Roberta R. King
Associate Professor of Communication and Ethnomusicology

Bringing Together Witness and Song

"Around the world a new song is rising in the hearts of believers as they encounter Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior," declares Roberta R. King, who teaches communication and ethnomusicology in Fuller’s School of Intercultural Studies. "We live in an age of explosive growth of the Christian church in the Southern Hemisphere and of changing ways of doing church in the West," she says. "Such developments afford new opportunities to reconsider the role of music in worship, witness, spiritual formation, and the life of local churches in their diverse contexts."

Ethnomusicology, a field that focuses on the cultural study of music, provides the scholarly foundation for addressing many of the questions confronting today’s global Christian church, King believes. This is why she spearheaded the development of a master’s concentration in Global Christian Worship as well as a Doctor of Missiology in Ethnomusicology at Fuller.

"What should worship and witness look like at home and around the world? What varying roles do the great diversity of music forms play in the lives of differing peoples? What should we change or not change as the gospel penetrates each culture?" These are questions King explores in her teaching, as she prepares her students "to communicate the gospel in meaningful and appropriate ways that bring diverse people to encounter and engage with the living God."