OK, not really…but it is pretty darn good. I just returned from a house church for the aforementioned GCITW in which our house church was joined by a French speaking house church with members primarilly from Congo but also Togo and Alabama (that’s like another country too right?) The gentleman from Alabama is actually our church’s very able French translator. My house church includes me (a Pakistani American), several Ethiopians, some Black Americans and a bunch of, as they refer to them from the pulpit, Anglos. Oh yeah, and our leader? Alabama also. No banjo on his knee, but he does completely fine by a guitar and belts out those African call and response songs with vigor and gusto, yeah and even some rhythm. The kids sit on the floor with assorted shakers or drumsticks and help out in that department.
Tonight is extraordinary because the songs in French and African languages, which we often sing on our own as a house church, tonight are ensouled by African voices, by the spirits of African brothers and sisters in Christ. Occassionally, a woman will let out a shrill cry, which sounds like a Native American war chant, which seems to be like a completely unmuted cry of joy and freedom, like a verbal dance. At one point during the evening, I notice at least three different rhythms of clapping in one song. I stick with the standard clap and pause and clap. Maybe one day I’ll try a more complex one.
As exciting as this all may seem, I am sure it is muted by African standards, by some African American standards, and by even plain vanilla American pentecostal/charismatic standards. We are a Presbyterian church, after all, and, all kidding aside, orderly worship is a good guiding value of our denomination (which still allows for a great deal of freedom). What is more impressive than the freedom (in which I want and need to participate more) is simply who is here and how we interact.
Our church is not perfect. There is inevitably a certain amount of clunkiness and stepping on feet when one attempts to live as one across cultures, any two cultures not to mention a plurality of them. It is inevitable when you have the decendants of colonists and those colonized that there will be work to do to. There will be unintended patronizing. There will be unwarranted prejudging in every direction. There will be an inclination to highlight the sinful proclivities of another culture, while making excuses for the sinful proclivities of one’s own.
I am a relative newbie at this church. I am learning about these issues as well as issues about poverty and wealth, social justice and evangelism. I, who sometimes describe myself as a bleeding heart conservative, need to learn how to give and serve properly in ways that build up others and not make them dependent, in ways that don’t merely serve my own need to be needed. And there are things which at times I miss at this church. I miss a liturgy, a formalized confession of sins. I miss some of the old tunes of hymns. That is not to say that these never occur in my current church, or at least some equivalent of them. When you strive toward working across cultures, though, there are compromises that have to be made. In a smorgasbord, in order to try everything, you can only take a little from each dish. And our church, still has a great deal of Western ones. We are like an Old Country Buffet with an ever growing exotic food section and a little bit of fusion cooking. OK, that analogy isn’t going anywhere useful.
Well, that is all for now. Perhaps more in a later posting… If you are curious the church’s web site is www.newcity.org.
In a side note, in this post I used “Black American” and “African American” interchangeably. That is not done out of ignorance. I am inclined to follow the lead of the linguist John McWhorter in his preference for “Black American,” but realize the word that I will use in any given context will likely be the one that I feel will be the most acceptable in a given situation. If you are interested in McWhorter’s article on this topic here is the link http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_latimes-why_im_black.htm. Here is the link to other articles by him http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/mcwhorter.htm.
