Following African independence movements throughout the 1960s and 1970s, a number of Western missionaries encouraged the composition of Christian song in African idioms. Thomas S. Colvin (1925-2000) was one of these missionaries....
John 15:1-8 (Acts 8:26-40, Psalm 22:25-31, 1 John 4:7-21)
When we hear of vines being pruned, and branches that do not bear fruit being cleansed we begin to worry. (Katharos seldom makes it into the English translation of verse 2 which literally reads, “trim clean.”) This fear response likely comes from a misinterpretation: We hear “fruit,” and we think…...
“Touch That Soothes and Heals”
“God loved the world”, an anonymous German hymn, grows out of John 3:16 and sounds out the ground of faith with comfort, especially for those who are troubled, sick, or dying. It first appeared in Heiliges Lippen - und Herzens-Opfer einer gläubigen Seele oder Vollständiges Gesangbuch (c. 1778), a huge…...
“God Loved the World”
“God loved the world”, an anonymous German hymn, grows out of John 3:16 and sounds out the ground of faith with comfort, especially for those who are troubled, sick, or dying. It first appeared in Heiliges Lippen - und Herzens-Opfer einer gläubigen Seele oder Vollständiges Gesangbuch (c. 1778), a huge…...