Pentecostalism in Africa has received much scholarly attention in the last decade. These scholars, drawn mostly from religious studies, come from different continents. Part of this attention is due to the perceived migration of the Christian center from the West or North to the South, as Africa is often referred to in terms of economic and political shifts (Jenkins 2002; Kacowicz 2007). Much of the discussion on Pentecostal Christianity in Africa centers on understandings regarding “the Spirit” or supernatural and extraordinary acts. This discourse recognizes how African churches have embraced the Spirit in ways that mainline, evangelical, and other churches in the West have not nor seem to continue to actively pursue, as was the case until the 1980s. Thus, regardless of whether they fit the general classic definitions of Pentecostals or charismatics, the majority of churches in Africa that invoke the supernatural or use terms that suggest a work of the Spirit are labeled Pentecostal or charismatic. A large number of Christian groups in Africa are subsumed under this label (Droz 2001; Gifford 2009; Mwaura 2008; Parsitau 2007).
These scholars further recognize that significant numbers of Africa’s Pentecostal and charismatic groups learn their theology orally. Music’s potency in indoctrination and memorializing is well acknowledged in both stereotypical readings of Africa and in Pentecostal circles. That the “Pentecostal movement has been distinguished for the important role it gives to music in all aspects of the lives of its adherents” (Alford 2002, 912) makes for an unprecedented symbiotic transfer with regard to the performance and practice of matters of the Spirit. Yet it is not only in singing that Pentecostalism makes for a wedding of church life and the other lived experiences of the African worshipper, for musicking is more than just song.1 Pentecostals are known for diverse articulacy, including clapping, dancing, spontaneous interjections during sermons or in response to a testimony (which might include a song in the Spirit or singing with understanding), and ecstatic passing out during fervent worship. These behaviors are well documented in continental and diasporic African musicking. In Pentecostal and charismatic gatherings, it is not just special artists who perform; any and all participants are technically licensed to musick. Thus, there is room for the specialists, but there is opportunity for everyone else. This has generally been a characteristic of much communal African musicking as well.
It is not my intention in this chapter to compare Pentecostal song performance with musicking in an African ethos. I propose, however, that the Pentecostal approach to and beliefs about musicking have resonated with practices in many African culture groups. This became evident in the trends in charismatic and Pentecostal renewal movements that crystallized in the West beginning in the late 1960s but that included seminal African participation. It may be that African involvement and the reverberation of musicking drawn from an indigenous ethos conflated in an explosion of “Spirit” churches in urban spaces in different African countries. The repertoire in these churches includes hymns of missionary and local inception in colonial and local languages along with gospel songs and choruses, as well as contemporary songs of foreign and indigenous origin. Before the turn of the twenty-first century, it was customary to use hymnals and songbooks published internationally and locally. Today, lyrics are posted on overhead projectors in churches that find this practice valuable. Thus, one can find the same “praise song” in a Catholic assembly and in an Anglican, Pentecostal, or nondenominational congregation. It is an overwhelming endeavor to seek to differentiate the repertoire of the Pentecostal and the charismatic from that of Catholics, high Protestant churches, evangelical movements, or other traditions. Their practice speaks beyond denominational lines to the impact of globalization.
A summary of the manifestations of Pentecostal and charismatic musicking in Africa in a short chapter would hardly do justice to the wide and complex trajectory of its expressions. I will therefore focus on a church that I believe is at the crossroads of the Pentecostal and charismatic movement in Kenya—the Nairobi Pentecostal Church (NPC). I was involved in NPC’s music and worship programs as a singer, choral director, organist, and pianist. I also organized music and other events for children, youth, and adults between 1982 and 2003. My discussion will examine NPC’s practice of singing with understanding (known songs from oral and written sources) and singing in the Spirit (songs “received” in a moment of visitation by the Spirit from known or unknown sources, in known or unknown “tongues”). I begin with a description of two services at NPC that were billed as “music” services but inevitably morphed into Pentecostal gatherings, in order to emphasize the centrality of music in Pentecostal-style worship. The historical section that follows provides insight into the multiple variables in the global Christian world and Kenya’s postcolonial society that fed the diverse repertoire embraced by NPC and similar multicultural urban churches in Nairobi. I thereafter locate NPC within the broader sphere of Pentecostalism to reiterate the movement’s outstanding musical legacy in the twentieth century.
