Paper SVS ENG Final 3.0
Paper SVS ENG Final 3.0
Abstract
The purpose of this article, besides highlighting some of the history of the history of Vineyard
worship in Latin America, is to bring to the table some fundamental questions and to serve as a
catalyst for a most needed dialog that has been postponed for many years. A discussion about the
use of translated songs and their influence in the development and maturation of Vineyard
worship in the region is done from the points of view of the complexity of the esthetic problem
that it creates; the signification of worship music as a turning point in a process of rupture for
Latin American worship leaders and musicians; and the role it plays in musical localization. The
final section is a pastoral call to reconsider diversity and the need to create new worship music
from the realities and contexts where Latin American Vineyards are immersed, which means the
reconsideration of diversity according to the variety of possibilities that the continent offers for
mission, reflection, poetry and musical styles, to local congregations, theologians, composers and
musicians.
Since its beginnings, worship music in the Vineyard has been guided by the well-known
idea captured by Vineyard Music’s slogan: “From the church to the church” (Borkett-Jones,
2015). Moreover, all efforts in musical composition and production, and collateral technical and
pastoral areas, have been driven by one of Vineyard’s central values: to experience God in
worship (Wimber, 1989). This resulted in a minimization of the search for clever business
models or commercial success as the basis for the music ministry. The constant insistence upon
Vineyard values and the desire to demonstrate an authentic spirituality throughout the movement
(Williams, 2005) defined the styles and forms used to conceive worship music, as well as its
public expression. Instead of hype and manipulation to gather followers, frugality, sincerity and
naturality became hallmarks of the movement, applied also to spiritual manifestations by treating
them as something “naturally supernatural” in the life of Christian communities (Wimber,
1999).
Maranatha! Music (Elliot, 2010; Smith, 2014), Vineyard’s predecessor in terms of
congregational music, became quite popular in Latin America in the 80’s. Vineyard worship in
Spanish, on the other hand, came of age around the end of the 90’s. By that moment, its musical
style and lyrics stood in stark contrast with regards to the widely known movement of praise and
worship (P&W). In Latin America, in particular, the P&W movement revolved around a few
outstanding leaders and performers that developed praise and worship songs akin to Latin culture
(Lázaro, 2013b). In many cases, music was produced under the umbrella of megachurches that
could provide resources, time, technical means, large audiences, events and conferences, and
networks for distribution and commercialization which, offered an attractive product to the
growing evangelical1 consumer-base in Mexico, Caribbean, Central and South America.
In the face of this scenario, it is not surprising that the philosophy behind the Vineyard
Movement congregational music--its origins, influences, history, and contributions to the global
Church were, and still are, so poorly known and understood in Latin America, even in La Viña
1
Evangelicos in Latin American terminology includes both the American evangelicals and pentecostals.
Pentecostals and charismatics comprise over 75% of evangelicos, therefore I will use the term evangelical to refer to
them.
churches2. The purpose of this article, by highlighting aspects of the history of the movement in
the region, is to bring to the table some fundamental questions as a catalyst for a much needed,
and long overdue, dialog.
2
Uruguay was the last country were a Vineyard church plant was started recently. Cuba has had a large effort
without much success, but still several churches keep working there. Other than that, I think all the remaining Latin
American countries have at least one Vineyard church.
decade, expanding from Mexico to Argentina (Deiros and Mraida, 1994). For this reason, many
of the musicians and worship leaders that were joining La Viña were familiar with this musical
expression, its liturgical use, and, in some measure, with its underlying theology (Gladwyn,
2015). Many of the MAA pioneers were widely known among Latin American evangelicos,
selling their records by the thousands in the bookshops of major cities and playing their songs on
Christian radio (Ingalls, 2014). In those years, Latin American worship leaders created their
congregational music repertoire from that material, following a liturgical structure based in the
Davidic worship flow of Psalm 100, which was well known among Pentecostals and
Neopentecostals (Lim and Ruth, 2017).
In 2018, I had the chance to interview several La Viña worship leaders. I noted that for
those that joined the Movement between 1998 and 2002, it was common and even
transformational to mention the experience of migrating from the MAA to Vineyard worship,
something they typically did in a relatively short period of time. The following examples from
three worship leaders, who today pastor La Viña churches, will illustrate more clearly my point:
…I was so used to the Latin American style. …inevitably, we copied that model. Like
talking a lot from song to song, forcing people to shout or to applaud, and other stuff. But
the new way of worship that we encountered was definitively different… I convinced
myself that I had to change the way I was leading worship (Paiva, 2018).
When I first heard Vineyard music, honestly, I didn’t like it too much. I found it quite
simple, compared to what I had seen in the MAA, from where I was coming. It took me
several years to understand… (its) richness, depth, simplicity and naturality (García, 2018).
… I was accustomed to a different kind of musicality, much more aimed to big venues with
large audiences, and much more complex in arrangements. When I began to explore
Vineyard music… I found… how something simple could also become deep and excellent,
with lyrics that were out of the box to me… (Tello, 2018).
