions; symbols… The Arts and Culture Gateway looks at oral communicators and how they communicate through local cultural elements, primarily through their art forms. ...
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