In August 1992, Dennis White, then senior pastor of NPC, asked me to prepare an evening song service. The service would be underscored by “choir” songs he felt the church members valued, which had been integrated into congregational lore. While these songs were not raised for the congregation during Sunday services, it was common knowledge that members sang them in small group fellowships and other gatherings and that parts of the songs were often invoked in prayer meetings as well as in youth and children’s services. Together with the choir members, we (the choir committee and I) made a list of songs peppered with known and “favorite” church hymns and choruses, added one or two completely new numbers, and presented the set to the pastor. Pastor White had declared that he would not preach at the service; rather, he wanted the songs to speak to the people. On the day of the event, the choir sat onstage, as was our habit. We had decided that we would only stand to “perform” the completely new songs. However, as soon as we started a known choir song, some members of the congregation stood up and began to sing along or even pray aloud. The choir members immediately responded by standing, and soon everyone would be up, singing from the lyric sheets that we had printed out.
It was not long before Pastor White began to exhort, encourage, challenge, and evangelize the audience. What had begun as a song service turned into a meeting that included prayers, altar calls, the laying on of hands for healing of physical or other needs, and a celebration of praise. I was initially told that the service would last an hour. Two and a half hours later, we dismissed the congregation because it was getting late for Nairobi, where people commuted by bus and sometimes lived in neighborhoods that were dangerous after dark. The service began at 5:30 P.M. and officially lasted until 8 P.M. I left after 9:30 P.M. because the pastor always stayed until the last person who needed ministry left. Although the choir was dismissed, I stayed and played the piano, as I could get home safely later than the other instrumentalists. While I played, various pastors, elders, deacons, and other “prayer warriors” assisted those who came to the altar. My songs were not preplanned; sometimes I began a song and the pastor picked it up. Other times, the pastor began a song and I picked it up. The song service therefore became no different musically from the main services we held at the church. Singing was not just for the sake of song. It transcended the joy of singing and entertainment. Singing and music set the mood for many different service activities, enhanced the efficacy of the service items, calmed or excited the people, spoke or affirmed the Word and witness of the people, and closed out or signaled the closure of the cooperative moment.
The previous year (1991), Pastor White had asked me to prepare an evening Christmas carol service on December 22. This service was in addition to the annual Christmas program that the choir put on every second Sunday in December. The pastor was motivated to hold the carol service for at least one reason: unlike in previous decades, Nairobians no longer left the city en masse for their “countryside” ancestral homes during the Christmas season; most of them remained in Nairobi. For some, that decision was financially based. For others, who spent most of the year in the city, the villages did not have as strong a pull as in previous decades. It also appeared that the city was the only home some people knew. It was for these people’s sake that the pastor proposed a Christmas carol service. The last time I could recall having a carol service was fourteen years earlier, when I was in high school. Our teachers prepared us for a month in advance through hymn and choir practice for the final service of the school year. This preparation ensured that all the students were conversant with the pieces that we collectively performed, regardless of our Christian or non-Christian backgrounds.
