Deeper Life Bible Church - Kumbaya

Topic: Theology - Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism was taken to Liberia by Lucy Farrow in 1906 [1] and, as mentioned in the post for 15 September 2017, to South Africa by followers of Charles Parham in 1908. [2] The number of converts began increasing when European colonies were granted independence beginning in 1957. They represented 5% of the continent’s population in 1970, [3] when indigenous Pentecostal churches were just beginning to expand. In 2006, the various congregations had attracted 12% of the population. [4]

William Kumuyi was part of the exodus from older denominations. His parents were Anglicans living in the Yoruba part of southwestern Nigeria when he was born in 1941. He said he lost interest in religion in secondary school, where "our principal taught us atheism." [5] After graduating in 1961, a year after Nigeria became independent from the United Kingdom, he taught at the Mayflower School the next year. [6]

Following a year teaching in the secondary school, Kumuyi entered the University of Ibadan to study mathematics. [7] While there "a group of singers and preachers from a Gospel church got permission to come to the school." [8]

He began reading works by the major nineteenth-century revivalists: John Wesley of the Methodists, Charles Finney of the Presbyterians, and Charles Spurgeon of the British Particular Baptists. [9] Kumuyi was born again in 1964 and joined the Apostolic Faith church. [10] As mentioned in the post for 15 September 2017, that church was established by white followers of William Seymour who recoiled against the more emotional aspects of Azusa Street.

After graduation, Kumuyi returned to Mayflower to teach for five years. [11] It was in those years that religious tensions in Nigeria between the Moslems in the north and the Christians in the south turned violent. [12] The Biafran war raged from 1967 to 1970 in the southeast, while oil companies were drilling for oil in the southwest of the Yoruba. Money flooded the country in 1973, when oil prices rose "following the Yom Kipur War." [13]

Kumuyi entered graduate school in the capital city of Lagos in 1973, and began a Bible study group. The Apostolic Faith church expelled him in 1975 for preaching without credentials. Undeterred, he formed his own sect in Lagos, which became Deeper Life Bible Church in 1982. [14]

It described itself as Pentecostal, but he was more in the tradition of Anglo-Scot Reformers who relied on the Word. Alan Isaccson described Kumuyi as "one of the greatest living preachers, giving a straightforward Bible-based message" [15] The Lagos website suggested one first was baptized by full immersion, then sanctified, and finally baptized in the Holy Ghost by speaking in tongues. It stipulated "We do not teach or instruct people how to speak in tongues; the Holy Spirit gives utterance." [16]

Unlike the early twentieth-century Pentecostal churches, Deeper Life’s millennialism had been influenced by the end-times movement of Hal Lindsey that posited an imminent Rapture. [17] This suggestion the current chaos was a prelude to Christ’s imminent return may have been key to Deeper Life’s appeal in a country that had not been stable since independence, and where some Muslims in the north had been radicalized by international jihads against non-believers.

Deeper Life expanded into other countries. When the youth choir of a Washington, DC, congregation sang the Soweto Gospel Choir’s version of "Kumbaya" in 2013, it probably was less because of the theology imbedded in the text, and more because the arrangement had been made by someone who had been associated with the Apostolic Faith Mission in South Africa. [18]

Performers
Vocal Soloist: several girls had solo passages
Vocal Group: 15 girls and 8 boys
Vocal Director: adult woman

Instrumental Accompaniment: keyboard and amplified guitar played by adult men

Rhythm Accompaniment: drums

Credits
None given

Notes on Lyrics
Version: Lucas Deon Bok
Language: English

Basic Form: medley of "Lord I Need You" followed by "Kumbaya." The pairing suggested the key phrase in "Kumbaya" was "somebody needs you."

Notes on Music
Arrangement: Lucas Deon Bok. Simplifications in vocal parts were done to accommodate the abilities of the youth choir. Some looked too young to have been baptized as adults or spoken in tongues. Others had reached their full height.

Singing Style: mainly in unison, with soloists. The vocal tone was not melliferous. There was no effort to blend the various parts. The aesthetic reflected the independence of performers that Zora Neale Hurston said created the "ragged harmony" characteristic of African-American religious music. [19]

Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: piano was the dominant instrument, usually playing chords on the down beat with the drums heard on the upbeat. The guitarist could be seen, but not heard, while the drums were heard, but were not visible on stage.

Notes on Performance
Occasion: Friends Day, 2013.

Location: Deeper Life Bible Church, Washington DC. The red-carpeted platform was raised three steps from the floor of the church. Steps were in the center with short plexiglass walls to the sides at the front. The altar area was defined by yellow curtains at the back, with white walls to either side. Flags stood along the wall on the right side; the musicians were on the left (from the audience’s view). A clear plexiglass lectern was in front of the choir.

Microphones: three girls had hand-held microphones with windscreens. The foam covers are used to protect the equipment and muffle sounds of breathing or "vocal plosives" like /b/ and /p/. [20] Four amplifiers were placed in front near the plexiglass panels.

