Spiritual Life, round 1 of many

I want everyone reading this to take a moment to think about your faith life in a week or a month. When do you do things? how do you do them? Etc.

I’m serious. Do it.

Thanks for humoring me!

Before I talk about my faith (or ‘church’) life in Indonesia, I wanted everyone to think about their own, so that this is less of a ‘this is how it is here’ and more of a ‘how does this compare to my setting? What do I like about both? What can we learn from each other?’ sort of thing.

I’ve been internally comparing Maranatha to my home church ever since I got here, and have noticed a few differences. I can honestly say, however, I really appreciate both churches’ ways of conducting services. I may talk more about what I’ve noticed later, as well.

Maranatha is more active than your typical Mennonite church in almost every sense of that word. As our leader, Lilly put it “we’re like Mennonite, with a kick”. Which actually describes it pretty well. Music is definitely louder, and is accompanied by most of a band (drums, bass, keyboard, sometimes guitar) as opposed to just piano or organ. I’ve been enjoying it a lot, as it reminds me of convention.

There is also definitely more charismatic worship, which has been both interesting and stimulating spiritually, as I had never experienced anything like that before coming here.

Church events happen every Friday night (prayer meeting) Saturday Night (cell group) and three times on Sunday (two times for adults, once for youth and young adults). This may sound like a very busy schedule, but it actually ends up feeling like both a good ending and beginning to every week.

The aforementioned prayer meeting is generally starts with singing, which usually fades into prayer out loud, both in tongues and in Indonesian (seamlessly, I might add, which is an absolute mystery to me). These prayers are sometimes about specific subjects but are also used as a time for individuals to pray for anything they have been struggling with. Usually after that there is a short message from the lead pastor (pastor David), and then one or two members of the congregation pray. Sometimes there is more singing at the end, sometimes not.

I’ve come to really appreciate these prayer meetings (even if I sometimes want to go explore the city when everyone is out on Friday nights), as a time when I can reflect on my week, give thanks for all the blessings I have experienced, and pray for any concerns I may have moving into the next week.