aldenswan.com

It’s obvious every time the man opens his mouth, that John Kerry hasn’t a clue. I don’t know how in the world he got as far in life as he did in politics, but it seems pretty obvious that his “15 minutes” are over - obvious to everyone but him, that is.

I’ve heard rumors that he still has some plans for another Presidential bid, not that he’d even get minimal support from his own party. Actually, it would be kind of fun to see Kerry and Hillary against each other in the primaries - very, very much fun, in fact. Politics has, for the moment, pretty much lost its entertainment value, and we do need to get that back. What is politics for, anyway, unless we can be entertained by it?

One of these days I’ll let you in on my theory about what the real Democrats are up to. By real Democrats, I mean the ones who really have the power, and the brains. If you’re wondering who that might be, I’ll give you a clue: it’s not Howard Dean, or Nancy Pelosi, or any past writer for Saturday Night Live.

I also have a theory about why liberals and conservatives very rarely really communicate. Have you ever noticed that they talk past each other, with neither side seeming to understand what the other side is saying? If they could communicate, then something might get accomplished. But, as I think about it … perhaps the miscommunication is what keeps us safe. Perhaps we don’t want politicians accomplishing anything - that could be dangerous. It’s the Tower of Babel principle …

So, on second thought, perhaps I should keep my theories to myself.

One of the first things I think about when I think of Africa is the rhythms - the drums, the dancing, and all that other National Geographic stuff. I was not disappointed by my visit to Ghana - although what I heard, as far as worship music goes, was not necessarily what I expected, not that I had any specific expectations. I am sure there are more varied styles than what I heard, but my visit was limited to a few places in Tema, and one church in the Central (coastal) Region.

One of the first things that struck me was the obvious impact of Western Gospel music. The first church we visited had a gospel choir, backed up by what was - from my brief experience - a pretty standard worship band setup, consisting of a drum kit, congas, a portable electric keyboard and bass guitar, all playing at a pretty high volume. The music was a melding of Gospel, jazz & funk, played over African rhythms, and was all pretty up-tempo. In fact, even their slow songs were up-tempo, and they often wouldn’t stop to change songs, they’d just go from one to the other. They wouldn’t even stop to change drummers - something I had not seen before, but saw a couple of times in Ghana. I don’t know who would initiate the change, but on 2 or 3 occasions I would see a guy walk up to the drummer in mid-song. Without losing a beat, the drummer would stand and pass off the sticks to the new guy.

Another feature of their worship was the dancing; the women all did the same little shuffle - very low key, but still very much into the beat. They’d do their little shuffle back and forth, then occasionally start doing a “conga line,” weaving up and down the aisles. The men, at least in a church setting, tended to be less demonstrative.

At the YWAM base, worship was a tad more Western. I recognized several Vineyard and other songs I knew, and was surprised to even hear a couple of songs that had been written by people I knew. Now, that makes it seem like a small world. However, even though they were songs that I knew, they were all done with an African rhythm, which was really great to hear. I wished that I could have brought some of the rhythms home with me (I do have some video clips) but they’re a bit more complicated than a standard 4/4 Vineyard beat, and beyond my djembe abilities. One of the YWAM students was one of the best bass players I think I’ve heard - he would do some funk riffs that were just amazing.

At the YWAM base, the guys were not at all hesitant to join in the dancing, and also showed far less restraint than the women. Actually, it didn’t take much for the guys to break into a dance - just a simple rhythm on a djembe, and they’d be in a circle having a blast. Now, I’ve seen guys dance over here, but nothing like this.

Often, worship at YWAM would be led by Diana Akiwumi, who it turns out, is one of Ghana’s more well-known Gospel singers. I recently found an article about her in one of the on-line Ghana newspapers.

As I mentioned in a prior post, we spent 4 nights in an inner-city mission church, where English was more of a second language. Worship here was also a bit less Western, although they had the same basic worship band setup. The music, however, had a different feel - it’s hard to explain, but it had kind of a ska feel, only at a much faster tempo than I’m used to. The women here did the same little shuffle dance that we saw in the first church.

Oh, it was also all very loud. Apparently it’s better if it’s loud - even if it distorts. And, as it turns out, the guests are usually placed right in front of one of the speakers, I suppose to make sure we can really get the full effect. It was sometimes a bit hard to take. Another surprising thing was that everyone seemed to have an ample supply of wireless microphones. Having batteries die and swapping mics was not an unusual occurrence.

We also spent a couple of days in the Central Region, at a little leadership conference. The conference was being held at a borrowed church, without the benefit of a sound system, or worship band. Worship here was done in what appeared to be a common style to those in attendance, representating several different churches. Worship was sung in something other than English, in kind of a singing chant, with no real rhythm that I could discern. While I didn’t understand what they were singing, I did appreciate the spirit of worship that existed, as well as just being able to experience some other form of worship than that which we saw in Tema.

As you might expect, returning to the States and my home church was a kind of reverse culture-shock. It struck me how self-conscious the worship band was, working so hard to achieve some kind of “smooth” presentation. At the same time, the whole worship experience seemed, for lack of a better word, constipated. This is not to say that worship in Ghana does not have an element of self-consciousness, because it does - it’s just in a completely different way, that I could deal with because it was new. However, I am still having a very hard time with our church’s self-conscious worship, to the point where I have a hard time sitting through it - I just can’t seem to get past the worship band. Maybe I’ll just have to spend more time watching my videos of Ghana.

I ran across a great article the other day by William Willimon on the CT site, titled This Culture is Overrated. The article isn’t so much about our culture as it is about the shortcomings of today’s preaching, as it tries to be “relevant” to contemporary culture. Actually, he is dealing with the “modern” culture, but the point made could also apply to any of the current post-modernish sub-cultures. A quote:

But this way of preaching fails to do justice to the rather imperialistic claims of Scripture. The Bible doesn’t want to speak to the modern world; the Bible wants to convert the modern world.

He also addresses one of my pet peeves - the dumbing down of the church, sermons in particular. Willimon says, “There is no way I can crank the gospel down to the level where any American can walk in off the street and know what it is all about within fifteen minutes. ” However, that’s what most pastors that I hear try to do. Needless to say, most of us who have been Christians for more than 15 minutes are bored senseless, and the man off the street sees Christianity as a kindergarten-like religion. Bottom line, if a pastor expects me to sit and listen to him for 45 minutes, he’d better have something to say.

Now, on listening to sermons: I’ve been going to church my whole life, I can read, and I can study the Bible. I really don’t need a sermon, and according to the Apostle Paul, “mature” Christians shouldn’t expect to be spoon-fed, yet we’ve been conditioned to think that it’s “our job.” That’s the only reason that I can think of why people keep coming back… they must think they have to, in order to be a Christian. Don’t people read the Bible?

Concerning any contemporary culture, Willimon is right: it’s temporal. Culture has a fairly short shelf-life, especially today. The Gospel, however, is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. So, let’s get back to preaching it.