Since the harvest is practically just a harvest of youth and young adults, it is almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of using music and modern media to communicate to them. Today was an example. I am in Thailand with our team of four missionaries, all in their 20’s. We were invited to address 1,500 freshmen at the local University who were gathered for sort of an orientation. After others talked for over an hour our team stepped up and simply said, “We wrote a song just for you. Its about fear holding you back. This song says “This time I’m going to leave fear behind, cause this is my time!” They sang it twice and everyone knew it by heart. Then they were asked to sing it again at the close of the meeting.
The meeting was dismissed and about half the crowd just sat in their chairs. Imagine holding the attention of 700+ 18 year olds who had been there for two hours already. The crowd started shouting “More! Sing another song.” Our group sang Ronan Keating’s “When you say nothing at all” and the whole crowd sang along. Still they wouldn’t leave. We sang another and finally just had to leave the stage. Music is the language of the heart. Its message is trans-cultural and through it words are memorized. The Asian church has to be a singing church.