IDENTIFICATION OF THE TRAINING NEEDS OF PENTECOSTAL CHURCH MUSICIANS_ A CASE STUDY OF PENTECOSTAL CHURCHES IN BENIN CITY

IDENTIFICATION OF THE TRAINING NEEDS OF PENTECOSTAL CHURCH MUSICIANS_ A CASE STUDY OF PENTECOSTAL CHURCHES IN BENIN CITY

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF STUDY

The word ‘church’ was derived from the Greek word (Kyriakos) which means “of a belonging to the Lord”. The church was founded by Jesus Christ in the city of Jerusalem where he baptized his disciples in 30 AD and the Gentiles joined the church in 40 AD. The church began on the first Pentecost following the ascension. In the first ten years of its existence, the church comprised mainly Jewish Christians or Gentiles who had been proselyted into Judaism previously. The doctrine of the apostles brought the early church into conflict with some Jewish religious authorities.

The issue of circumcision brought confusion to Paul and Jews in the church because it was believed that circumcision was only for the Jews and not for Gentiles who were not equal but Paul insisted that circumcision was equally for the heart and not only meant for the physical. Also, another conflict that came up was the doctrine about the holy spirit which the Gentiles received from God in the house of Timothy but Paul made them understand that the gift of the Holy Spirit is for everybody and not only for the Jews.

Some of the authorities died and others scattered abroad which led to the emergence of some other Christian denominations. As Christianity spread, it acquired certain members from well-educated circles of the Hellenistic world. Some became bishops, but not always. Pentecostal church is one of the churches that came out from the orthodox denominations.

The term “Pentecostal” is derived from Pentecost, the Greek name for the Jewish feast of the week. Pentecostalism is a renewal movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This group of Christians came out from the Orthodox Church during the 20^th century.

However, the Portuguese brought Christianity to the Benin Empire in the 15^th century through missionaries. Some Benin chiefs and Obas (kings) were made Catholic priests and up to date, some of them still dress like catholic priests, in the 20^th century Christianity took root due to indigenous Pentecostal churches, and some still practice the traditional religion. Bishop Benson Andrew Idahosa established the first Pentecostal church in Benin City in 1971 and now there are 1,018 Pentecostal churches in Benin. (Davamola, 200)

Music has been a part of the world civilization from time immemorial.  Primitive cave drawings, stories from the Bible, and Egyptian hieroglyphics attest to the fact that human beings have been creating musical instruments. Evidence abounds that the early churches derived their music from existing Jewish and Byzantine religious chants. Like all music in the Western world up to the 21^st century, it comprised a single melody without any harmonic support or accompaniment. Later the single-line melodies were developed by Pope Gregory I who established a uniform usage of chant throughout the Western Catholic Church.

The Gregorian chant remains among the most spiritually moving and profound music in Western culture. An idea of its pure, floating melody can be heard in the Easter hymn Victimea Paschal lauds. Many years later, composers of Renaissance polyphony used plainchant melodies as the basis for their sacred works.

However, Pentecostal took its roof after the orthodox church which came out of the catholic church music. Pentecostal Christians came out of the orthodox church after the revival movement and took their musical root from the experience of the American Christian Camp meeting hymns in 1871. After the meeting Pentecostal movement started establishing their churches. Therefore the origin of Pentecostal music is from the early orthodox church. Furthermore, the holiness–Pentecostal movement or sanctified movement appealed to the people who were not attuned to the sophisticated church music now used instruments such as electric guitars, tambourines, and keyboards, the Pentecostal churches readily adopted the system and contributed to the gospel music publications of the early 20th century. However, due to musical trends, musical practices took another turn in the 21^st century. For instance, Praise and worship in a Pentecostal church, in Benin City can sometimes be all about call-and-response methods, including choir presentations every worship day. And it brought uniqueness to their music

As music as a subject is introduced to the nursery, primary, and secondary schools, the proper understanding of the value of the artistic and sacred is taught as Christian children are exposed to valuable music for worship.

The need for musical training in the Pentecostal Church is to have quality musicians who will perform Christian music in the church and society. The researcher discovered that many church members joined the music section of Pentecostal churches because they have a flair for music and often they do not have good knowledge of music because they lack formal exposure to music. According to Schuler (1990:19), “the quality of a formally trained musician is directly proportional to the quality of music education in a given society”.

The church needs to train singers who will perform during service. Some of these musicians come on stage to sing having adequate skills in singing. Yet singing is probably the oldest human musical activity. In most cultures, the singer has a specially defined position. More so, early societies evolved several means to relieve the monotony of one person’s singing. A principal device is called antiphony, which involved two groups that sang in alternation with a leader who sang and was answered by a group of singers.  The principle may be seen as the origin of responsorial singing, which continues to date. However, a singer in the church is expected to learn some of these singing skills during worship to meet the spiritual and moral needs of the church.

