“From the Rising of the Sun”

(Book/Documentary Review)

The following is a post written by ODBM missionary Kristi C, reviewing the new book and documentary, From the Rising of the Sun, written and produced by Tim Challies and Tim Keesee. Kristi serves in Europe and as an international music consultant.

“From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!” Psalm 113.3

My apartment building here in France is very quiet on Sunday mornings. I am probably the only one who heads to church to worship the Lord. But all across the world, week after week, the people of God join together to praise Him, to take the Lord’s Supper, and to teach and exhort one another according to his Word. In his unfathomable greatness, he sees every worshiper, understands every word, and searches every heart, all at the same time.

In their book/video documentary “From the Rising of the Sun: A Journey of Worship Around the World,” Tim Challies and Tim Keesee have invited us to join them on a quest to follow the worship of the Church on a typical Sunday. They start with the rising of the sun in the kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific and follow it across the world to the Aleutian Island of Unalaska in the North Pacific. The content of the book largely mirrors that of the videos, which means some will be tempted to set the book aside. However, it would be a shame to miss out on the exquisite prose of Tim Keesee. He sprinkles the text with quotes and stories that enrich our hearts and imaginations. We meet “bewhiskered” sea lions, snow crabs with “ominous arms,” and wince at a “footsore day.”

Challies and Keesee had a few important criteria for their journey. They wanted to visit churches of national believers (rather than expats), led by national pastors (rather than missionaries). As an ethnodoxologist, their second criteria jumped out to me: “We also wanted to visit churches that had not merely imported Western styles of worship but considered how God would call them to worship in ways that reflected their unique cultural setting.” What they found was a “kaleidoscope of cultures in the Church,” all expressing the same love to the same Redeemer-Lord. This unity in Christ filled them with wonder.

While the authors highlighted a different aspect of worship in each chapter, such as preaching, prayer, and baptism, I noticed that every chapter had some reference to music. This came as no surprise, for God calls us to sing to him, and our music reflects our culture in such vivid ways. They described their appreciation for CityAlight’s simple songs for small churches, their amazement at the hymnwriting talent of a young Cambodian woman, Yett, and their enjoyment of the “mother’s choir” in Zambia who zigzagged to the front of the church local tambourines and dancing. I smiled at the way they described ethnic instruments in Cambodia as being “perfectly suited” to local Cambodian melodies. There are musical reasons for that.

I appreciated how they ended each chapter with discussion questions. However, I believe those questions could have burrowed deeper to help those of us in Western contexts learn how to better welcome people from other cultures and languages into our church body. Also, how might we better prepare the missionaries we send to non-Western contexts? Here are a few of my own discussion questions based on Challies and Keesee’s video/book documentary.

• In the chapter “Love for Strangers,” the Polish church looked for ways to include the Ukrainian refugees in their worship service. How important is it for a local church to reflect the host culture vs the cultures and languages of the believers who make up the church? By giving them the opportunity to sing in Russian, were the Polish believers preventing the Ukrainians from assimilating, or were they demonstrating compassion and love? How long might such bilingual services be necessary?

• In the chapter “End of the Road,” we meet Yett, a Tampuan woman without formal education who has written over one hundred hymns. How might we better equip missionaries to find the local “Isaac Wattses” in their churches and to spark the composition of new hymns in local languages and styles?

• Practically every genre and style of music can be traced back to idolatrous, pagan beginnings, like the Brazilian rhythms referred to in the chapter “Dawn in the Americas.” At what point, if ever, would those rhythms lose their negative connotation for Brazilian believers? How should Christian liberty be exercised and discernment be encouraged when making such delicate cultural applications in our churches?

• Like the Zambian girls singing a CityAlight song in the chapter “Heirs of Livingstone,” non-Western churches are continually learning and adapting our songs. How many of their songs have we learned and adapted in English? Our churches would be richer for it!

I found this book and documentary to be a marvelous heart-feast that made me all the hungrier to worship my Savior in glory with people from every kindred and tongue. For that reason, I highly recommended it for families, churches, and anyone who loves taking the Gospel to the nations.

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