The new Vineyard musical style, that these young worship leaders were experimenting
with, was quite close to the MAA, musically speaking. In fact, Contemporary Worship Music
(CWM), MAA and Vineyard music are stylistically by-products of pop and rock music (Ruth,
2015; Ingalls, 2017). Perhaps, the main difference that the interviews revealed was about the role
of the worship leader. In the MAA, the worship leader held a certain authority and directionality
during congregational worship, whereas in the Vineyard the role was more a matter of modeling,
and leading with spontaneity, just like any other worshiper who yearns for a point of total
surrender where intimacy with God is experienced. This point is critical because it speaks about
motivations and the ideal of honest worship that expresses itself through simple songs of love,
intimacy, passion, closeness and vulnerability (Reagan, 2015). This kind of worship is available
to everyone, and can be performed and sung in a variety of spaces, from personal devotions and
small groups, to Sunday services and even larger venues.
Hans Wüst, a soft spoken, talented young man with experience in the Costa Rican pop-
rock scene, was a key figure in the translation of what had been done in English to the Latin
world. Hans was also a composer, adding his personal creative touch to whatever materials he
got his hands on. From the very start of this process, Hans made important contributions,
especially to the musical direction of the I Ibero American Encuentro in 1998. For this landmark
event, he prepared the lyrics and music scores, creating what was to be the first Vineyard music
repertoire in Spanish. This musical collection contained 26 songs of North American origin
(USA o Canada), composed mostly during the 90’s, with some produced in the early stages of
the Toronto Blessing. Compositions by Terry Butler, Scott Underwood, John Barnett, Brian
Doerksen and Craig Musseau, stand out. Notably, this shows that from this initial stage in the
process, very few songs composed and popularized between 1976 and 1990, either from
Wimber, Tuttle, Espinoza and others, factored into the churches of the region at that stage. Four
songs originally composed in Spanish were included in the collection, all of them by Hans Wüst.
Another original song was incorporated during the Encuentro, a simple intercessory chant
composed in 1992 by Iván Sepúlveda, a Chilean worship leader.
During the following year and part of 2000, Hans Wüst produced the CD Canciones de la
Viña, which became the first Vineyard Music production from Latin America soil. In 2002,
another event of deep, enduring impact in the Vineyard worship movement in Latin America was
the Congreso Latino de Adoración de La Viña (CLAV), held in Costa Rica, in January 22-25 of
that year. At this Congress a live recording was made by Vineyard Music as part of the
production of a new CD; the first time this was attempted in the Central American churches of
La Viña (or in the rest of the region). Of particular interest to me is the testimony of Cristian
Tello (2018), currently founding pastor of La Viña en Barranquilla (Colombia), and a well-
known musician that has worked for Marcos Witt’s Canzion School in Colombia:
… I was utterly surprised when I saw a very simple set up, without lightning or other
props, neither there were announced any famous or renown artists. Hans Wüst was the first
one I saw leading worship during the conference… he greeted those attending and
immediately started to worship. He didn’t talk to the public again, trying to induce them to
raise their hands, clap or close their eyes. He was simply worshiping in a way that inspired
us to do the same, in the most natural and deep manner… I experienced God’s presence as
never before… That event marked my life and my understanding of what it means to lead
worship.
The CLAV initiative had the support and financial backing from Viña Music, a small
division of Vineyard Music created by Bob Fulton in order to produce music in Spanish. Yo
Clamo a Ti, the album recorded at CLAV, was not released until 2005 and this delay affected its
popularity and distribution in the region. However, other projects followed. In Alma Hambrienta
(2003), the voices in Spanish were recorded using the original tracks of the CD Hungry produced
by Brian Doerksen and Nigel Hemmings in 1999 for Vineyard Records UK. This also marks the
introduction of Brittish sound into Latin American worship, something that is commonplace
nowdays (Ingalls, 2016). In Aviva el Fuego en mí (2002), a translation team was assembled from
Spanish speaking churches from various countries. The worship leaders that appear in the album
were mainly from Mexico or other Latin American nations. The fact that the musical
arrangements were still quite North Americanized was readily spotted by critics, as a press
release from the time eloquently expresses: “very little true, authentic, or, for lack of a better
word, traditional Latin American influence (is heard) in these renditions of audiences' favorite
Vineyard tracks” (Jenkins, 2003).
In 2003, Viña Music had already started a more ambitious project with the Chilean Viñas,
due to the incorporation of several local factors. The Chileans had songs in mapudungún or
araucano, the language of the Mapuche ethnic group, some original Chilean compositions,
several live recordings made during the III Conferencia de Adoración de La Viña Chile, as well
as studio recordings with Chilean musicians. The recordings were done at the beginning of 2002
in Santiago (Chile), with the intention to release the album the following November. However,
the record, Rendido a sus Pies, was not released until 2005, marking also the end of the Viña
Music initiative. From that point on, the development of worship music in the Latin American
Vineyard would have to happen according to the vision and agency of a few musicians and
worship leaders in the region. As far as I know, since 2004 VMG has produced only two other
Spanish records: Gracias por la Cruz (2006) and Nos Despiertas a Vivir (2015), with the latter
recorded live at La Viña Las Condes church in Santiago de Chile, under the musical direction of
David Berguño.