Putting together the repertoire for the NPC service proved to be less difficult than I had anticipated. While some carols were regularly aired on radio and television throughout the season, we proposed a few more obscure songs that were either very old or very modern. Once we decided on a set, I began to play the songs during the preservice music on Sundays, rehearsed the choir, and exhorted the church members to practice the songs elsewhere in order to familiarize their families and colleagues with the tunes. The carol service in the almost four-thousand-seat church was filled to capacity. The congregants participated as if they were familiar with every song. While classic songs were sung enthusiastically, for the lesser-known pieces, the pastor, at his discretion, reiterated some stanzas, adding spiritual, theological, and experiential layers that promoted more zealous engagement with the songs. Sometimes whole stanzas were repeated. Other times the refrain was underlined and repeated over and over again, spilling into a worship session. During these worship sessions, songs other than carols were sung. This was a Pentecostal service, replete with the musical gestures that were idiomatic of such gatherings. It was nothing like the high school Presbyterian carol services in which I had participated. As with the service in August, we continued playing after the congregation was dismissed. And Pastor White informed the church that we would henceforth hold a carol service every Christmas season. A new tradition was being birthed; that tradition was rooted in a music service.
These vignettes not only provide a window onto the musicking associated with Pentecostal-style Christianity in Kenya, but they also afford a framework for examining contemporary practices in congregational song among the diverse denominations grouped under the rubric of Pentecostal or charismatic churches in Africa.
NPC is part of a larger complex known as Christ Is the Answer Ministries (CITAM). In essence, CITAM was launched out of NPC. NPC is affiliated with the Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG), a denomination started by Pentecostal missionaries from Canada and the United States in the late 1910s. The missionaries were required by the Kenyan government to be affiliated with a larger body. Thus, they applied to and were accepted by the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC) in 1924. The PAOC’s work in Kenya was originally conducted under the Pentecostal Assemblies of East Africa, but in the 1960s, with the dawn of African independence, this work was renamed the Pentecostal Assemblies of God. PAG mostly operated in rural Western Kenya (Kasiera 1981). As Kenyans from this area relocated to cities, they set up branch churches affiliated with this denomination. NPC, however, did not begin that way. The de facto church that had been set up to service PAG denominational adherents in Nairobi was located in a suburb known as Bahati, where many of those who relocated from rural Western Kenya lived. NPC’s beginnings and establishment in Nairobi catered, for the most part, to people in the city who came from other parts of Kenya, a middle- and upper-lower-class African population that was rapidly becoming urbanized, and more elite English-speaking congregants of African and other origin. It was separate and independent from PAG, although the missionaries who served the church were granted Kenyan work permits through PAG. Thus, although it was a PAG affiliate, NPC was not one of PAG’s assemblies (Mugambi 2009).
There was originally one NPC location on Valley Road, near the center of Nairobi. During Dennis White’s tenure as senior pastor (1987–97, though he stayed on staff until 2003), new branches were opened in the city, named, for example, Nairobi Pentecostal Church Woodley (West) and Nairobi Pentecostal Church Karen (South) for the area of Nairobi in which they were located or the neighborhood in which their buildings were situated. However, in the last ten years, new branches have been established in other towns, the first in Kisumu, northwest of Nairobi. This branch was named Kisumu Pentecostal Church, in part because it took over the congregation of an affiliate PAG church of the same name. NPC as an organization was renamed CITAM in 2003 to facilitate expansion outside Nairobi.
CITAM is not only a collection of churches; since its early days as NPC, it has housed recording studios for music and radio programs as well as a kindergarten on its premises. As it has expanded, it now hosts a radio wave, HOPE FM, and a television station. In addition, CITAM runs grade and high schools and a children’s home originally built to rehabilitate street children. CITAM sends missionaries to other parts of Kenya and, to date, has established assemblies in Malawi, Rwanda, and the United States. It is, however, well documented that NPC, the church, is the motherboard of CITAM.
NPC was envisaged by its founding missionary, John McBride, in 1953 as an English-speaking church. From the church’s beginnings, contrary to most Western Christian denominations’ agreement to each target a specific ethnic/language group and section of a country, he sought to bridge the racial and ethnic divide that was part of the social and political organization of Kenya. The McBrides recognized that Nairobi was multicultural. The lingua franca for the growing African elite was English. Targeting this population, the McBrides began a house church. They then collaborated with other missionaries and African pastors to set up evangelistic crusades in the city from 1955, which led them, over time, to rent halls where the budding congregation eventually grew into a sizable group. Eventually, the current Valley Road premise was acquired. A building was set up and occupied by the pastor, then Reverend Richard Bombay, in 1959. The first sanctuary was dedicated in 1960 (Mugambi 2009).
