Not Exactly a Perfect Church

So, I talked about church in Bangui yesterday. I got a couple of comments and then decided to post this video here. I wanted to do this with the post yesterday but the blog was not cooperating. So here you have it, a sample of one of the choirs we got the chance to hear in the two church services we attended in Bangui. This choir is in the last church we attended in Bangui. The angle on the camera is a little weird because I didn't want to get up and record. So I just turned my camera on my lap and tried to get the most people in one shot as possible. This will give you a little taste of church in the C.A.R.

Normally a church has two choirs and they perform during offering. Each choir performs a number because offering is quite an elaborate process in the worship services in the C.A.R. Every person in attendance gets up and marches to the front, where receptacles are waiting for money to be dropped in the appropriate place. Women put money in the women's receptacle, men in the men's one, etc. I was in three services in Bangui, two in Sango and one in French. Each had a second offering for some kind of project they were having.

The last church we attended had a special offering to help pay for plumbing in the church building. They were hoping to raise one million Central African Franks (over a period of time). If my math doesn't fail me, I think that's about three thousand U.S. dollars, which is a big chunk of money. It will take them a while, specially when you consider that the average salary is $250.00 per year, but they will eventually get there.

We discovered on this trip that that there is virtually no church trying to reach the more educated people in the city. Most churches are packed with poor people, which is not bad, but it leaves a significant number of people out. They are the university graduates, the young professionals, the people who work for foreign organizations. One couple we met with complained that they can't find a church that speaks their language. They stated that in most churches the pastors are just trying to get people's money, which might be a harsh accusation, but based on what we saw, money appears to be at least a big part of doing church in Bangui.

For example, after you get baptized, you have to acquire a membership card. Those cost five hundred Central African Franks (a little over one U.S. dollar), which is nothing for us but a great expense for the people there, especially considering that the vast majority of families have many children. Church members have to attend a certain number of church services in order to be authorized to participate in the communion service. And you better make sure you are getting that card punched on a regular basis because it may also determine whether the pastor will marry you or even perform a service for a loved one who passed away. Think of the contradiction of that with the Gospel as we know it. One would think that the C.A.R. could use its own Martin Luther. Who will that be?

Then there is the fact that pastors hold absolute authority over the flock in the C.A.R. They rule with an iron fist in most cases. My seminary students asked me how to change this culture of lording over the sheep which is so prevalent in the C.A.R. I told them not to start a crusade but to go out and be different. To model servant leadership, to be humble, not to put down the other pastors. This might be a hard thing for them to do, especially when they know that many of those pastors are not living according to the biblical standards they are supposed to exemplify.

In other words, I didn't want anyone to get the idea that church in Bangui is without problems. There are many challenges for the Church of Jesus Christ in that city, least of which being the challenge to find pastors that are free from the love of money and ready to serve anyone anytime anywhere God calls them.

Pastor Ivanildo C. Trindade

itrindade@woostergrace.org