Winners Church

Today we went to our friend Gina's church: The Winners Church of Ghana. Yes, that's right, the Winners Church. I remember seeing billboards for it around town and thinking how goofy that sounded, but we went, and it was actually pretty good. I found myself taking note of things both as a Christian and as an observer of Ghanaian culture.

We arrived late (no surprise there) to the church after waking up at the butt crack of dawn, catching a trotro, then waiting for Gina to pick us up to go by taxi the rest of the way. The church building is HUGE, and open on most walls. We were not allowed all the way in at first, because worship through music was going on- a contrast to the American churches I've been to where such reverence is usually reserved solely for prayer.

The music was good: modern band, choir, worship leader. Some was in Twi, some in English. It amazed me how the churches here can take (forgive me if this is wrong to say) dull sounding church music, and turn it around into joyful songs of praise, which cool rhythms and big sounds. I've become very grateful for clapping, which I can do even when the song is in Twi. And clapping here isn't just on the offbeats, they do different rhythms. We were tired from lack of sleep, but man, there's no sleeping at church here!

At one point in the service, they called up a newly wed couple and their family to pray blessings in their life -very cool. Now, mind you, when they asked the families to come up, it was a WHOLE LOTTA people. The extended family is still a BIG part of Ghanaian culture- also very cool.

At one point they had a female pastor come up to give a short word. It was an interesting little short word on marriage, complete with yelling at people, claiming promises, and praying blessings onto the married people and the single people.

The message given by the head pastor was also interesting. It would have been easy to write it off as a message in line with the prosperity doctrine, but i tried to keep an open mind (once again, trying to learn what I could as a Christian, a student of culture, and to a certain extent a student of economics). He made some really interesting points, such as, the prosperity of a church and the prosperity of a nation relies on the prosperity of its individuals. He was speaking specifically in monetary terms at first, but by the end branched out into other areas. He said a church or a nation that consistent of mostly poor people, and only a few rich people could not be considered rich. He pointed out that this historically has lead to revolution and revolt. Now, I'm not sure if he was charging those who were rich to give to those who had need, or if he was telling those who were poor that they could be rich. There was a little bit of practical advice -i.e. don't spend your money on frivolous things, but not much.

One of the points he made at the beginning of the sermon was really cool. He was talking about the Israelites reaching the Red Sea after leaving Egypt; he considers it a GOOD thing that the Egyptians came after them! If they hadn't, the Israelites would have turned back, but God wanted them to pass through. In the same way, problems can push us to trust God and let him open a way for us to move forward.

There's probably a lot more I could write, but I'll leave off here for now. I have some school work to do (yes, I'm actually studying here), and a few more errands to run. I can't believe we've been here for over a month and that I go home so soon! Time is starting to fly!