From its inception, NPC embraced the classical Pentecostal doctrines, the most distinctive of which was the baptism in the Holy Spirit as a third work of grace after repentance and sanctification. The initial evidence of the baptism was speaking in tongues. From the documentation of this experience in other parts of the world, Pentecostals were recognized for spontaneous song in known and unknown tongues and for activities such as clapping, dancing, and being slain in the Spirit, with music (vocal, instrumental, textual, or other forms) undergirding these expressions. According to various reports by PAG missionaries, including those involved in NPC, music was vital to the worship life of the congregation (PAOC archives, Pentecostal Testimony).2 The music at NPC not only reflected missionaries’ backgrounds; rather, it was as current as contemporary music in the Americas and Europe, because new missionaries first landed in Nairobi and usually attended NPC when they were in the city. As seen in church records and my own experience, NPC was frequented not only by Pentecostals but also by missionaries from other agencies, including Methodists, Baptists, and others of charismatic and evangelical persuasion.
However, by the mid-1970s, NPC was not the only church with a “Pentecostal” flavor in Nairobi; “Spirit” churches of indigenous African origin also had a home in the city. Most of these were birthed in rural spaces and spread into the city as their members relocated there. Some, such as the African Israeli Church Nineveh (AICN) and Akorino (also known as Aroti and Watu wa Mungu), had been operating since the 1930s. AICN had broken off from PAG, while Akorino was of indigenous Kenyan origin. AICN’s behavior was similar to that of PAG, but for the most part, Akorino was considered a sect (Barrett 1973; Kalu 2007; Kalu and Low 2008; Garrard 2002). Thus, while both denominations manifested behavior associated with the larger Pentecostal world—such as lively and spontaneous songs of the Spirit, dancing, shouting, the raising of hands during congregational and spirit singing, prophetic words, supernatural healing, passing out in ecstasy—their theology was questioned by mainline and missionary churches, and their objectives were usually cast in political rather than religious language. Additionally, these churches had a rural ethos, appealed to particular ethnic groups, and did not generally attract the emerging urban elite.
In a parallel development, some members of mainline Anglican and Presbyterian churches embraced doctrines of sanctification and holiness that preceded and informed the Pentecostal explosion at the beginning of the twentieth century. These revivals were introduced to Kenya from Uganda and Rwanda through a movement whose participants were known as Valokole. This group attracted youth who had relocated to the city and whose parents belonged to mainline churches. The church had by then become the space where youth were socialized in modern, urban, independent Kenya. In the late 1960s, some Valokole youth were absorbed into parachurch organizations created by their denominations, such as the Trinity Fellowship, which fell under the auspices of the Anglican Church. Other youth were excommunicated from mainline high churches for manifesting Pentecostal behaviors such as exuberant singing, clapping, loud praying, or even praying/singing in the Spirit. Some of these “rebels” joined NPC and other emergent Pentecostal groups, such as the newly established Assemblies of God branches that set up shop in Kenya in the late 1960s.
Other youth formed new churches, the most popular being the Deliverance Church, led by the charismatic Joe Kayo, and the Redeemed Gospel Church, led by Arthur Kitonga. Students in high school and at university attended their gatherings, since the groups held evangelistic campaigns in the city on weekends and hosted revival camps during school holidays. Such meetings were promoted by ecumenical organizations such as the Christian Union (CU), established to evangelize and disciple high school students from the late 1950s, and the Fellowship of Christian Unions (FOCUS), an extension of CU in universities as well as an affiliate of the international Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. The meetings were vibrant spaces where new doctrines such as Pentecostalism could be introduced to institutions of learning that admitted students who had first been introduced to other variants of Christianity in their villages. The inclusive message of Pentecostalism, which recognized the power of God as being vested in any willing individual who was filled with the Spirit—not just ordained pastors—was not lost on youth eager to be on the front line in a country experiencing the early years of self-rule. The music introduced to and enjoyed by these youth was as diverse as the denominations they represented. It became fodder for youth groups in the students’ churches back in their own villages and in other towns.
