Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Intercultural Studies
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2019
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
243
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree
D.I.S.
Body granting the degree
Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Intercultural Studies
Text preceding or following the note
2019
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
This dissertation examines a model of musico-liturgical worship and its dynamics of inculturation, exploring how seriously a pastor takes context, culture and worship. This applied case study of the All Saints Moda church (ASM) in Istanbul, Turkey, focused on the impact of Pastor Turgay Üçal's worship songs on the assembly, and argues for a correlation between local music, self-identity and spiritual formation. The four-arena global church music matrix provided the research frame: the context, the music-maker, the church and the biblical text. The context arena encompassed an exploration of the study's background through a literature review, participant observation and interviews. The music-maker arena focused on the life, ministry and worship songs of Turgay. Methods involved more than 30 hours of interviews with Turgay, as well as with family members and Protestant Church leaders, plus the transcription and analysis of 80 of his works. The latter process encompassed lyric content analysis, including metaphoric and thematic. The church arena involved participant observation, event-centered analysis of the ASM liturgical worship practice, and mapping the field of ritual. Finally, the biblical arena looked into the influence of Turgay's hymnody on the lives of the ASM congregation through a two-tiered set of interviews with eighteen followers of Christ, approximately one-fifth of the church body. This study was carried out over the course of three years. Results of the investigation reveal that indigenous music and other locally-shaped worship forms, when refilled with biblical content and meaning, function like spiritual disciplines and foster the development of self-identity and spiritual formation from within an Islamic society like urban Istanbul. This model approach demonstrates inculturation as an essential component of Christian education and communication. The ASM worship practice achieves maximum benefits for participants, nurturing transformation into Christ-likeness and spiritually mature believers as they exercise their gifts.