Today being Sunday, I went to church.  As I sat there trying to engage in the worship, I thought I should write in the blog, try to describe what church in Guinea is like. We’ve had the privilege of visiting four different churches here in Guinea.  Each one has its own flavor, but as a whole they are all very similar.  Here’s what a typical church service in Guinea is like:

     First, you enter the room and find your designated side:  women on one side, men on the other.  Second, everything is presided over by the dirigeant, an emcee-type person responsible to keep the service running and give explanations along the way.  The emcee will stand up and very formally announce the beginning of the service, inviting people to prayer:

     “Ladies and gentlemen, I am in great joy to invite you to Boke Church this morning.  Let’s begin with a time of prayer.  This morning I would like to direct you to pray for five main points:  Point number 1, pray for people in our church who are sick and cannot make it today.  Point number 2, pray for the service today, that God would bless our time and bless his word, that God would deliver us from the enemy and protect us from temptation and distractions.  Point number 3, pray for our missionaries and pastors.  Point number 4, pray for our great country, that there would be freedom and peace, that God would give our leaders wisdom, that He would guide the elections so that our leaders could lead this nation in the ways of God.  Point number 5, pray for our neighbors and friends who don’t know Christ, that they would have the joy of salvation in their hearts and would be able to join us in the eternal kingdom of Paradise.  Let us pray.”

     At this point everyone will start praying out loud, a cacophony of voices rising up together before the throne of God.  Towards the end of it, one voice will generally rise above the rest, sometimes the voice of the dirigeant, sometimes that of one of the elders, closing with one last prayer summing up the various petitions that were mentioned.  Then the dirigeant will announce a time of “louanges.”  These are typically reflective worship songs, somewhat slow and serious.  They are led by the choir that sits at the front of the sanctuary—the choir is usually composed of the young adults of the church, singles and college students.  This is both their social church network and their avenue for ministry—After four or five songs, they move on to the adoration section of worship.  This is when things really get going. 

     Music is very important in African culture, and they take a lot of time and energy rejoicing in the Lord through song and dance.  The music is usually directed by one or two worship leaders and is accompanied by a keyboard, a couple large bongos, sometimes a drum set, and usually a few maraca-type instruments made of large gourds.  It is all funneled through a rather bad sound system that blares and hisses throughout it all.  Everything gets really loud and everyone has a great time.  The women especially really get into it, performing motions and simple dance steps specific to each song.  There are no words posted anywhere, on a screen or in a hymnal, instead the choir director usually sings out the chorus first and the congregation echoes it back to him.  In this way the songs are often repeated over and over again, and if you can understand what they are saying you can learn it quite quickly.

     After about 30 min. of this, when people are good and tired, the dirigeant instructs us all to sit down and then asks if anyone from the congregation has a special song they would like to present.  Usually two or three people come forward and present a special song they wanted to sing.  Sometimes it is a song they learned at a different church, sometimes it is one of the songs the church sings regularly that they just really wanted to share.  Usually the band catches on to the tune and plays along, and almost always the congregation ends up singing along as well.  Following this, the choir might present a special song they practiced over the weekend, and occasionally another group such as the women or the youth will present another song.  After each performance the emcee will say, “We want to thank so-and-so for the beautiful song they presented to us this morning.” 

     With this portion of the singing finished, the emcee moves on to introducing the newcomers.  Everyone who is new, or who perhaps hasn’t been to church in a few weeks will introduce him/herself or be introduced by a friend.  The proper way to introduce yourself is to say, “I am in the great joy to be with you this morning.  My name is so-and-so and I come from this part of Guinea.”  The choir will then sing a welcome song to the newcomers. 

     Next is the part in the service for tithes and offerings.  Everyone files out from the benches and drops their bills in the baskets, while the choir sings…another song.  Frequently there will be two or three rounds of offerings for various purposes, each round always accompanied by more singing.  As missionaries we’ve learned to always keep part of our offerings back, holding onto the money for possible further rounds, or for…a rally.

     The rally is the Guinean fundraiser.  It’s basically a competition between the men and women to see who can outgive each other.  During the first round people all give small amounts of money towards their respective side.  The amounts are counted up and the totals for each side announced.  Then there’s a second, third, and maybe even fourth round of giving, each time men and women giving more and more to see if they can top each other.  Quite often a rally will take place over about a month, with multiple rounds of giving each Sunday.  Everyone gets really excited during these things, though I’m not sure if it’s the joy of giving or the delight of beating the members of the opposite sex.  So far I’ve mostly seen the men win, which isn’t all that fair since they are mostly the ones with jobs.  To balance it out, however, there tends to often be a funny man (like Cees) who prances over and drops some bills in the woman’s basket.  The women all whoop and cheer when this happens.

 

  Finally, after offerings, the reading of the daily Bible passage, another song, and some announcements, it is time for the message.  The pastor will generally speak in French using an interpreter to translate into Susu, preaching for about 45 min. to an hour.  After the sermon, the dirigeant concludes the service with a report on the service which includes statistics on the attendance and offerings given that day, and quite possibly…one last song.

     Overall a service like this can last between two to three hours long, depending on the number of newcomers to announce, the number of rounds of offerings and rallies, and of course, the number of songs.  But have no fear!  All of these things are supervised by “Les Flambeaux.”  French for “The Torches,” the Flambeaux are a special group of young people, generally between 13 and 25 years old, who are kinda like the boy scouts of church.  They even wear nifty little scarves like boy scouts.  Their responsibilities are to greet and seat people, hold the offering baskets, and keep people awake.  That’s right, they walk around during the service and if anyone is being tempted to doze off, they gently nudge the person and tell them to sit up straight.  In a service that lasts as long as these do, in hot, crowded conditions, Flambeaux are quite important.  I’m thinking our ushers back home need to seriously consider adding this to their job description:  protect the spiritual health of the people by keeping them awake during the sermons.  So far no one from our team has been “caught” napping in church…the key is to look like you’re praying, of course, but if you snore, better watch out!

     Father, I thank you for our brothers and sisters in Guinea.  I thank you for the strength and health of these churches, for their leaders, and the committed members.  I thank you for their joyful expressions of worship and praise, and I pray that you would continue to bless and provide for them.  Lead them Lord in your ways, continue to bring them to maturity and send them out to make a difference amongst their families and neighbors.  Amen!