18 August 2008

Church Angst

Sunday 17 August

I can't even go to church here without a philosophical crisis...it's rediculous. This sunday I went to a church that was really comfortable for me. Too comfortable it seemed. We sang "Praise to the Lord the Almighty" and "It is Well With My Soul", we did responsive readings, a couple chatechism questions for the kids, communion...all in English. So what's the problem, you ask? It was so much like my church at home, that's why it was so comfortable. The pastor was Ugandan but educated at a reformed seminary in the US. He used Africa appropriate examples in his sermons, but otherwise the service could have been in St. Louis. Keyboard and electronic drum set, a smallish congregation. Is this what happens when African pastors are educated in the west or by people from the west? You end up with western churches in Africa...this doesn't seem good.

Maybe it's because I have a naive idea that churches in Africa should be somehow African...the music, the style of worship, the instruments, etc...Maybe this is the way they want to worship? Or maybe they worship this way because they've been taught this way by westerners...I don't know. I mean, the elements of our worship at G&P aren't American, we probably borrowed them from Europe, but somehow it seems out of place for them to be here in Africa...there's a lot of people reading this who could blow my knowledge of church history and missiology out of the water, but I'm just telling you what was going on in my mind on Sunday and since. I don't know what's right or wrong or if there is a right or wrong, but I couldn't totally relax on Sunday even though I longed to, because I felt like surely this is too easy...this is too comfortable...this is too American...I don't know what I think an "African" worship service should look and sound like but it seems that everything else is so unique here, worship should be too. But for now, I've found a place that is a place to worship and feel at home.

But I spent the rest of the day, and evening really, until about 10pm, hanging out with my Navigators staff friends Brendan and Joanna and a guy Brendan had met this week from England named Paul. Paul had us to lunch at his house on the campus of African Bible University where he's the librarian and has been since the campus started 3 years ago. We spent the rest of the day and evening eating and drinking and snacking and chatting and laughing and discussing and talking about our experiences of this country and our work and our previous lives, etc. It was really fun and a great time to kick back and just hang out. I don't do that much here.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay for the hangout time! Wasn't that what you were needing in your homeacheyness entry? I'm glad God has given you a taste of it. And that it was sweet.

Anonymous said...

Didn't mean to be truly anonymous there! Oops.
H

angela said...

so frustrating about church. it's one of those ideological battles that makes you question and wrestle with everything.

there was a church in calcutta that was super huge and very "western"....had a sign across the top that read "all are welcome", yet was gated with a tall gate and guarded by armed guards. seriously? people begging on the streets outside. wow. there has to be a better way to represent the kingdom.

harryk said...

May I suggest that you had a case of "too good to be true - itis." (It's a widespread malady that I've caught many times.) Perhaps the Lord just reminded you again that having left house ..brethren… sisters…father…mother for Jesus' sake and the gospel's, you have an hundredfold now …(Mark 10:29) Is anything too hard for the Lord? (Gen 18:14) Of course if the little church has fallen into legalism or looks down on their native brethren that don't know the truths of reformed doctrine, that would be a problem. But if you find them a genuine, humble and loving group of fellow believers, how wonderful! May God help keep us from being like the man in 2 Kings 7:2 ("..if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?) And you may be a great encouragement to them if they see you rejoice at having found true (yet comfortable) worship of the living God, just like home.
harryk