Drew University Library : University Archives : Theses and Dissertations
    
author Kyoungchan Min
title Singing Together to Become Incarnational Church: Creative Arts Education for EPIC Generation
abstract The purpose of this study is to help the Church, the Body of Christ, abandoning the premise of the old Christendom, entering into the culture of new era and restoring the truth of "Incarnational Church." I proposed 'Singing Together' as a practical solution for change and restoration, I further discussed its validity in light of biblical, theological, historical, and philosophical, practical spectrums.

First, I took Michael Frost's "Incarnational Ecclesiology" and insisted that today's church should be 'Incarnational' like Jesus who came to the world and became a man. Following this, by accepting Leonard Sweet's EPIC theory, which explained the cultural characteristics of this era with four keywords; "Experience, Participation, Image, Connection," I used as a theoretical background for the practice of "Singing Together." Also, to encourage the work of contemperary Christian artists outside of the church as "Culture Makers," I implemented the Christian Art Theory of Nicholas Walterstorff and Hans R. Rookmaker.

As the overall method of the study, by accepting Zoh, Byungho's "Tong methodology," I cited scholars and artists working in general fields in addition to Christian scholars, and I would present "Singing Together" as an practice to become an 'Incarnational Church' with corporating "Theory and Practice", "Intellect and Spirituality and Emotion." Furthermore, I demonstrated how the church can go into the world and serve through the concrete example of practicing "Sing Together" in the public domain of the local community such as public schools, regional child centers, government offices, and cultural foundations.

This study began with a small encounter with children who suffered without knowing the reason in a fragmented, excarnational, overly competitive and impersonal cultural flow. This meeting, started through "Sing Together," led to new encounters with painful parents, teachers, and people who groan in various parts of society, and I could share the life and grace in the gospel through Singing Together and helped them recover. On the basis of these specific examples, I tried to prove that Singing Together could be a channel to become "Incarnational Church" in which help people created in the Image of God restore the values of "personality" and "human dignity" and "mutual respect" and "being together"

Through this paper, I hope the church turn their focus on the church itself to the people who are suffering in this era, visit and serve them in a more artistic and creative way, and reveal the truth of the "Incarnational Church." I also anticipate this study would provide creative insight and encouragement to all the churches and saints who want to enter the world and live in the light and salt in spite of the difficult circumstances, especially Christian artists working in the field of Culture and Art Education.

school The Theological School, Drew University
degree D.Min. (2020)
advisor Younglae Kim
Byeongho Zho
full textKMin.pdf