Lessons from a three-hour church service

Jason Roach  |  Comment
Date posted:  29 Sep 2025
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Lessons from a three-hour church service

Photo by Adeyemi Emmanuel Abebayo on Unsplash

It's sometimes said that culture is like a river. To fully appreciate its flow, you need to get in it. I had the privilege of putting this into practice recently when I visited a church with a predominantly Nigerian membership.

Rather than observing from a distance, I got to swim in the stream of their worship. It highlighted several ways in which my own multi-ethnic church values certain things differently. This doesn't automatically mean either set of practices is better or worse. But the customs reveal the creeds underneath. Experiencing the differences first-hand helped me sense what was going on under the surface.

Time

I walked into the main gathering space a few minutes before the start. It was already busy: loud with conversation and a passionate band rehearsal. My own church often fills up after the service has started like a slowly rising tide. It turned out they had also been in discipleship classes for an hour before.

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