To compensate for the void left by Viña Music, several local production efforts emerged
in those countries where there were enough human resources (producers, musicians, singers,
sound technicians), materials (equipment, studios, editing systems), and at least a small
distribution potential at the local or translocal level. Among the more relevant that the author has
been able to collect are, the Chilean Vid Producciones, founded by Rodrigo García; Crossover in
Costa Rica by Hans Wüst; also in Costa Rica, Fuego, led by David Bustamante; Viña Studios in
Peru, led by Keyla De La Cruz; and Ágape Música, part of the music ministry of La Viña Ágape
Ñuñoa in Santiago (Chile). In any case, these few initiatives demonstrate that, after two decades,
the growth of Vineyard worship in Latin America has been very slow.
Given the complexity of the task, it will be virtually impossible to reach a single version
that scores the maximum in all the events of the translation pentathlon. If translation remains the
main source of congregational songs, we will have to accept multiple Spanish versions of the
same song, especially given the decentralizaed approach that the Vineyard took for its
development in the continent.
Researchers have identified a unifying element of the international
Pentecostal/Charismatic movement (of which the Vineyard forms a relatively small part), to be
the development of a number of reproducible rituals (Robbins, 2009). For some they may appear
rather uniform in nature, even across many cultures on virtually every continent (Robbins, 2004),
not to mention North Americanized. Though this unifying ritual, in charismatic worship practice
has developed rather intuitively, with little conceptualization, for the Vineyard, since its
beginnings, the ritual is based on several stages that were defined by Wimber (Park, 2002).
Wimber’s four stages, call, engagement, intimacy, and visitation, provide ample space for the
manifestations of bodily and emotional expressions in response to God’s presence, according to
how they are facilitated by the congregations (Stovell, 2012). Due to its prolific creative activity
and the development of a new liturgy based on congregational music, Donald Miller considered
the Vineyard the most innovative and experimental among the new paradigm churches, given its
exploration of “new modes of worship that break with traditional models of mind-body
separation” (Miller, 1999, 52). Miller concludes, that it is not possible to know the Vineyard if
music is not understood as the main contributing element to its expansion and growth.
It should be clear then, that in the Vineyard’s incursion into Latin America, it was
indispensable to teach and disseminate this new way of structuring and planning worship times
for congregational gatherings. Even with all the defects and criticisms that can be made,
translated songs served to communicate the narrative of the movement, becoming the main
communication channel for some of the most important worship values, such as the search for
intimacy with God, the longing for healing and deliverance, and the hope of God’s kingdom in
the now and not yet. One outstanding issue that we must turn our attention to now is that this
musical material originates in socio-cultural realities that are foreign to the local and national
expressions in Latin America. How then could songs with questionable Spanish, mediocre poetic
constructions and foreign musical styles far from the identity of the cultural groups where the
first Vineyard congregations were born, became so popular?
There are several possible explanations. First of all, for those that joined the movement
during its initial years in Latin America (around 1995), Vineyard music represented a break with
the past and the birth of something completely new. The music was a powerful reminder that
years of dry spirituality, fruitless churches, and little evidence of the visitation of the Holy Spirit
were over. It also signaled the way out from the legalistic Latin American Pentecostal religiosity,
into a new space of grace and freedom. For many it surely marked the encounter with
transparent, simple preaching and ritual expression, in contrast to the manipulations, abuses,
exaggerations and mediatic schemes of prosperity theology and their caudillos --a phenomenon
more akin to our military dictators or to self-made corrupt adventurers than to the humble King
of the gospels.
In a meeting of thirty Latin American Vineyard pastors and leaders in 2005 in Los Teques,
Venezuela, some of those attending produced a piece, that I quote, which tried to capture who
they were as part of the Vineyard (Mora, 2006, 6):
...We were adopted, covered, and rekindled when we started a relationship of friendship
and transparence… We arrived worn out, dry, hungry, and thirsty for a new move in our
lives that was fresh and transparent… God, by shaping our lives through our
circumstances, has permitted us to find the tribe… Music has been a way to achieve
intimacy and consecration, based on Biblical values and practices, bringing forth, without
doubt, a refreshing to us and to many other groups in our continent.
Note how worship music is placed at the same level as theology, preaching and Biblical
values. These leaders ascribed to worship music the transcendent power of assimilating,
appropriating and indigenizing the values, priorities and practices of the movement. In this sense,
it is worth mentioning the suggestion that Ingalls, Swijghuisenn Reigersberg, and Sherinian
(2018) make, based on the anthropological work of Robbins (2009), that in many situations
Christians in the global periphery (for example Latin America) use the cultural products of the
center (USA) to distance themselves from their current situation and identify with places of
greater spiritual advancement and development. In our case, Anaheim became our reference
point, the pacesetter, or, we could say, the source of the new wine. By identifying with its music,
the old, less satisfying religiosity that had stalled spiritual growth or that had made it heavy and
routinized, could be left behind, giving rise to a new experience of refreshing growth.
