CCIF - Cross Connection International Fellowship - a multi-ethnic church in the making. What is going to a multi-ethnic church like, you ask? Well, in one word, I would say it's unique. If you have ever attended church in a foreign country, it is pretty much the same but with some added dynamics. You see, church in the rest of the world is about building relationships, people come to be others-focused. They visit, chat, let their children sit with them, worship actively and with excitement, explain things to each other if a point in the message was missed, verbally help each other find scripture passages... ya know, acknowledge that others are with you and relate with them during service. This is church in any other part of the world... relational. If you are in Kenya, for example, you are of course thrown off guard for the first few services you attend. But after awhile you become accustomed to their culture and how it flows into all aspects of their lives, and begin to see the beauty and sensibility that it has.
In America, on the other hand, church is only relational between you and God, people come to be ‘ministered to’ and by it’s nature, American church is self-focused. Don’t get me wrong, there are many who serve the congregation week in and week out, but the majority of church-goers come on Sunday morning to get ‘filled up’ and then they go home. We show up and chat with folks before service, but the moment a "Good Morning Everyone" announcement comes, we promptly return to the seats that we have already reserved with our bibles and sweaters (since we arrived 15 minutes early). We worship, standing when they say stand and sitting when they say sit. We do nothing outside of the normal guidelines of the service (stand to worship when everyone else is sitting - inconceivable!). When it's time to greet people, we turn to the left, right, front and back to shake hands and deliver the same line week after week (Good Morning, God Bless You!). We sit and quietly listen for the duration of service. When the study is over, we pray, sing one more song, and are dismissed. If we get a guest teacher who is long-winded and the service crosses that 90-minute mark... we get fidgety and wonder if it will ever end. Get up and leave before dismissal? Never!
So what do you get when you have a church service full of people from contrary cultures? A Sunday morning at CCIF! It is much tamer than a traditional Kenyan service (used because of my personal experience there), but also not as flawless as a traditional American service either. So we meet in the middle. We have a specifically directed service, but we have a meet and greet that includes culturally relevant hellos, and we greet everyone in the sanctuary! We have organized worship, but are free to stand most of the time, but sit if you'd like! The excited flavor of worship in other countries would not exclude occasional burst of "HALLELUJAH" or "AMEN!"… so our church welcomes the enthusiasm. We have a quiet time of teaching, which is mostly calm besides the predictable cell phone ring mid-service (classic refugee ringtones not to be forgotten). We call it ‘The Fiasco Factor” and are reminded each week that church for us is more of a missionary experience, but the beauty is we didn’t have to cross an ocean to enter in.
Serving our multi-ethnic congregation is what fulfills those of us who would drop everything in a heartbeat if God opened doors overseas. It can be frustrating if we forget the nature of our ministry and refuse to be flexible, but when those things are in tact… the ministry is operating exactly as designed and we love every second.
Until next time…
In America, on the other hand, church is only relational between you and God, people come to be ‘ministered to’ and by it’s nature, American church is self-focused. Don’t get me wrong, there are many who serve the congregation week in and week out, but the majority of church-goers come on Sunday morning to get ‘filled up’ and then they go home. We show up and chat with folks before service, but the moment a "Good Morning Everyone" announcement comes, we promptly return to the seats that we have already reserved with our bibles and sweaters (since we arrived 15 minutes early). We worship, standing when they say stand and sitting when they say sit. We do nothing outside of the normal guidelines of the service (stand to worship when everyone else is sitting - inconceivable!). When it's time to greet people, we turn to the left, right, front and back to shake hands and deliver the same line week after week (Good Morning, God Bless You!). We sit and quietly listen for the duration of service. When the study is over, we pray, sing one more song, and are dismissed. If we get a guest teacher who is long-winded and the service crosses that 90-minute mark... we get fidgety and wonder if it will ever end. Get up and leave before dismissal? Never!
So what do you get when you have a church service full of people from contrary cultures? A Sunday morning at CCIF! It is much tamer than a traditional Kenyan service (used because of my personal experience there), but also not as flawless as a traditional American service either. So we meet in the middle. We have a specifically directed service, but we have a meet and greet that includes culturally relevant hellos, and we greet everyone in the sanctuary! We have organized worship, but are free to stand most of the time, but sit if you'd like! The excited flavor of worship in other countries would not exclude occasional burst of "HALLELUJAH" or "AMEN!"… so our church welcomes the enthusiasm. We have a quiet time of teaching, which is mostly calm besides the predictable cell phone ring mid-service (classic refugee ringtones not to be forgotten). We call it ‘The Fiasco Factor” and are reminded each week that church for us is more of a missionary experience, but the beauty is we didn’t have to cross an ocean to enter in.
Serving our multi-ethnic congregation is what fulfills those of us who would drop everything in a heartbeat if God opened doors overseas. It can be frustrating if we forget the nature of our ministry and refuse to be flexible, but when those things are in tact… the ministry is operating exactly as designed and we love every second.
Until next time…