Music performers to some degree determine aspects of the music they play. Issues of tempo, phrasing, and dynamics; and in some types of music, pitches, and instrumentation are subjected to a performer’s discretion. Therefore, it is expedient for a Pentecostal church musician to enhance his/her level of literacy in music when it comes to singing, instrumentation, and theory of music. More so, the standard of music in the Pentecostal church can improved for his/her listeners through the means of his/her musical skills as a performer.

There is a need for professionalism in a Pentecostal church. Church musician should be able to define which aspect of church music he/she wants to specialize in. This is because it is not certain/clear today just what church music is. What sacred music is? And what art and music equally is? For some, church music is hymn singing.  For others, it is the folk group and for some others, what matters is a sweet and sentimental vocal or instrumental church music performance. But church music is both instrumental and vocal.  It embraces a multitude of forms and encompasses a variety of musical styles.   Therefore, when an aspect of music is defined, it will help the individual achieve his or her goal. According to Otugo (2001:159):

This opportunity to train formally eludes untrained musicians. An untrained musician does not learn the fundamentals of both African and Western music when he is not trained in instrumental activities with harmony and melody, like piano and recorder. Also, he is not exposed to creative response activities, music history, music literature, and music readings.

General knowledge of music should be one of the musical experiences for church musicians whereby the individual would be exposed to a series of responsiveness to musical training and the ability to perform the music and identify his or her specific areas in which to specialize. In this area of general knowledge, the learner needs enough attention from their music directors. This will help the musicians to be guided by their experiences in their general musical performance. There should be motivation for musicians in the area of the music training process and also in the attitudes of music directors towards learning.

 

1.2     STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

There is a need for church music training because technology is now taking over the area of music in Pentecostal churches. Also the trend of music changes from time to time, therefore, it makes styles of music performance in Pentecostal churches look obsolete. It is observable that most Pentecostal musicians are not proving their worth in the church. They are not as active and productive as they are expected to be. Moreover, some of these Pentecostal musicians seem to be in the same category; there is no noticeable difference in their area of specialization everyone of them wants to sing and at the same time they want to play an instrument. This attitude affects their performance during church service.

Also, there is a need for Pentecostal musician to improve their performance skills such as; singing, rhythmic progression in composition, lyrics, and pattern of composition. Information gathered from some choir members of the church visited proved that they need training to enhance their musical knowledge, while some said that since they are talented, there is no need for music training.

Moreso, in some of these churches music training is not stressed for the musicians. Music is seen as one of the activities in church that must be carried out by the choir members and instrumentalists. However, the focus of this study is to identify the training needs of Pentecostal church musicians to enhance the quality of church music when they perform.

 

1.3     PURPOSE OF STUDY

The main purpose of this study is to identify the training needs of Pentecostal church musicians specifically, the objective is to

• Examine the musical backgrounds of the Pentecostal church musicians
• Identify the musical training needs of Pentecostal church musicians.
• Identify music technologically-related training needs of Pentecostal church musicians.
• Identify professional training needs of Pentecostal church musicians.
• Identify religious-musical training needs of Pentecostal church musicians.
• Identify problems militating against the effective musical performance of Pentecostal church musicians;

 

1.4     SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

It is assumed that by the end of this work, the study would be able to identify the training needs and significance of music training in Pentecostal churches such that:

• It will stimulate a better understanding among the readers why a Pentecostal church musician should be well-trained;
• Also, they would be able to understand what church music is all about.
• They would be able to understand the technologically related training need in a Pentecostal church
• This study will provide resource materials as introductory reference materials for reference persons genuinely interested in this field
• To be able to produce quality church musicians that can serve the church.
• To be able to find solutions to the problems militating against effective performance in the church.

 

• SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This research focuses on Pentecostal church musicians because it is from them that quality information about the training needs of Pentecostal churches can be derived because of their high musical involvement during worship.

Although music has been in existence in Pentecostal churches and plays a very major role, this study focuses on identifying the training needs of the Pentecostal church musicians so that they can perform more professionally in the church.  There are three main Pentecostal churches with one thousand two hundred and fifty (1,018) Pentecostal churches in Benin. The Pentecostal churches in these categories are: Redeemed Christian Church of God and their branches, Church of God Mission and their branches, Living Faith (AKA) Winners Chapel and their branches. This study will cover nine branches of the three Pentecostal churches in Benin City.  Musician in the nine branches will be interviewed on their way or mode of worship and questionnaires will be given to them to respond to.  Then areas in which they think they need more training will be identified.

1.6     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This study seeks to answer the following questions:

• What is the musical background of the Pentecostal musicians?
• What are musical training needs for Pentecostal church musicians?
• What are the music technological training needs of Pentecostal church musicians?
• What are the professional training needs of Pentecostal church musicians?
• What are the religious-musical training needs of Pentecostal church musicians?
• What are the problems of Pentecostal church musicians?

IDENTIFICATION OF THE TRAINING NEEDS OF PENTECOSTAL CHURCH MUSICIANS_ A CASE STUDY OF PENTECOSTAL CHURCHES IN BENIN CITY. GET MORE  BIBLICAL STUDIES & THEOLOGY PROJECT TOPICS

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