A similar cultural identification phenomenon has been described by Timothy Rommen
(2007) when considering the widespread use of North American contemporary Christian music
in Trinidad and Tobago congregations; a trend that cast aside indigenous styles like gospelypso,
traditional Trinitarian gospel choruses, or other Caribbean Christian music. For Rommen the key
to this development can be found in what he calls the local applicability of imported music. In
other words, he examines the benefits of appropriating foreign compositions in congregational
music. According to Rommen’s research, traditional and indigenous songs evoke problems and
situations (divisions, lack of unity, denominational strife and so on) that these Christians want to
avoid. On the other hand, imported music brings a new sense and more positive meaning to a
Pentecostal/Charismatic spirituality that seeks to rekindle and rise up from its ashes, so to speak.
This is not a passive stance. It can be observed in the long and complex process of appropriation,
that imported music is progressively assimilated; based on its contributions to Christian practice,
and the new meanings created within the host culture. Ingalls, Swijghuisenn Reigersberg, and
Sherinian (2018, 13), have termed this process “musical localization”, describing it as follows:
Christian communities take a variety of musical practices – some considered ‘indigenous,’
some ‘foreign,’ some shared across spatial and cultural divides; some linked to past
practice, some innovative – and make them locally meaningful and useful in the
construction of Christian beliefs, theology, practice, or identity…
This concept allows us to see how the host culture exercises its own power to decide what
to use from the immense Vineyard musical resources, according to its local applicability
potential. This helps avoid the essensialist label of cultural imperialism, or of the weak cultural
identity of Latinos, as the only explanations. This is important given the globalized world we live
in, where cultural influences come into play from a variety of places, and where we have open
access to virtually everything. Song translation does add the esthetic and pragmatic difficulties
already described to musical localization in our context (in contrast with the Trinitarian case
mentioned above), because factors such as singability will come into play in this process. At the
same time, the concept of localization adds an element of unpredictability in terms of what is
translated and who translates it. The music chosen will depend upon the importance and meaning
it has in the congregations. In other words, Vineyard musical appropriation will vary from
country to country. Although the sound is certainly still too North Americanized, it is “only after
(the) usefulness (of imported music) has been established, that the process of localization infuses
the style” (Rommen, 2007) that can be identified with local, regional or national cultural
expressions.
Consider the perspective of Cristian Tello (2018) and Daniel Hernández (2018) and how
they express their vision for this pilgrimage from Anglo-Saxon Vineyard worship music to what
could eventually emerge in the Latin American realm; a vision based on our Latin culture and
identity, but without underestimating the dialog between a established and powerful stream, and
another at an earlier stage of relative weakness, such that it could easily be overlooked:
[Translations served us] to acquire the language and universal identity of the movement…
(but it) struggled with our own search.., to engage with… our identidad latina in worship.
Simply, finding a way of expressing ourselves… (Tello, 2018)
We took those compositions as the standard to follow, when they should have been a push
or a motivation for us to broaden the horizons of the movement…[perhaps] we would have
done more, and would have been more creative in terms of styles and lyrics, with richer
cultural expressions incorporated in our own compositions (Hernández, 2018).
None of them denies the usefulness of translating and adopting the Vineyard’s original
songs. In fact, it serves as a helpful landmark for the break we made with the past, from less
fulfilling spiritualties. It also represents a starting point in a long process, which, according to the
creativity of our musicians and composers, would end up in local innovation, indigenous
composition and experimentation. These songs emerging from our La Viña congregations would
use our own musical expressions, with lyrics that speak of our struggles and needs, and how God
responds to us in those circumstances. This kind of music would no doubt enrich the worldwide
movement as a whole, by providing new rhythmic and stylistic proposals to the rest of the
nations, following the vision of Revelations 7:9 when those gathered “from every nation, from
all tribes and peoples and languages” will be standing in adoration before the throne of Jesus.
Nevertheless, for this to become reality in the Latin American Vineyards, we must go one step
further, as we shall see in the next section.
Latin American songs before the throne: Composing worship music from Latin America
The remarkable effort made to train and empower composers in the Vineyard churches
during the early years established a creative culture in the movement (Tuttle, 2009). It is clear
from its beginnings, that the movement fostered original compositions in the local churches and
the distribution of those songs, largely because John Wimber’s vision had been the development
of a completely new liturgy, based on novel musical expressions:
…The first thing the Lord has called us to was to worship… the Lord has called us to
develop a new liturgy. With it we have had hundreds (of songs) that either, have been
written here in the fellowship, …or have been brought to us by other brethren… (Park,
Ruth and Rethmeier, 2017, 74-75).
Following this model, when discussing how to develop Vineyard worship in Latin
American cultures, it was usually stated that, similar to the early efforts in the movement,
hundreds of songs had to be composed and produced. Stated as such, the task seemed
overwhelming and difficult to emulate. This eventually led to undervaluing Spanish
compositions and to becoming dependent on translations. Moreover, this is also true for other
denominations and Christian groups in the region (Godoy and Donaldson, 2017), where
missionaries controlled “hymn books, publishing only hymns they approved of and using their
own translators to careful translate the words”, reducing to only 15% of hymnbooks the material
composed originally in Spanish, not necesarilly with a Latin American sound. Even, Danilo
Montero, one of the pioneers of the MAA considers that the influence of Anglo-Saxon music in
contemporary Latin American Christian music has become mainstream, a trend that he sees as
problematic:
…Over the past ten years I think that the largest influence has come to Latin America
from Hillsong music. And I’d say that is good on the one hand and not so good on the
other...... because (before) we sang our own music. We sang our songs, born in Latin
America. Sure, it had rock rhythms and North American and British influences, from
wherever, but they were our own songs. (Lázaro, 2013a).