Clothing: choristers were dressed in black, white, and purple. The boys wore white or purple shirts and black slacks; a few added purple ties. The girls wore purple blouses or jackets, and black skirts that reached the mid-calf or ankle. The sleeves were long or elbow-length. Most of the girls wore black or purple hats, while the boys’ hair was cropped. The director wore a black suit and hat.

Notes on Movement
The choir stood in two rows with the tallest boys and girls at the ends of both lines. Boys and girls were grouped between the two poles in the front row. In the back, there generally were two girls between each boy.

They faced straight ahead, with their arms relaxed at their sides. When the music started for "Lord I Need You" the singers began transferring their weight from foot to foot. They slid one foot to the side on one beat, then moved the other to it on the next. The feet were in a dancer’s parallel first, and the movement came from the hips. The knees only bent enough to move the feet. One boy in the front flexed his knees more.

At the prescribed place in the arrangement, they began clapping their hands at the same time they moved their trailing feet. Their hands were between their waists and chests, and cupped slightly. One tall boy in the rear clapped over his head with straightened hands.

Four girls in the front row did a few mimic hand gestures. At one time, they brought their hands together on the phrase "hear my prayer" then spread their arms low on "in despair." They looked to be about ten-years-old, the age when children often attempt movement patterns triggered by words. [21]

The director stood on the floor below the platform. She made four distinct movements to the left, followed by four to the right. The camera only showed her from the waist up, so it was not possible to see how she was using her body to set the beat for the singers. Her hands generally were kept in front, but sometimes she spread them wide, with the hands raised from the elbows. There was no transition between songs, but she pointed her fingers towards the singers at that point.

No one had sheet music. They filed off when they were finished, one row at a time.

Notes on Audience
There were many empty seats, and people were seated in groups. A number of women wore head wraps. There was a little applause at the end, but no response during the singing.

Notes on Performers
Michael Dada was pastor at the Washington church. The only biographical information available indicated he had earned bachelors and masters degrees in business administration, worked as a banker, and was serving as the regional overseer for the denomination. [22]

Availability
YouTube: uploaded by pastor Michael on 25 November 2013.

End Notes
1. Wikipedia. "African Pentecostalism." Farrow was mentioned in the post for 7 December 2017.

2. Parham was mentioned in the post for 7 December 2017.

3. Pew Research Center. "Pentecostalism in Africa." 5 October 2006. The number included both charismatics and Pentecostalists.

4. World Christian Database. Reported by Pew, Africa.

5. William Folorunso Kumuyi. Quoted by Alan Isaacson. Deeper Life. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1990. Requoted on "Pastor W. F. Kumuyi" tab. Deeper Life website, Washington, DC.

6. Wikipedia. "William Kumuyi."

7. He graduated from secondary school in 1961, taught at Mayflower in 1962, and graduated from the University of Ibadan in 1967. If he took the usual four years, he matriculated in 1963. (Wikipedia, Kumuyi)

8. Kumuyi. Quoted on Kumuyi tab, Deeper Life, Washington. The term Gospel church, with a capital G, often was used for Aimee Simple McPherson’s Foursquare Gospel Church. It entered Nigeria in 1954. (Pew Research Center. "Historical Overview of Pentecostalism in Nigeria." 5 October 2006.)

9. Kumuyi tab, Deeper Life, Washington.
10. Wikipedia. "Deeper Christian Life Ministry."
11. Kumuyi tab, Deeper Life, Washington.

12. Culturally Nigeria was divided into three unequal parts by the Niger River. The Hausa and Fulani lived in the north, the Yoruba and Ewe in the southwest, and the Igbo in the southeast. There were more people and more land in the north, creating a political imbalance between the groups.

13. Wikipedia. "History of Nigeria."
14. Wikipedia, Ministry.
15. Isaacson. Quoted on Kumuyi tab, Deeper Life, Washington.
16. "What We Believe." Deeper Life website, Lagos, Nigeria.

17. Zondervan published Lindsey’s The Late, Great Planet Earth in 1970. (Wikipedia. "Hal Lindsey.) Seven of Deeper Life’s 22 tenets of "What We Believe" related to the second coming. Only one was devoted to each of the other topics. (Deeper Life, Nigeria)

18. The post for 29 August 2017 provided background on the arranger, Lucas Deon Bok.

19. Zora Neale Hurston. "Spirituals and Neo-Spirituals." 79-84 in The Sanctified Church. Berkeley: Turtle Island, 1983. 80. She was mentioned in post for 16 October 2017.

20. "What Is the Difference Between a Windscreen and a Pop Filter?" Audio-Technica website. 13 August 2015.

21. For more on the age children learn mimic gestures, see the post for 8 November 2017. They shared the interest of girls their age, but were limited by their small the pool of movements. Girls in Camp Fire Girls camps, at least in the Midwest, had a larger repertoire of gestures to draw upon.

22. "Pastor Michael A. Dada." Deeper Life website, Washington, DC.