Dr. Roberta R. King
is Senior Professor of Communication and Ethnomusicology at Fuller Seminary’s School of Mission and Theology. As an ethnomusicologist-missiologist, her passion is to communicate the Gospel through contextualized global arts with special focus on witnessing to the love of Jesus Christ via the cultural musics and dances of diverse peoples around the world.
Dr. King served as a full-time missionary based in Nairobi, Kenya for 22 years where she contributed to the emergence of Daystar University, served as a leader in the Institute of Christian Ministries and Training, founded the department of Christian Music Communication, led worship at Nairobi Baptist Church, and practiced mission in more than 13 African countries.
Her publications include Global Arts and Christian Witness (Baker Academic: 2019), The Arts as Witness in Multifaith Contexts (with William A. Dyrness, IVP Academic: 2019), (un)Common Sounds: Songs of Peace and Reconciliation among Muslims and Christians (Wipf and Stock Publishers: 2014), Music in the Life of the African Church (Baylor University Press: 2008), and Pathways in Christian Music Communication (Pickwick Publications: 2009).
Professor King’s website is https://www.fuller.edu/faculty/roberta-r-king/
Ian Buntain
A product of Baptist missions, Ian was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. Together with his wife Sherri, they have three sons and seven grandchildren. Two of their sons are in pastoral ministry in Canada and their oldest son likes to boast that his ministry is supported by Purdue University in Indiana. Ian has served as missionary evangelist, church planter, pastor, and seminary trainer for 39 years and currently serves as the Director of the World Mission Center and Associate Professor of Missions at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Rev. Dr. Eric Sarwar
is called to serve as a musician, minister, and missiologist in a global context. Eric recently earned his Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary, CA, USA. His doctoral dissertation titled The Psalms, Islam, and Salaam: An Exploration of the Heritage of Divine Song offers resources for Christian-Muslim peacemaking through the sacred music tradition of the Psalms. He is the Founding President of Tehillim School of Church Music & Worship, discovering a local language in music and the Psalms for transcending boundaries in his native Pakistan. He also holds several degrees: Master of Divinity from Gujranwala Theological Seminary, MA in Islamic History from Karachi University, and ThM in Worship Studies from Calvin Theological Seminary. Eric is a songwriter composer, and plays the harmonium, and is fluent in English, Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu. He serves as a Lead Pastor in an Indo-Pak worship community in California. For the past twenty years, he has served as an on-the-ground practitioner, pastor, and musical peacemaker in this missional movement in an Islamic context. As the arena of music in mission is shifting and stretching, Eric is a visionary voice participating and adding his stanza to the ongoing melody of missio Dei.
Roger W. Lowther
is the founder and director of Community Arts Tokyo, director of Faith & Art at Grace City Church Tokyo, and coordinator for the MAKE Collective, a global network of artists working in foreign missions. He has been serving with Mission to the World in Japan since 2005. Roger received a Master of Music from The Juilliard School and Bachelor of Science from Columbia University. He is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Theological Studies at Reformed Theological Seminary (expected 2024).
Roger has won numerous musical competitions and released five albums, most recently COVENANT in 2022. Roger has also authored The Broken Leaf: Meditations on Art, Life, and Faith in Japan (Wipf and Stock, 2019), Pippy the Piano and the Very Big Wave (Community Arts Media, 2020), and Aroma of Beauty (Community Arts Media, 2021). His next book A Taste of Grace will be released November 2023. He lives in downtown Tokyo with his wife Abi and has four boys. www.rogerwlowther.com
Dr. Joshua A. Waggener
serves as Professor of Church Music and Worship at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX. He teaches research seminars and classes on the history, theology, and philosophy of Christian worship while directing doctoral studies programs in the School of Church Music and Worship and serves as editor for the Artistic Theologian journal.
Dr. Waggener holds degrees from Trinity University (San Antonio), the University of Georgia, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Durham University (UK). Since 2009, he has been active in The Society for Christian Scholarship in Music, serving as president from 2021–2023. He currently serves on the steering committee for the Biblical Worship section of the Evangelical Theological Society.
Before his time at Southwestern, Dr. Waggener taught music and worship classes at the secondary, collegiate, and graduate levels in North Carolina. Meanwhile, he served in music ministry and pastoral roles at various churches. He has presented research on music and Christian worship in the United States and England, and taught principles of biblical worship to pastors and worship leaders at ministry conferences in the United States as well as training events in Zimbabwe and Colombia.
Dr. Ron Man
was trained as an orchestra conductor, later attended Dallas Theological Seminary, and has served as a pastor, missionary, and worship pastor (M.M., Th.M., D.Min.). Associated with First Evangelical Church in Memphis, Tennessee, for the past 35 years, he is now serving as Missionary in Residence there and as Director of Worship Resources International. He has taught on worship in 40 countries, maintains a website of free worship resources (www.worship-resources.org), authors a monthly newsletter Worship Notes (wornotes.wordpress.com), and posts daily Worship Quotables (worr.wordpress.com; #WorshipQuotables). He wrote Proclamation and Praise: Hebrews 2:12 and the Christology of Worship (Wipf & Stock, 2007). Forthcoming is a major distillation of his teaching over the past 25 years, Let Us Draw Near: Biblical Foundations of Worship (Wipf & Stock).
He serves on the steering committee for the Biblical Worship section of the Evangelical Theological Society (etsworship.wordpress.com), and on the Executive Board of the Global Consultation on Arts and Music in Missions (www.gcamm.org). He is also an Adjunct Professor at Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary and Kairos International University.
Sam Rotman
a graduate of the Julliard School of Music in New York City, is a renowned international concert pianist who has performed over 3200 concerts in 61 countries. He has specialized in the music of Beethoven. Sam came from a very religious eastern European Jewish family. After turning his life over Christ while at Julliard, he also turned over his career. While receiving many honors in the musical world at large, he also has given many recitals of classical music at churches and Christian colleges, also sharing his testimony. As “Missionaries on Special Assignment” with Crossworld, Sam and his wife have travelled to different areas of the world where he has given concerts at churches, schools, homes, and auditoriums, while also sharing his Christian story, providing another way for missionaries and national Christians to reach out to their friends, neighbors, co-workers, and families with the Gospel.
Dr. John Benham
Raised in a Christian family of musicians, John’s first interest in missions occurred during a summer conference, where two families from HCJB radio in Ecuador provided the music, with his mother serving as their accompanist.
Later at age 10 John received the call to “do” music and missions. Unsure exactly what that meant, he completed his college education and pursued a diverse career teaching music. In the summers he pursued his secondary occupation of repairing music instruments, which later became a key factor in work with tribal peoples.
In 1989, after developing his Biblical Perspectives on Worship seminar materials, he was invited to work with the Taliabo people in Indonesia. When he arrived, the new believers had composed 75 original songs for worship. That trip resulted in invitations to work on eight other islands and served as catalyst to founding Music In World Cultures.
With the encouragement of Roberta King and assistance Tom Avery, and Brian Schrag, he developed the M.A. in Ethnomusicology that now resides at Liberty University. Graduates of the program have served in over 50 countries; and, now under the capable leadership of his son Stephen Benham, MIWC serves in over 25 countries.