This is an extremely sad development when considering the richness of our broad Latin
American region. We are talking about people groups that have the privilege of speaking the
same language and experiencing a common historical thread; one that, in fact, takes us back to
similar traumas and struggles, of which, in many cases, we are not completely healed yet. The
themes of inspiration for Latin American worship songs could vary greatly. Yet with a unifying
language and the potentialities that comes from this amazing melting pot of Hispanic, African
and Amerindian cultures, the possibilities are endless. Through these kinds of musical, poetic
expressions, we can only imagine how the kingdom of God will break into our wailing and our
joy, our uprooting and our confusion, our violence and our poverty. In such difficult life
situations we experience God meeting us. Now we have the chance to express this musically and
poetically as Latin Americans worshipping the Lord in truly Latin American ways.
The life stories of people in local congregations lies at the heart of what we are
considering. In these experiences we discover how their music, in all its expressive creativity,
emerged in the midst of doing mission, in their daily efforts to extend the kingdom of God within
the realities of their culture (Doucette, 2014). This is an exciting road, for as some advocates of
local worship have stated, “few things are more powerful than songs written out of the teaching
of a local church, for that local church” (Evans, 2006, 162). At the same time this is something
quite fragile in view of the disproportionate place given to imported and globalized music. Those
compositions that come out of the daily life of churches preserve their history, because they help
remember and reflect on what God has done in their midst. This provides the language for
believers to celebrate and confess their commitment with God and the community, especially in
times of personal grief and struggles. These songs contribute to mutual nourishment and
challenge each other to grow spiritually. They contain the theological elements that explain their
pilgrimage as a community. They provide members with prophetic discernment and witnessing
power to continue doing mission together in the social and cultural context where the church is
located. Obviously, this requires that the composers be involved in the life and mission of the
congregation. This assures they have a sense for the pace of the congregation and its communal
needs, such that they can write poems and create music from this kind of first-hand knowledge
and experience. However, as Evans (2015,189) has warned in reference to other currents of
worship music, “one possible consequence of the global migration of popular Christian songs is
the disappearance of the local within congregational song”, which must urgently lead to a
reconsideration of the local as “different and valuable” (190).
It is crucial to underscore this point: it is not the same to compose worship songs from the
prosperous, white Anglo-Saxon worldview of the movement’s origins, than from the favelas of
Recife, the slums of Petare, the Medellín wounded by drug trafficking and guerrilla warfare, or
even the cosmopolitan multiethnic, but socially unequal, Panama City. Sentiments are different,
without mentioning the scarcity, needs and realities faced on a lifespan. With this ever-present
suffering, I would suggest that songs of lament, written from the context of exclusion,
marginality and conflict, would be among the most common expressions in Latin American
indigenous worship.
Translation of USA, UK, or Canadiana worship songs, simply will not work, because as
Rah (2015) has found out, only five laments can be counted among the 100 top-rated worship
songs in the Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI) chart for 2012, whereas 40% of
the Psalms in the Bible are written in the form of laments. Another study of the 56 most popular
worship songs (including eight famous Vineyard songs) in the CCLI listings from 2003 to 2013
(Strickler, 2015, 49), concluded in a more dramatic statement, that lament is a “lost language”
within contemporary Christian worship, of which Vineyard worship has been a very active
player since the 80s.
In a way, those in the margins of society in develop nations cannot identify themselves
with much of the content in contemporary Christian music, because “the cries of loneliness,
dispossession, and desolation” (Trueman, 2004) have been progressively silenced and excluded
to allow for a more commercial, standardized, homomorphic, triumphalistic congregational
music that, by repetition and duplication, is in danger of losing its prophetic qualities. The
problem is worsened when the music is translated to other contexts where its relevance is
questionable, and where the plight of the suffering, the lonely, disposed and desolate takes on
different proportions and characteristics. This serves to stress that, however painful as it is to
admit it, after almost 25 years of the Vineyard movement’s incursion in our region, we insist in
copying music styles and lyrics from somewhere else, that speak about contexts and realities that
are so different and so affluent where the “appreciation of the lament as a form of speech and
faith (has been) lost” (Brueggemann, 1995). As hard as it is to realize it, if we do not do
something, we will continue voiceless, unable to speak out our need of justice and change to our
current situation, with our eternal insatisfaction, frustration, and above all, being misionally out
of touch.
