“Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise,” wrote Martin Luther. “The gift of language combined with the gift of song was given to man that he should proclaim the Word of God through music.”
From Genesis to Revelation, music forms an inextricable part of the relationship between God and humankind. Be it praise or lament, our deepest feelings often find their best expression in song, and those songs have the power to speak to others in a way that mere words cannot.
A Korean listener wrote to FEBA Korea, “I had walked away from God for years. Recently, while I was setting up the radio in my new car, I heard worship music coming from your station, which touched my heart. Through your broadcasts, I was urged to start attending church. I’ve found joy in Christ again.” This is probably why Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called music “the universal language of mankind.”
Bringing people together
Three of FEBA Mozambique’s radio stations recently commenced outside broadcasting. They travel through cities and villages in a van that has been fitted with a mobile studio and engage with people on the street in live broadcasts. The best way to draw people closer, they found, is music.
Contests are a different and fun approach to bringing people together. This year, FEBA Indonesia chose to celebrate their country’s 79th year of independence through the “Sing for Nation 2024” competition, which invited teenagers from all over the country to showcase their talents by singing hymns.
Hymns are a powerful vehicle for the Good News. They speak to all ages and circumstances. In the 1950s, FEBA’s broadcasts to the Soviet Union were frequently jammed, until a Russian listener told the team: “The Communists don’t realise the finest gospel propaganda is in the hymns of the church. Continue to broadcast the music. They don’t jam it at all.”
How precious it must have been for believers in closed countries to hear these messages of hope and comfort in their own languages!
Personal worship
It is a privilege to have hymns in one’s heart language. When FEBA began broadcasting from the Philippines, they used gospel songs in English or translated from English. By the 1970s, however, the team realised that there was a need for authentic Filipino worship songs. The project they launched to create these songs grew into the huge annual Papuri! music festival, where thousands gather to praise and worship God in their local languages.
FEBA in Mongolia and Thailand both held their first songwriting contests in 2023. In both countries, many still view Christianity as a “foreign” religion, and having Western hymns only promotes that idea. “We really believe that the worship songs will have to come from the hearts of the Mongolian believers,” said Batjargal Tuvshintsengel, FEBA Mongolia’s director, when the competition was announced. He and his team had grown aware of a need for gospel songs that were not only in Mongolian, but also born in a Mongolian context and expressed in a Mongolian style. FEBA Mongolia received more than 100 entries, from which they selected their favourites to record and send to local churches.
Director Tuvshintsengel’s response echoes that of many FEBA listeners all over the world: “I cannot tell you how beautiful it is to hear these worship songs in my own language!”
