By Ngala Hansel
Last Sunday I joined with fellow colleagues from Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) for us to worship at the SIL compound here in Chad. The ‘church’ was a gathering of all the missionaries serving in Ndjamena from different denominations, different countries and of course different races (see photo below).
On Sunday, Sundar and Pushpa, an Indian couple who serve as the country directors of MAF in Chad – sat next to me. In front was pilot Becki Dillingham and her family as well as pilot Phil Henderson and his own family and several others.
Our ‘church’ is aptly named simply as The International Fellowship. I tried to explain this to my mom who identifies as Presbyterian and she couldn’t quite grasp the concept of a non-denominational church.
But having lived in different countries and different cities across Africa in the last few years, I have come to realize that church is more than about denomination and it’s also not about spending 5 hours in a Sunday service like we often do in Cameroon.
Let me explain:
As a Baptist, I wanted to attend a Baptist church when I moved to South Africa in 2018 for studies in Cape Town; but the nearest Baptist church I knew was like 15 minutes’ drive away, so I stuck with an Anglican church. In February last year, I was in Accra, Ghana for some months too and had to attend a Baptist church of the Ghana Baptist Convention which felt akin to a Pentecostal one and now, here I am in Ndjamena, attending one that doesn’t quite fit the definition of ‘church’ as I knew it growing up in Cameroon.
However, what I noticed were some stark contrasts in the way wealthier (well, they’re actually often white folks) – the way the rich do church is so different from our typical African way of doing it.
On Christmas Day this past December, I woke up and spent time ironing my shirt and preening myself in front of the mirror. By the time I went to church, I learned that service had started at 8AM and by 9:00AM, church was over. Just one hour and that was it.
On New Year’s Day, I vowed that I won’t sleep in (mind you that this time of year, the sun is still shining in Cape Town by 8:00PM) and by the time I went to another closer church (a Congregational church); the service had started at 7:00AM and by 8:00AM , they were done!
I wondered to myself how on earth a church service could be so short but I remembered how short it used to be at my first church in Cape Town in 2018.
The same thing happened at The International Fellowship church here in Ndjamena. The pastor for the day was a missionary with another mission agency in town and we started with a word of prayer and then later, some music (no obsession with praise and worship as in African churches) and then there was a Scripture reading, a prayer, the sermon, communion and the benediction (closing prayer) and that was it.
I remembered how church services in Cameroon take at least 4 or 5 hours. In small towns like Kumbo, it is worse. I grew up attending Baptist and Presbyterian churches and I remember there was always a procession, singing by English choir, singing by French choir, announcements, singing by Oku choir, singing by CYF or youth choir, praise (fast songs – lasting about 40 minutes) and then worship (understood as slow songs -lasting another 40 minutes) and then if it is Baptist church since we don’t follow a liturgy, the pastor can start a series of unprogrammed prayers lasting as long as he feels necessary.
Our belief as Africans is that to prove our reverence for God, we must torture ourselves with lengthy church services. We must pray ecstatically and then when prompted by the ‘worship leader’, if you don’t open your mouth, then you’re not praying. One hears arguments like “If it was clubbing, you won’t complain but when it’s church, you’re complaining”. A statement which is driven by the desire to appear to be pious rather than the actual pursuit of holiness in our daily lives. It is easy to appear to be pious than to actually be pious and righteous. I’m not judging those who attend long services but I do have a problem if a church service starts from 7:00AM and lasts until 12:00 noon. It seems to me a disingenuous exercise in ‘religiousity’ because our attention spans are not that long and also because our bodies get tired and we also have a new week ahead of us to plan; and we couldn’t possibly solve our problems by being in church all day.
So what’s there to say, the African church should not corner believers into believing that they have to spend 4 to 5 hours in church to prove their obedience to God. God is more interested in us learning to love Him with all our minds and hearts. He’s interested in us forgiving one another, admitting we are sinners in need of His grace and mercy and sharing the Gospel in respect of the Great Commission in Matthew 28, than He is interested in us singing and dancing for 5 hours at a time.
Africa’s problems cannot ALL BE SOLVED BY RELIGION ALONE. The sooner we learn this, the better for us. Western nations who brought Christianity to us in its present form, do not attend church for 5 hours. They are productive and make the most of their 1-hour church services and they have more to show for it than us who get it so wrong in this regard. And by the way, worshipping God is not about ‘bending low for Jesus’ or ‘shaking your waist for Jesus’ (even the pagans can do that). The difficult part is carrying your cross DAILY and following Jesus. Letting it go or turning the other cheek when others hurt you. We all know supposed ‘Christians’ who are not on talking terms with their friends because “Me I no di ever beg me person o”. We all know supposedly ‘Christian’ people who are living in sexual sin, who are in positions of power and channel organizations’ money into their private pockets but this is the hard part of Christianity that we must exemplify. We can only do this by diligently seeking God and studying the Scriptures DAILY and not just by spending 5 hours in church on Sunday.
