What a great celebration of a church's anniversary yesterday!
The diversity in the body of Christ even showed in the talk- the main presenter was the Zambian pastor, interludes were done by a Nigerian man in a Nigerian Senator Suit (tradiditional Nigerian Yoruba Fila hat included) and... the Americans will love this.... an American pastor with a strong Southern USA accent.
The American pastor is one of the senior people in the wider church organisation- we could all honestly learn alot from him as he cheerfully greeted people in his strong Southern accent with "Hello brother/sister".
Also a huge shoutout to the volunteers serving African food at the event (the church had a huge African congregation), I should also have asked the Southern pastor what he thought of Jollof rice, bet he never tried it in the USA 🤭
Alas, some notes from the talk from both the Zambian pastor and Nigerian elder and my views:
. The hymn started with very appropiate lyrics "Life is worth the living because He lives"
. By God's grace the church is growing, but we must remember it is growing by the power of the LORD only.
. It was very moving hearing a pastor saying how the American pastor was there and lifted the church up, when they (the church) were down.
. The unique preaching of Africans- from the Zambian pastor and Nigerian elder- if you know the way Africans use English, they use it in a unique way, and to add Zambians wouldn't use English the way Nigerians would, it was very enriching hearing the same Gospel message in a unique way and communication style.
. For stats fans- when the church did online sermons here are other Countries across the world that tuned in to it's online services- Zambia, Jamaica, Canada, USA, New Zealand .
. During the Covid era the church sang outside when churches were first allowed to gather again. A man passed away- his wife later told the chutch he used to sit in the garden and listened to the singing of the church and loved listening to it.
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I think one of the most memorable sermons I ever heard was by an Ethiopian forced to live in the slums of Nigeria. While in the slums he was called to the ministry but had no money for Bible College. Somehow a Mennonite Christian in Alberta Canada heard of his plight and paid for his entire tuition. Upon graduation he was told if he wanted to pastor a church he would have to start it. Feeling down and depressed he found a large roof with a few walls and said to himself "This will by my church". Then he sat down and began playing a very sad song on the only musical instrument he had. A harmonica. He heard a sound behind him and turned to find a bunch of kids all wanting him to teach them to play the harmonica. He said he would if they brought their parents to church on Sunday. His first service was to 120 people living in the slums of Nairobi. He went to to plant 3 more churches before touring the Mennonite Churches in Alberta to thank the family that had paid for his tuition. His sermon that day was titled "Roll away the stone" based on Jesus' raising Lazarus and the hesitation the people felt about revealing the stench of rotting putrid flesh and how our hesitation to obey Christ is because of our rotten stinking sin that we want to keep behind the stone.
