South African Journey

12-28-09

During my time here in South Africa I have come to learn that every situation I am put in has a hidden meaning behind it,regardless of how things might seem right off the bat. There are times when things run smoothly and other times when I start wondering why I am at this particular event. I have learned that even if I am questioning why I am somewhere it doesn’t take long for the answer to be revealed to me. I had another one of these experiences just theother day, it went something like this:

The day was December 27th, a Sunday. I attended a church service with a pastor friend who’s friends daughter was being baptized. Just some background:  the service began just after 9am and went until just before 1pm. The service included two baptisms along with a 45+/- minute sermon and communion. I share this with you so the following makes more sense.

After the service we departed on our way to the family’s home for a celebration meal and time together. Typically celebrations like this follow a similar format. We did some singing and a word of thanks for those there to be part of the celebration. Following the meal is social time. Circles begin forming from chairs out in the yard, typically in as much shade as possible, and people join their friends in different groups around the yard. After the meal I sat in a huge armchair withsome other folks, while the pastor I was attending with had to make the rounds to greet various people. Just as I was starting to think of how long of an afternoon this could turn out to be I heard someone calling me.

“Hey, William!”  I assumed they were referring to me since they were speaking in English and as I turned around I was summoned to come sit amongst four gentlemen under the shade of a front yard tree. I sat with two of the men on either side of me and a platter of biscuits(cookies) and some homemade juice on the ground in the middle. Aftersome introductions of names, and correcting mine I explained where it was that I come from. I also explained a little about the program that brought me to South Africa. After the formalities they got right to the issue they had been discussing and wanted to know what I thought, but they started easy, kind of leading me where they wanted the conversation to go.

I was asked how things here in South Africa compared to things“over there” (back home). I quickly figured out that they wanted to know about church stuff back home, not necessarily what the town I‘m from is like. I explained the two obvious differences to me, language and length of services. There it was the issue they had been discussing before my arrival, time. The next hour or so was taken up with the issue of time and church. I explained that services have the same elements on both sides, though services in the US are typically under 90 minutes. The gentleman on my far right was all for the hour and change service. The man on my immediate left, who did most of the talking, didn’t believe that there should be a time set to services. He went on to explain that he believed that a service should be as long orshort as needed, dictated by how people feel. If the Spirit is moving and people feel led to sing more songs or spend more time in prayer then the service should just flow with it. He also added that he didn’t mind if there was a long sermon.

The debate shifted from just the length of the service to how long a sermon should be. Sermons in the US are roughly 20 minutes. (Yes I know there are some pastors that can go longer and those rare few that might preach for less than 20.) The sermon at church this particular morning was somewhere in the 45 minutes to 1 hour range. We all agreed that there is nothing wrong with a 1 hour sermon, as long as there is apoint the preacher is getting at. We came to this agreement after some discussion about how some people like to hear themselves talk and will talk about nothing for extended periods of time. The man on my far right again chimed in with how sermons should be 20 minutes (later he changed his mind to say 15 min), because if you can’t get something out in 20 minutes then you have lost the congregation. He noted that people start to lose focus after 15-20 minutes (at this point I was informed that he is a teacher). There was some discussion about how there are few pastors that can keep a congregation captivated for long periods oftime, in this case no one had a problem if they went long. Again, it was noted that there are few that hold this gift and they shouldn’t try to stretch for an extra 15 minutes.

We wrapped things up after more discussion on this issue of time. It was interesting for me to hear their views on the topic as most services back home that go over the typical time makes people restless and having a 3 hour service would be…well, I‘ll go with interesting. As a friend reminded me the other day in an e-mail, I too have found myself complaining about a service taking “too long,” but why? Now, if we are truly trying to grow with Christ and enjoy going to church, singing, praying, and all that…shouldn’t we not mind what the time is? Cause if we are worrying about the time we aren’t fully present duringthe service, likely missing something that truly hits home.