In the end, the music of the Latin American Vineyard must be attuned with the desperate
cries of the people that receive God’s message and become direct witnesses of the
transformations produced by such irruptions of the Kingdom. Typically, the musical response
will be in the form of intimate songs of gratitude and intimacy that explode into a joyful chorus
declaring the goodness of God. In a way, expressions of lament are a pathway to an explosion of
praise in worship, or to begin a journey towards complete trust in the promises of the Lord, even
in the midsts of suffering and tribulation (Smith, 2017). In the early years of the movement,
intimate songs served to express such sentimiments, conveying great value and authenticity to
this music. Creating this kind of music was truly new and challenging for many, requiring years
to be fully understood and assimilated by the Church at large (Reagan, 2015). It seems as though
those heartfelt songs that come from deep inside originate first in the hopelessness, exclusion and
desperation, and not from affluence, or the proposed intellectual or theological certainty that
some of the critics of intimate worship propose (Percy, 1997; Williams Paris, 2007; Doucette,
2008; Stone, 2015). In a way, this coincides with what some academics have been saying about
love songs in general:
…Most of the innovations… came from the outsiders, from people on the margins of
society ... the ruling classes never invented new ways of singing about love, because the
elites were very concerned about respectability and good manners, but those exciting love
songs have nothing to do with good manners. And since outsiders do not need to follow
rules, those excluded from social institutions have always sought different ways of singing
about love (Fernández, 2016).
According to this line of reasoning, how should the love songs from Latin American
worshippers sound, so experienced in pain, grief, exile, and suffering at the hands of cruel
regimes that leave the masses in poverty and marginality? Before criticizing those that compose
passionate songs of adoration to God or those that express themselves unashamedly in song and
dance we do well to follow Jesus’ advice to be careful not to judge, because, perhaps, they have
been forgiven many, many sins, and so they are very, very grateful; but those to whom little is
forgiven, love little (Lucas 7:47, Paraphrased). This challenge is not just for the Vineyard
movement but perhaps to the Latin American church as a whole, because very few attempts have
been made to date to blend these feelings and aspirations, laments, laughter and shouts of joy in a
way that is truly Latin American, and which is inspired from a theology that originates from life
experiences, such that it can be shared throughout the region. The challenge is big because it
implies going beyond the stereotypical image of Latin music as “fun, lightweight, and essentially
trivial” (Storm Roberts, 1999, 84), and even in contemporary worship regarded as “emotional”,
“loud”, “festive”, “noisy”, “too sensual”, perhaps theologically “shallow”, despised by
denominations for a long time and execrated from hymnbooks, rejected from contemporary
worship labels, and forgotten every Sunday in congregations from Mexico to Argentina.
How can this mixture of content and music, that speaks directly to Latin Americans, and
that is in tune with the culture and idiosincracies of our region, be realized? Godoy and
Donaldson (2017) have proposed the songs of Juan Luis Guerra as a prototype of a
contextualized approach taken for the composition of worship music. Guerra uses Afro
Caribbean music like salsa, merengue, bachata, Cuban son, Latin jazz as a rhythmic base to his
poetic lyrics, which speak of an everyday life that is trespassed by our relationship with Christ as
savior and healer, taking common subjects such as anxiety maniphested in sleepless nights that
are overcome with the nearness of the Lord; or the stress of getting a visa to the USA3 and
deeming it irrelevant in comparison with a flight to heaven that starts by receiving Jesus as Lord
and Saviour, but which, at end, empowers to live in the midst of troubles. Although Guerra has
written a number of popular songs with clear social message, his Christian worship music is still
very intimate and self-reflecting, coming from his own personal experiences, and not so much
from a congregational prophetic approach to song writing. Using Brueggemann’s concepts of a
prophetic imagination that “nurture, nourish, and evoke” an alternative to the dominant social
order (2001, 17), Miguel Reyes (2018) challenges Latin American composers to poetically
unveil current injust situations, contradict the powers that sustain such realities and give voice to
visions of a new world that is possible through the coming of the kingdom. As an example of
such prophetic imagination, reminiscent of the imagery of the Isaianic texts, Reyes exemplifies
this approach with the lyrics of one of Santiago Benavides’ songs, written in a prayerful
reflection about the hard realities of the 3.5 million Venezuelan migrants in South America,
when the Colombian-Venezuelan author expresses, using well known geographic landmarks,
smells, even depictions of popular food, that a “new day is coming… (When the country’s) sons
and daughters are coming back home.”
The proposed task is not easy, especially for Latin American Vineyard worship leaders
and composers who have relied so much in the narrative and imagination of foreign poets. One
of the problems with the Latin American soul has been its pressing need to identify with the
western world, which played a determinant role in its origin. We have a history of seeking to get
as close as possible to the developed world and its power brokers, copying their ideologies and
methods. We imitate colonial “criollos” who were never considered complete Spaniards, but
3
See for instance the song “Viene Bajando” (Juan Luis Guerra): Prepara la maleta Manuela, no se necesita visa si
vas con Él, el vuelo es sin escalas mi negra, solo tienes que aceptarlo Señor y Rey.
who tried by all means to define themselves as Europeans in America (Canclini, 1992). In this
sense, musical localization via translated worship music may address some of the local spiritual
needs within the culture, yet falls short, missing important parts of the essence of Latin American
culture, like our African and Amerindian heritage. These are precisely the aspects of our Latin
American soul related most closely to the masses in the lower echelons of the social scale.
Reconciling our worship music with these elements of our soul requires a bold kingdom-based
move to begin reconnecting with our Latin American soul. This also leads us out of our comfort
zones into challenging missional spaces. But beyond that, there is a kingdom perspective here
because the Latin American soul embodies a magnificent blend of all peoples and tribes of the
earth. Whatever cultural element you scratch, will uncover something Amerindian, European,
Asian, Middle Eastern, African, etc. Latin American worship could become a powerful prophetic
declaration of the manifestation of the kingdom in our own time.
