Fall 2009 | Volume 68, No. 1

Striking a Missionary Chord

by Keith Collier

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Donald Orr stirred in his seat. The young music student had experienced this frustration during previous seminary Missions Day chapel services. Listening to the Colombian missionary plead with seminary students to heed the call to world missions, he watched to see if any of the “preacher boys” would respond.

Orr thought to himself, “Haven’t they heard what he’s talking about? Haven’t they heard how much they need more people to go? Why are they just sitting here? Why don’t they go?”

Then he heard something that was music to his ears. The missionary said, “In addition to needing ministers, we need church musicians who are prepared to come and teach our people how to sing and how to use music.”

It was the first he had ever heard of the need for music missionaries. But, what would his new wife think?

As he stepped out in obedience to the Lord’s call to missions, he bumped into Violet, his wife, who had been sitting just a few rows behind him. She had felt the call as well, and the two went forward to dedicate themselves to missionary service.

Don and Vi discussed their call with the Foreign Mission Board and were eventually appointed as the first Southern Baptist music missionaries. In 1953, they packed their belongings and set out for Cali, Colombia, with their infant son, Randy.

One of Don and Vi’s primary responsibilities was to serve as founding faculty members of the newly estab-lished International Baptist Theological Seminary in Cali. Having received two master’s degrees from Southwestern in music and religious education, Don taught both areas of study in the seminary.

With only three students that first year, they did not even have enough to create a quartet. But as each seme-ster began, more and more students from all over Central and South America poured into the fledgling seminary. The Orrs taught in the seminary for 34 years, and when they left, the school was averaging more than 125 stu-dents per semester.

Don also served as the music minister at First Baptist Church in Cali, where he and Vi trained adults and children for music in the church. Although the Colombian people loved music, they had no formal training.

“We could see that not everything that worked in the United States would work overseas because the needs were different,” says Orr. Prior to the Orrs’ arrival, most people in their church had never even heard of four-part harmony.

In addition to teaching music, the Orrs partnered with others to translate hymns and other Christian songs into Spanish. They even translated some songs from Handel’s Messiah and organized a performance for the community featuring 60 musicians from nearly a dozen countries.

One of the Orrs’ greatest joys was helping start new churches through their church.

“We would use a chorus or a hymn to get the people congregated, and then we could preach to them,” Orr says. “They were there with open ears and could be reached with the Gospel. They first heard it through the music, but the music was used to attract people.”

Sometimes, they would simply begin singing in a backyard, and as people gathered to listen to the music, they would share testimonies and invite people back for Bible studies. They planted 10 congregations through these methods.

Orr attributes part of his passion for reaching the world to his training at Southwestern.

“The focus at Southwestern was always on the needs around the world, not just the needs in Fort Worth, Texas, and the United States,” he says. Between 1953 and 1994, more than 100 Southwesterners were sent to mission fields around the world as music missionaries.

Southwestern’s program for music in missions started in 1965 under the leadership of T.W. Hunt. Currently, the seminary is restructuring the program in preparation for a new concentration in music missions.

“Music and Missions is near to the heart of the faculty in the School of Church Music,” says Stephen Johnson, dean of the music school.

“We are currently revising and strengthening this program so that our students can get the best training from the faculty in the music school as well as the Roy Fish School of Evangelism and Missions.”

Music professor Edgar Cajas is leading the revision of the program. He led a team of Southwestern professors and students on a short-term music mission trip to Guatemala in May.

“Again and again we saw how music opened doors for evangelism, edification, and worship,” says Cajas.
The team performed evangelistic concerts at universities, conservatories, academies, and music schools. At each venue, they shared the message of Christ through explaining the meaning of the lyrics, giving personal tes-timonies, and passing out Gospel tracts.

“In venues like universities, colleges, and conservatories, music is an ad hoc way to show a Christian presence through the arts,” says Cajas. “Traditional evangelism and preaching is usually not allowed in these places.

“Christian music transmits the Gospel, using the elements of music—rhythm, melody, harmony, etc.—as a vehicle, with the Holy Spirit empowering the message that can transform lives. Mission trips like this one enable our students and faculty to apply what they have learned and practiced in the classroom to real life situations in a trans-cultural context.”

The team from Southwestern was also privileged to perform in churches, clothing factories, and a safe house for at-risk children. Cajas and Tom Song, a Korean music professor at Southwestern, presented the Gospel both in Spanish and Korean in the factories because there were Korean and Guatemalan workers.

Cajas, a native of Guatemala, sees the investment of music missionaries like Donald and Violet Orr coming full circle.

“When I was growing up,” Cajas says, “I enjoyed reading the biographies not only of composers but also of people like Donald and Violet Orr, who were pioneers as music missionaries in South America.”

Cajas is thankful for the rich tradition of music in missions at Southwestern, which, he says, inspires him to en-courage students to follow these examples by sharing through music on the mission field.

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