Africa Live!

Yesterday Jeff and I went to church at the normal time. We ended up staying quite a bit after, talking to various people, praying, and generally hanging out. Church was over around 12:30 pm, and by the time we had declined an invitation to go out to lunch, it was after 1:00 and we wanted to say for the music of the next service, Africa Live!

Our church has four services. They recently slightly modified the worship styles of some of them. Thursday night is small and contemplative, Friday 9:30 is more traditional, 11:15 is less traditional, and the 1:30 Africa Live! is for the African community we have in our church (and anyone else who wants to go). I've been wanting to visit the last service for a while, and this was a prime opportunity (plus we had both eaten breakfast and weren't too hungry).

The Africa Live! service was great. As the music began, people kept arriving, and everyone started moving. And I don't mean just swaying in thier seat, but moving their feet, bending over, lifting up thier hands, and whatever else they felt like doing. The weird thing is, it wasn't disorderly. People followed the music leaders and participated appropriately. The feeling I had was that people were free! I was thinking about how different the cultures of our church services are. Even in the younger-people oriented service, I would not feel quite as free as I did at Africa Live!. Comparing the cultures didn't carry any judgement, it was just seeing the differences. I really liked seeing emotion embodied at the African service. Emotions in my regular services, if expressed, are very subtle. I also appreciated how the African worship team seemed less concerned with being "professional" musicians. They are talented and there is order and they all follow the leader, but again, there is a freedom to be expressive and real.

Jeff and I left right before the sermon (the same one we heard in the previous service). I think we are both just a little bit African in our hearts.