The late Venezuelan philosopher José Manuel Briceño Guerrero (2014) saw in the arts a
path for the search of the Latin American identity, in a way that is respectful of all the regional
differences, something that he called, using a prophetic language, “a new synthesis, a new
thing.” Paraphrasing his words, for us in the Latin American Vineyards, this kind of “search will
require a certain degree of rebelliousness” (2014). This implies waiting for, and supporting the
younger generation of musicians and worship artists in the Latin American Vineyard. They will
produce the musical language that speaks about their experiences of God, and of the inbreaking
of the kingdom --from our own realities, where Jesus lives among the poor, humble, vulnerable,
oppressed, discriminated, anguished and stressed out. In the midst of conflicts, displacements,
migrations, and terrorism. For these victims of generalized violence and persecution from unjust
governments, feminicide and domestic violence, these songs will proclaim the year of the Lord´s
favor, manifested in freedom, grace, forgiveness, healing, renewed vision, prosperity, joy,
gladness and complete restoration (Isaiah 61:1-4).
References
Atráeme hacia ti Draw me close Kelly Carpenter 1994 The river is here
(TFHS)
Brazos de amor Arms of love Craig Musseau 1991 I Bow Down
Eres mi Rey You are my king Brian Doerksen 1991 Winds of Worship 1
5. Aviva el Fuego en Mí, México, 2002, Viña Music
Aviva el fuego en Light the fire again Brian Doerksen 1994 Isn’t He
mi
El es Yahvé He is Yahwe Dean Salyn 2001 All I Need (Canada)
El río está aquí The river is here Andy Park 1994 Winds of Worship:
Brighton (England)
Reina tu en mi Lord reign in me Brenton Brown 1998 Come Now Is the
Time (UK)
Siempre que me Every move I make David Ruis 1996 I willl lift my hands
muevo (TFHS)
En secreto In the secret Andy Park 1995 Blessed be the name
Ven y lléname Come and fill me up Brian Doerksen 1990 Winds of Worship 2
Derramo mi Pour out my heart Craig Musseau 1994 Winds of Worship 6,
corazón live from SoCal
Verdad sin hablar Unspoken truth Scott Underwood 2000 Unspoken truth
Santo amor Holy love Andy Park 1995 Before you now
Jesús guíame Jesus lead on Brent Helming 1996 Jesus lead on
Santo Holy Brenton Brown 2002 Holy
6. Alma Hambrienta, USA, 2003, Viña Music
No Hay Nadie There is no one like Vicky Beeching y 1999 Hungry (UK)
Como Dios our God Steve MItchinson
Tu Nombre Es Your name is Holy Brian Doerksen 1999 Hungry (UK)
Santo
La Creación Busca All creation Brian Doerksen y 1999 Hungry (UK)
De Ti Steve Mitchinson
Refugio En Ti Refuge in you Boob Straton, 1999 Hungry (UK)
Brenton Brown,
Pete Jones
Solo Tu Only you Matt Hyam 1999 Hungry (UK)
Yo Rindo Todo A I surrender Wendy O’Connell 1999 Hungry (UK)
Ti
Eres El Centro Be the centre Michael Frye 1999 Hungry (UK)
Hambrienta/o Hungry Kathryn Scott 1999 Hungry (UK)
Hija/o De Dios Child of God Kathryn Scott 1999 Hungry (UK)
Haz Tu Hogar En Make your home in Michael y Hellen 1999 Hungry (UK)
Mi me Frye
Rey De La Humble King Brenton Brown 1999 Hungry (UK)
Humildad
Tu Eres Mi Breathe Marie Barnett 1995 For your Mercy
Respirar (TFHS)
Tu Eres El Santo You are a Holy God Brian Duane y 1999 Hungry (UK)
Dios Kathryn Scott
Sientes Tu El The rhytm of heaven Nigel Briggs y 1999 Hungry (UK)
Ritmo Del Cielo Peter Eckley
7. Rendido a sus pies, Chile, 2004 (Grabado en vivo en el 2002), Viña Music
Tu eres Dios You are God Scott Underwood 1997 You are God (TFHS)
Mejor que Better than Casey Corum 1998 You Shelter me
(TFHS)
Rendido a sus pies - Jaime Díaz 2002 -
Nadie como tu - Rodrigo García 2002 -
Fuego de Dios - Cristian Berguño 2002 -
Misericordia Mercy is Falling David Ruis 1995 You Shelter me
(TFHS)
Grande es Dios Great big God Bruce Ellis 1999 Healing in your
wings (TFHS)
Con mi alma - Javier Menéndez 2002 -
Toda la tierra - Rodrigo García 2002 -
Tu presencia Your presence Cindy Rethmeier 1996 Holy is the Lord
(TFHS)
8. Yo Clamo a Ti, Costa Rica, 2005 (Grabado en vivo en el 2002), Viña Music
