For fourteen centuries, mutual suspicion and hostility have existed between Christians and Muslims, despite attempts to engage theologically, apologetically, polemically, and militarily (such as the Crusades). Historic animosity has resulted in widespread violence and persecution. Amid such an environment, past efforts at reaching Muslims with the gospel have proved ineffective or even detrimental, highlighting a need for a different approach to engaging with Islamic culture.
On Thursday, 17 September 2026 at 1400 UTC, Dr Eric Sarwar, a musician, minister, and missiologist from Pakistan, will argue that mission today is from everywhere to everywhere and that the future of world Christianity is doxological. He locates this argument in the context of the decline of Western influence in global missions and the rise of ecumenism that led to a new paradigm, world Christianity.
Dr. Sarwar has studied at depth Pakistani and North Indian music, particularly Punjabi psalmody, which plays a crucial role in praise and proclamation, fostering polycentric worship across the Indian subcontinent, and diasporic communities. Understanding Pakistan’s Muslim religious music culture and its intersection with noncanonical genres is crucial, as music serves as a medium of communication and cultural cohesion within that country’s oral culture. In the context of a discussion of music in both Hindu and Muslim cultures in North India and Pakistan, Dr. Sarwar will focus on the mission of the Indian-Pakistani church and how music and the singing of Punjabi Psalms shape their diasporic identity in the local-global context.
Dr. Sarwar, the lead pastor of two Indian-Pakistani churches in California, holds a PhD from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, had a post-doctorate research fellowship at the Overseas Ministries Study Center at Princeton Theological Seminary, and is finishing his new book, History of Punjabi Christianity: Theology, Missiology and Doxology (1856-2026) with Langham Publishing. Currently, He is the Founding President of the Tehillim School of Church Music & Worship in Pakistan. . Additionally, he has a chapter on “Praise and Proclamation in Polycentric Worship Music in North India/Pakistan” in the upcoming volume, Mission in Polycentric Perspective by IVP in 2027.