Beyond the locally established urban churches, foreign nondenominational organizations conducted Christian work in Kenya in the 1970s. They included Protestant and evangelical bodies such as the Navigators, Life Ministry (Campus Crusade for Christ), Youth with a Mission, Youth for Christ, DIGUNA (Die Gute Nachricht für Afrika), and Young Christians, an organization that sought to unite the youth of different Catholic orders. In addition to the various historical and modern musical developments that informed workers in these organizations, contemporary trends from religious social movements such as the Jesus People, the emerging commercial product known as CCM (contemporary Christian music), renewal developments that propelled music publishing houses such as Maranatha! Music, and the Catholic charismatic renewal that led to the fame of groups such as the Medical Mission Sisters became part of the soundscape of youth in Kenyan schools, colleges, universities, and churches.
Meanwhile, independent assemblies that originated in Africa were at the forefront of incorporating Kiswahili and other African-language songs into their services. Some songs were created under the guidance and promotion of mission churches, while others were spontaneous songs born in the Spirit or compositions in indigenous styles that resembled Spirit songs in form and performance style. It is no wonder that any discussion about Pentecostalism and charismatics in Africa is difficult to contain within the parameters that might more easily be applied to happenings in Europe or the Americas during the same period. It is also difficult to consolidate the musical behavior of churches in contemporary urban Africa by identifying specific music with a specific Christian denomination or theological/doctrinal persuasion. At the same time, this diversity makes for a rich palette from which to select musical materials.
Since the Reformation, hymnals have been great indices of theological and musical trends. An excellent example of the diversity in Nairobi is found in two hymnals published in the 1980s: Victory Songbook (1986) and Voices Aflame: Songs from East Africa (Purgason 1988). It is unclear who put together Victory Songbook. However, from my musical exposure in high school and at university, my participation in different ecumenical meetings organized by CU, FOCUS, Trinity Fellowship, Navigators, Youth for Christ, and international charismatic fellowships in Nairobi, and my involvement in NPC, I recognized most of the songs in the book. In the preface, the compilers explain that the compilation’s “500 lovely hymns and choruses represent a wide range of Christian praise, adoration, worship, testimony, and response to God [that] is ideal for the home, youth groups, evangelistic meetings and churches of all denominations” (Victory Songbook 1986). The hymnal’s repertoire is in English and Kiswahili, with songs ranging from classic Lutheran standards such as “A Safe Stronghold” to the popular late 1970s chorus “Bind Us Together, Lord,” as well as Kiswahili songs and choruses, including a translation of “Damu ya Yesu” (“Oh, the Blood of Jesus”), well-known Kenyan compositions such as the chorus “Moto umewaka” (A flame is lit—a fire is being burned), and the testimony song “Kuna kitu moyoni mwangu kinanitesa lazima nikiseme” (There is something in my heart that is so burning me up, I have to speak it forth). These songs were part of the core repertoire in gatherings at schools, universities, and colleges, church services and home fellowships, and any other place that prioritized Christianity, including national radio and television broadcasts. In practice, these were the songs of young Christendom in Kenya.
Voices Aflame features many of the same songs. It also contains songs in Luganda, the dominant language of Uganda. This inclusion is explained in part by the desire to recognize other East African countries and in part by contributors to the volume from Uganda. All of the songs include chord symbols. This hymnal, however, appears to target evangelical groups such as Baptists, African Inland Church members, and Anglicans who had embraced the Valokole tradition. Judging from the credits, it was probably a project of Daystar University, with contributors from the named evangelical groups.