Eres Santo, You are mighty Craig Musseau 1989 Winds of Worship 3
Poderoso
Yo Clamo a Ti Good to me Craig Musseau 1990 Winds of Worship 1
Bendito Señor - Rebeca Álvarez 2002 -
Mi Amor es para - Hans Wüst 2002 -
Ti
Danza Conmigo - Mark Miller 2000 -
Aleluya, Tu amor Hallelujah, Your Love Brian Doerksen y 2000 Surrender (UK)
me asombra is Amazing Brenton Brown
Santo es el Señor Holy is the Lord John Barnett 1992 Send your Spirit
(TFHS)
Ven señor - Iván Sepúlveda 2002 La Viña Chile 10
Años
Quiero estar - Hans Wüst 2002 -
Contigo
Poemas de Amor - Braulio Flores 2002 -
Cambia mi Change my Heart oh Eddie Espinosa 1982 Quiero Adorarte con
corazón God mis labios
Respira en mi Breath of God Cindy Rethmeir y 1998 You shelter me
Terry Butler
9. Gracias por la Cruz, Costa Rica, 2005, Vineyard Music Group
Gracias por la Thank you for the Brenton Brown 2001 Holy (UK)
Cruz cross
Cuando me llamas When you call my Brian Doerksen y 2000 Surrender (UK)
name Steve MItchinson
Amado Cristo Precious Jesus Jeremy Riddle 2002 Just Like Heaven
Tu amor es uno - Hans Wüst 2005 -
Precioso Dios Beautiful Samuel Lane 2002 Beautiful (UK)
Yo soy tu amado Your beloved Brent Helming 1996 Jesus Lead on
Podría Could I Kim McMecham 2001 Fall on me
Tu amor me Your love reaches me Darren Clarke 1998 The burn service
alcanzó
Guíame en tu Keep me Andy Park 2002 -
camino
Tu estás cerca Lord You’re near Samuel Lane 2002 Beautiful (UK)
Mi Padre, mi - Hans Wüst 2005 -
amigo
Más que un amigo More than a friend Jeremy Riddle 2002 Just Like Heaven
Eres tú - Hans Wüst 2005 -
Eternidad Eternity Brian Doerksen 1994 Winds of Worship 5
(Live from Holland)
10. Dulcemente Quebrantado, Costa Rica, 2007, Crossover/Adoración en La Viña
Todo lo doy a ti All to you Lincoln Brewster y 2005 Lincoln Brewster
Reid McNulty Live. (Integrity’s
Praise)
Glorioso, Glorioso - David Bustamante 2007 -
Eres mi refugio You are my shelter Daniel Chadney 2001 Holy (UK)
Un día One day Martin Reardon 1000 Generations
Dulcemente Sweetly broken Jeremy Riddle Sweetly broken
quebrantado
Te amo How could I live Carly Orpen 2006 All from you-The
without you Burn Band (UK)
Acércate - David Bustamante 2007 -
y Diego Soto
En tu luz - David Berguño 2007 -
Me amas como soy Love me like you do Scott Keller 2003 Dwell
Y decirte… - David Bustamante -
Ante tu majestad - David Berguño 2007 -
11. Nos despiertas a vivir, Chile, 2015, Vineyard Music Group
Alzo mis ojos I lift up my eyes Brian Doerksen 1990 Winds of Worship:
Brighton (England)
Amor furioso Furious Jeremy Riddle 2010 Furious
Tu amor One thing remains Brian Johnson, 2010 Furious
permanece fiel Christa Black
Gifford, Jeremy
Riddle
Mi Salvación My Salvation David Berguño 2015 -
Amor sin fin Unfailing love Nigel Briggs 2005 Love Divine (UK)
Aquí me tienes Here I am Gabriel Ávalos y 2015 -
David Berguño
Descansaré en sus Rest in his promise David Ruis 2003 When Justice Shines
Promesas (Canadá)
Contigo quiero I want to be with you Gabriel Ávalos 2015 -
estar
Más que un amigo More than a friend Jeremy Riddle 2002 Just like heaven,
Gracias por la Cruz
12. Un Reflejo de tu amor, Perú, 2017, Viña Studios/Vineyard Music UK
Oye nuestra Hear the sound Jonny Grange y 2007 Hear the sound:
alabanza Nigel Briggs Songs from the
Vineyard UK
Divino amor Love Divine Nigel Briggs 2005 Love Divine (UK)
Perfecto amor Unfailing Love Nigel Briggs 2005 Trent (UK)
Ardiente amor Fiery Love Dan Wheeldon y 2012 Rooftops: The sound
Samuel Lane of Vineyard youth
(UK)
Rey Eterno King Forever Kat Regester 2003 Hold on (UK)
El Cordero ha The Lamb has Mike Pearson 2010 The Lamb has
triunfado conquered conquered (UK)
Me aferraré I will hold on Nigel Briggs 2003 Hold on (UK)
Salmos 13 Psalm 13 Nigel Briggs 2005 Love Divine (UK)
Mi alma anhela My soul yearns Samuel Lane y 2007 My soul yearns(UK)
Benjamin Lucas
Lléname: Un - Keila de La Cruz 2015 -
reflejo de tu amor
Adoremos Adore Him Samuel Lane 2011 The Fire (UK)
Eres el Santo Dios You are a Holy God Brian Duane y 1999 Hungry (UK)
Kathryn Scott