Roberta R. King - Global Arts and Christian Witness: Exegeting Culture, Translating the Message, and Communicating Christ

What hath Christian witness to do with the arts? Well, virtually everything, according to King. The authors assertion is sorely needed and long overdue, particularly in a day when 70 percent of the worlds people cant, dont, or wont read. Kings lifelong ministry and academic engagement as an active musicianary make her seasoned reflections here a must-read!

James R. Krabill , Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary; general editor, Mission and Worship for the Global Church: An Ethnodoxology Handbook

King brings us a very important reveal about why artistic specialists and expression stand central to effective gospel proclamation. Creative, with plenty of stories, culturally sensitive, and filled with insight and life, this book provides much help for how indigenous Christian community formation really happens. Artists, musicians, missionaries, worship leaders, and anyone else who is concerned about the church making sense in her context will find this book to be a must-have. King gives her life for these insights, and now we get her wisdom distilled in ways that will increase our ministry effectiveness. Along the way, too, she affirms all the artistic kingdom servants so often overlooked for the strategic role they play in Gods kingdom purposes.

Byron Spradlin , president, Artists in Christian Testimony International

Inviting the reader on a global spiritual and artistic safari, King has richly and skillfully advanced our understanding about the role, importance, and impact of the arts in its ability to incarnate the good news in cross-cultural contexts. Informed by twenty-two years of missionary ministry in East and West Africa and over two decades of academic leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary, King has adroitly crafted and curated a resource that provides a theological and missional framework for expressive cultural interaction through the arts that becomes a platform that leads to authentic spiritual dialogue and gospel witness.

Stan Moore , president of the executive board, Global Consultation on Music and Missions; B. H. Carroll Theological Institute

Packed with stories on subjects ranging from Bono to the Senufo, this volume will motivate and inspire its readers to think in new ways about the value of global arts in the church. I especially appreciate Kings ten recommendations for needed shifts in our thinking. If these shifts could be implemented today, the use of arts in witness and worship worldwide would change dramatically for the better.

Robin Harris , Center for Excellence in World Arts, Dallas International University