By the mid-1970s, NPC was one of the foremost entities in Nairobi now grouped by scholars of religion as Pentecostal or charismatic in doctrine and/or behavior (Parsitau and Mwaura 2010). Such scholars refer to the members of these bodies as “urban Pentecostals,” without clarifying what makes them Pentecostal in classic or other ways, apart from an emphasis on supernatural (spiritual) forces. NPC holds a historical position as a classical Pentecostal church and was a basic referent for Pentecostal and charismatic gatherings in Nairobi. Music undergirds the church life of NPC and the larger CITAM body, and Pentecostal gatherings have traditionally been identified and distinguished by the prevalence and diversity of music. Their songs are meant for both individual and congregational worship. D. L. Alford, in his entry on music in The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, states that “music occupies a vital place in the religious experience of typical Pentecostal-charismatic believers, expressing a wide range of economic, political, and social values, styles of worship and musical tastes” (2002, 912).
However, regardless of assigned cultural stereotypes, Pentecostals and charismatics have historically been documented as doing much more than singing. For instance, Joseph Guthrie (1992, 81) quotes George Jackson’s report on the behavior of a white Church of God congregation in the 1930s: “The songs’ function as a rhythmic tom-tom like noise for inducing the desired ecstasy became apparent. From that time on, oh, there was no let up. The Spirit moved some to dance; others to speak in the unknown tongue, to jerk, or to fall in a dead trance.... After half an hour of this, the singing came to an end. Also the instrument strummers, worn out, dropped out one by one, leaving only a piano player and a tambourine whacker.” Further, Pentecostals have traditionally been known for their diverse styles, to the extent that it was usually difficult to maintain the divide created by mainline churches between sacred and secular sounds. As Goss notes, “Previous to the 1900s, and up until Pentecostal singing appeared, there was usually a distinct difference in the public mind between ‘worldly’ and ‘sacred’ music. But it was impossible for people freshly filled with the Holy Ghost to express their abounding joy in the slow, cold reserved styles typical of ‘sacred’ music” (quoted in Guthrie 1992, 84). Thus, Pentecostals did more than sing; they were known for incorporating the most contemporary styles into their musicking. In essence, the music in any given service revealed the diversity in historical and contemporary repertoires, as well as in what was considered stylistically sacred or recognized as secular in form and performance practice at the time.
John McBride and other pastors at NPC, particularly Mervin Thomas, Roy Upton, and Dennis White, maintained the various manifestations of Pentecostal musicking. Included in the worship services were hymns of various liturgical, evangelical, and Pentecostal traditions of the past, as well as gospel songs, Sunday school hymns, choruses, and other music from revivals over the years. However, there were always contemporary trends, often initially presented as “specials.” As a choir director, I knew that the “specials” would subsequently be absorbed into the music and worship life of the church. One choral director and worship leader from Sweden who visited NPC in 1989 commented on the choir’s rendition of Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus without piano accompaniment. On the day she visited the church, the pastor, in an inspired moment, asked the choir to sing the piece. Since the pianist was away, we performed it a cappella. Our guest was equally astounded when the congregation sang along with the appropriate “European” ethos, only to turn around when prompted and sing Kiswahili pieces in a different timbre and style, accompanied by hand clapping and other action, as if it was the most normal thing. I did not know it then, but what occurred regularly in the church—the shifting between ordered, rehearsed choral, solo, and small ensemble numbers, congregational hymns and gospel songs from the hymnal, choruses raised from the pulpit, songs from contemporary global and local repertoires, and spontaneous, unrehearsed congregational singing in the Spirit—was typical of classical Pentecostals. NPC was certainly conceived and regarded as a classical Pentecostal church. However, it was not the only assembly in Nairobi with such diversity of song. It was simply the most famous and the most populous of the Pentecostal and charismatic churches until the end of the twentieth century.
