Doing Church Haitian Style

I have only been a born again believer in Jesus Christ for around 9 years. In that time I have attended a whole bunch of church services in a variety of traditions and denominations. The bulk have been in Baptist-ish, evangelical gatherings which have the advantage of predictability. I have also spent the last year or so in a Plymouth Brethren assembly which is far more open and participatory. Here and there I have been to different styles of meetings including a few different Orthodox Presbyterian church meetings and some other random gatherings. So I have seen a lot of churches but they have been pretty similar and I always knew what was going on.

Then I went to Haiti…

First let me say something that I always sort of knew was important but that really struck home for me last Sunday. The churches I have gone to have always been overwhelmingly white. I would conservatively say that most of the time when I was with the church on a Sunday morning, it was at least 95% white and very often was 100%. I never realized how odd it felt to be a stranger in a church especially when your skin color makes you stand out. We all sat in the front corner and were the only white people in the crowd of some 600 or so. You can’t really understand how hard that is until you are on the other side of it and it is something that all gatherings of the church need to be aware of. It is sinful that the church is divided over so many relatively minor theological points and it is equally sinful that we are so divided by race. I will state unequivocally that when a visitor who doesn’t look like everyone else shows up, whether because of skin color or denomination or attire or social class, it is incumbent on those who normally gather in that group to welcome them and do what they can to make them feel at home. That requires a bit more effort than a perfunctory handshake and handing them a bulletin. I have more to say about that issue and how we build cultures and traditions in the church that serve as barriers to fellowship but that is not my point today.

So here is kind of how the church meeting went at Source de la Grace church in Port-Au-Prince…

When we walked in, it was pretty empty. Being good evangelical Americans we were sort of on time but most of the Haitians weren’t there yet. Having a Haitian driver who is has mad driving skillz drop you off at the front door has its advantages. When we walked in a woman was up front on the platform praying, eyes closed and speaking loudly and a million miles a minute. I talk fast and sometimes without taking a breath but this lady put me to shame. She was praying in Creole for like half an hour (and that is assuming she started shortly before we arrived) hardly taking a breath and not so much as a sip of water. No idea what she was saying of course, I did recognize “merci” on a regular basis but that was it.

After she finished, about twenty minutes after I would have collapsed, a group of young women got up and sang for a while, maybe half an hour. No idea what they were singing but it was very nice. At some point, I am a little fuzzy on this, they took up an offering. People came forward and dropped what they could into three large boxes. It was pretty amazing to see so many people coming up to drop money in the box given the devastation of the city all around us. Les, our trip leader from the Haiti Orphan Project, was asked to come up and speak briefly so he gave greetings to our brothers and sisters in Christ and asked for God’s blessing on the people of Haiti.

At this point Moise Vaval, the pastor of the church, got up and delivered his message. We had a translator who was broadcasting to headsets we were wearing so we could get most of his message. It was a pretty sweeping sermon, he talked about hope amidst the ruin, praised God for the rebuilt church where we met holding its first Sunday services since the earthquake. He railed against the apparent prevailing attitudes toward sexuality and the need for people to come to Christ. Probably not a textbook example of homiletics but it was passionate and very real. Moise was very grateful for the generous financial contributions given by American Christians that have helped to rebuild their church building, giving them a place to worship in the midst of despair.

Moise ended with the equivalent of an altar call and then folks came forward to pray. It got a little crazy at that point, there was some ruckus on the other side of the building and one person was booted by the security guard. It was also getting pretty hot at that point, needless to say they don’t have air conditioning! The whole experience was very exciting, different and a little confusing because of language barriers and cultural differences.

Now, if you read here very often you might be saying to yourself: Self, that sounds like a whole litany of things that he is on record as being opposed to. For example…

Hey, don’t you think women shouldn’t lead in the church? Here is a women praying from the pulpit for half an hour, with her head uncovered to boot!

Yep.

What is this about spending a bunch of money on a building, aren’t you always crabbing about that?

Yep.

Altar calls? Aren’t you on record against those?

Yep.

What about monologue sermons? There are quite a few posts against those!

Yep.

There was a time when I would have spent most of the two and a half hours finding ways to criticize the church service at Source de la Grace. A Reformed church service it was not. It was loud, it was emotional, it was a little chaotic at points. The sermon Moise delivered was not a neatly drawn up expository sermon. There would be lots of criticize if that was what I was still interested in. Nor was it a simple/organic meeting. Pretty much Moise spoke and everyone else listened.

Now? Now I see this gathering as an imperfect group of imperfect redeemed sinners praising God in the way they know how. Is it how I would choose to meet? Probably not but then again I live in America and not in the ruins of a city where hundreds of thousands died in the blink of an eye and where rebuilding is happening not in massive public works but one cinder block at a time.

Most of my criticisms of the church are addressed at the Western church, in lands where Christianity is commonplace, accepted and often culturally embraced. Lands where jobs are, in spite of the poor economy, plentiful and ministers of Christ can and should obtain employment easily to avoid being a burden to the church. Places where we spend most of our time dividing ourselves into competing fiefdoms trying to carve up our little corner of Christendom instead of scrabbling for survival. I believe my criticisms of the church are Scripturally based and perfectly warranted. I also think that in Haiti they have bigger fish to fry. I am likewise concerned about the Western church exporting our understanding of how to “do church” to other regions but at least people are hearing the Gospel in Source de la Grace.

Moise Vaval is in the midst of something many pastors have little or no experience with: outright spiritual warfare on a massive and systemic scale. Moise has to deal with people who frankly are openly involved in dark spiritual forces like voodoo and other deeply dangerous and frankly Satanic practices. Saying “brother get a job!” is fine when getting a job is possible but I don’t see that as an option for Moise Vaval. I have no problem with financially supporting this brother in Christ as he labors in a field that is full of hope but also on the frontlines of a war against Satan. This is not a struggle to score points in a theological argument, this is life and death.

It is my prayer that the ministry that Moise is involved in is fruitful and leads to many mature believers, that God strengthens and protects this brother. When we get to that point, when the streets of Port-Au-Prince are not filled with rubble and tents, when the water the people drink is not going to kill them, when the hundreds of thousands of orphans are fed and cared for, then we can have conversations about the deeper points of theology over coffee at the Starbucks in Port-Au-Prince. Today? Today I have no interest in criticizing a brother who puts his life literally on the line everyday for the cause of the Gospel, proclaiming Christ and caring for orphans. I am only interested in praying for him and praising God for raising up faithful men like him in the hardest places in the world.