Obviously, there can be great differences in church services that take place just down the road from each other depending on denomination, the particular members, and many other factors. Our Western culture is one of these factors. I want to share some of the African Culture I have seen in services that struck me as odd at first, yet I have come to enjoy.
I attend a large church in Lilongwe called Capital City Baptist Church (CCBC), and I spent one Sunday visiting a much, much smaller church that met in a little schoolroom in a village called Phanda. Many of the cultural things that you can observe in the city are even more pronounced in the villages.
Many of the songs played at CCBC are pretty much just like you would hear in the more contemporary U.S. churches. The worship team is very upbeat and enthusiastic, but every once in a while, they play a Chichewa song and the whole congregation gets about 50% even more exited. These songs are sung very loudly and typically accompanied by rhythmic clapping and dancing. I love to see the joy and enthusiasm Malawians show when worshiping in their 1st language. One week, there was a whole line of singers dancing in traditional style around the whole sanctuary.
In Phanda (pronounced more like Panda) they have no instruments, and of course all their songs were in Chichewa. One Person leads by singing a line, and then everyone repeats it. As far as I could tell, the leader was just whoever had a song they felt like singing next. They sang (and danced) for a long time. I was there for a baptism service, and they sang as we walked all the way to the river and during all the baptisms and all the way back.
Prayer in CCBC is not really any different than I’m used to, which made it even more surprising to me when we had prayer time in Phanda. The pastor called everyone to prayer, and everyone just began praying aloud at once. It was like when you walk into a crowded party filled with conversations, except this room was much smaller and everyone was talking to God.
It struck me for the first time that when every nation is gathered before the throne and worshiping in every tongue, it won’t just be a big Western evangelical Christian service translated in every language, but we will be worshiping in every culture as well. I am going to have all eternity to learn how to dance like a Malawian. How amazingly diverse God’s family is.