Our first performance of Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus was part of a Christmas production. We showcased it in the “Singing Christmas Tree,” a tradition begun by the pastors at NPC in the late 1970s as part of their evangelistic endeavors. Missionaries introduced us to cantatas by evangelical songwriter John W. Peterson, and in 1984 we tacked Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus onto Peterson’s Born a King. The response was electric. After the first show, the church filled up. When word got out that a Pentecostal church choir was singing the “Hallelujah” chorus, which was usually the preserve of the Nairobi Chorus and the Anglican elite, more people came to every subsequent performance. This was how the congregation began to appropriate the piece.
Subsequent annual productions of the “Singing Christmas Tree” received national coverage after the president of the country saw it and requested that it be nationally televised during the Christmas season in the mid-1980s. We also learned to involve the audience. It grew to more than three thousand people a night as a result of being included in the singing of familiar carols or songs in indigenous Kenyan languages. In addition, there was the possibility of being seen on television. Thus, NPC was well-known countrywide for its Christmas music productions, which became a model for other churches. However, this reputation was preceded by radio broadcasts, including live Sunday evening services when it was NPC’s turn, as per its agreement with other denominations during the late 1960s. NPC also hosted radio music programs such as Songs for You, featuring the latest international Christian songs, on Sunday afternoons. It was known for its congregational singing, which seemed to be more exuberant than what other “mission” churches offered, and it included songs in Kiswahili—rare in other established multilingual churches attended by the rising elite. I would go so far as to say that NPC became a model for how to sing the Lord’s song, demonstrating that there were diverse tongues and ways to sing this song in the Spirit and with understanding.
During my intense musical involvement at NPC (1983–2003), music was embedded in every gathering. The song sources were diverse—from standard hymnals, to orally transmitted choruses, to someone “receiving a song” and sharing it with the congregation, from which time it became part of church lore. Other resources included visiting musicians and recordings from North America, Britain, and the Scandinavian countries. Additionally, East African songs were introduced through visits and recordings by special groups, choirs, and individuals, subsequently becoming a part of church church. Church members also brought songs into the church, sharing them during prayer meetings or requesting that the choir or worship leader introduce them to the congregation. Thus, song was not the domain of a special and trained few; it belonged to the assembly, and it was up to the assembly to disperse it in the wider community.
Congregational musicking may have been rooted in ecclesiastical use. It may have been intended for musical worship, to teach doctrine and reinforce theology, or to prepare, exhort, and inspire the congregants. However, I found that people liked to musick. Often, they joined the choir simply to learn to sing. And they learned as much from other choir members in the pews as from the leader. There was a strong belief that the musicking that so touched people, when done with the right motives, pleased God, who in turn responded to this offering.
My training in school as a musician prepared me to invest the most time in the interested or gifted child, in order to promote excellence of artistry in that individual. However, my ethnic group imparted the idea that everyone should musick. Song was but one dimension. In Pentecostal congregational song, as a leader—whether of the choir or from the piano or guitar—it was indeed my mandate to enable everyone to musick. Singing in the Spirit from certain classical Pentecostal understandings may mean certain things. I interpret it also to mean that the singers embody the spirit of the song—in text, tune, or other expression. Singing with understanding can be understood as meaning not only comprehension of the textbut also that people understand the essence of the musicking, get lost in it, appropriate it, make it their own, and are embodied in it. This is some of what I learned from musicking at Nairobi Pentecostal Church.
1. Christopher Small (1998, 9) proposed that “music” should be both a noun and a verb. As a verb, “to musick” is “to take part, in any capacity, in a musical performance,” whether by performing, listening, practicing, rehearsing, or dancing. The term has since been expanded as ethnomusicologists found that, in most of the world, music is defined beyond sound and silence to include what might be perceived as other disciplines, such as fine arts, drama and theater, other verbal arts outside of song, and many more expressions that feed into the complex of the process of music. Hence the broad acceptance of the term “musicking.”
2. Reports appeared in the journal Pentecostal Testimony, which may be accessed in the PAOC Archives, Mississauga, Ontario.
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