My five hour church service

I go to church #8 in Moundou. It is a E.E.T. church (Église Évangélique du Tchad) which is quite large. On an average Sunday there are around 1000 people in attendance.

Church starts at 8:15am but very few people arrive at that time. When the church begins, there is only about 60-100 people in attendance. Within the first hour the benches fill up and by 9:30 the church is full. I normally arrive about half an hour late with my family.

Church begins with a lot of singing and prayer. There are two choirs at church, one called the CRC ‘Révélation du Christ’ – a choir that sings songs mostly in French with piano, guitar, bass guitar and drums. The other one is called Hosanna- this choir sings songs mostly in Ngambai and uses shakers and whistles, they also are passionate dancers and do a move which I have termed ‘the chicken’ where dancers move their hands back and forth all the while moving their heads forward and backward (kind of like a chicken pecking). I have attempted this dance move, but as of yet I have been unsuccessful.

Prayer is a big part of the service and often people are called upon to pray without warning. It is mostly church elders (male), however every now and then they will call on a woman to pray. At one point during the adoration part of the service everyone has the opportunity to pray together out loud. This time is ended by everyone clapping their hands.

My favourite part of the service is the offering. Each individual person goes to the front (through an organized process using each row) to give their offering. During this time each of the choirs sings a song. People sing along and often the offering time ends in a dance party at the front of the room. It becomes a time of thanks for the offering that can be given.

At the end of the service, scripture is read and then a sermon is given. Sermons are generally 40 minutes in length and different ministers and elders give sermons. The sermon generally looks at the scripture verse in great detail.

On the first Sunday of the month, there is an additional service right after the ordinary service for communion. The communion service has songs, prayer, scripture and a sermon. It generally takes one hour.

So for those who get frustrated by the length of church services, the average service that I attend is three hours, but they can last as long as five. It is different from my church service in Canada, but I enjoy seeing how different people worship throughout the world.

Here is a picture of my church. There are decorations on the ceiling and down the centre aisle.