The changing face of modern worship

It is the eve of Good Friday and the members of Mamlaka Hill Chapel who are single have gathered at an upmarket Nairobi hotel.

But this is not your usual flock.

Tonight, they are glammed and look like any revellers you would find in any high-end night spot in town. Strutting in stilettos and hip-hugging short dresses or jeans and T-shirts, the girls are dressed to the nines.

It is a singles’ night bash, as has been announced at church services for the past four weeks. The single men and girls of the church have come out here to dine and “unwind”.

There is plenty of frolicking going on and the language is not the sort the Pope would approve of.

Television sexologist Getrude Mungai, who presents the steamy Connect programme on K24, is in the house.

Getrude is causing more excitement among the diners than anybody else. She is here to tackle the questions and fears that singles may have about the intimate phase of relationships, the MC of the night explains.

When she is finally ushered to the pulpit, she explains what she is all about and then takes the questions.

Those with more personal questions are encouraged to get in touch with her later for further advice.

Indeed, churches are becoming a tad quirky. But this is just one of the ways in which churches have morphed into entertaining institutions.

This church has organised other events, including road trips, bowling, bonfire barbeques, and paint ball games.

But the emerging church is about much more than just fun and games, says one of its senior pastors.

It is serious about showing a different face to the world than that of the traditional church. They put a high premium on serving the MTV and Y generation.

During a chat with the pastor at an earlier event, he said the church was only trying to be accommodative of all the categories of people it serves.

He said the church was being sensitive and responsive to the many needs of its varied flock that ranged from the “creative and interactive university students to the growing dynamic and fast paced energetic career person to keep their morale high in church”.

The young and upcoming professional is an individual, according to him, who loves and has a passion for life and needs much more to be attracted to church. Therefore, he needs a place that meets his holistic needs.

Pastor Edward Ondachi says that is why the church does not expect its followers to scrub, dress in a certain way, put their lives together, then come to check out what church is all about. Mamlaka Hill Chapel welcomes everyone, irrespective of their moral condition.

“We have been having an outreach that goes out in the night to talk and try to welcome the ladies on Koinange Street and other red light districts in Nairobi to our church,” says Pastor Ondachi.

Soon, he informs us, there will be a fellowship for gays. “We cannot pretend that they do not exist. The other churches have shut them out. These were not the teachings of Christ. Should we too ignore their spiritual needs?” he wonders.

“Our church tries to make it particularly easy for outsiders to fit in. Rather than just offering Bible studies and church services, we are not just about fun activities. The agenda is simply to get to know each other as brethren and hang out and have fun as outdoor connect groups.”

He says expressions of modern-day worship are changing. For instance, the church uses the Internet to communicate with its faithful and offers relevant material like job alerts to them on a regular basis.

Prof Mary Getui, an expert on religious matters who has been teaching religious studies since 1988 and is currently a lecturer at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, says such churches, are tearing down barriers, abandoning church propriety in the process, and simply allowing their members to be in the moment, enjoying life even within the church context.

So are churches tipping over moral and religious doctrines to endear themselves to the new generation of worshippers?

“The church, just like the free market, is more liberalise,” explains Prof Getui.

“Just the same way we are seeing academies, supermarkets, and new products coming up, so are churches,” she says of the many charismatic, evangelical, and Pentecostal churches coming up.

According to the professor, the church has been made much more common as far as availability and accessibility are concerned until there is competition for patronage.

“The olden days of checking our personalities at the door and assuming a generic ‘churchgoer’ persona every time we gathered at church which, for most of us, involved dressing up in the church costume that included dowdy skirts and ugly floral shirts, are long behind many church attendees,” she says.

“We have simply become more accommodative. The days we’d frown at some things don’t happen anymore.”

The other reason we could be seeing the new developments in churches, says Prof Getui, is because matters of worship are private and personal. People do not question the way other people worship.

“The church is understood to be a place of transformation,” she explains.

Many forces are at play, she says, but many older people are concerned because of the free-wheeling attitude to church today.

“We need to ask ourselves very deep questions. What takes us to church? We need to cultivate genuine spiritual gardens and not just get attracted to the worship place by and for superficial matters,” she advises.

However, a churchgoer, we shall call Priscilla because she requested anonymity believes that the days of mindlessly lip-synching to songs whose lyrics you do not put a lot of thought to, while hoping no one finds out that you enjoy Lady Gaga and had a couple of beers with friends the night before are long behind us.

For her the conventional church, where personality and pleasure were so denigrated that the idea of allowing oneself to have fun in church (or even admit that you have fun outside of church) is beyond comprehension.

“But should life be dichotomised into sacred and secular, where spiritual joy is constrained to uncomfortable pews and a day at the beach can be termed unholy?” she wonders.

Priscilla shares the views of the singles evening master of ceremonies who is from another church in one of Nairobi’s middle income suburbs.

He always reminds the flock that, “God created us to experience pleasure, to take joy in the wonders of creation”.

Today’s event is topped up with high-octane dancing into the wee hours.

So, has the conventional church decided to ignore that part of ourselves within its walls that believed that having fun within church precincts was taboo?

Prof Getui, who recently researched on Christianity as a thriving industry in Kenya and what its market forces are, says just like the rest of society, the worship place is also a dynamic place that responds to the times.

“Our world has changed in many ways, and so have we. Why should we be surprised that the Church has changed?” she asks. The change, she explains, shows signs of renewed vitality in society and the liberal modernist attitudes we now embrace.

Today’s churches face the challenge of existing in a postmodern world, and in attracting the MTV generation to the church of the 21st century, a development the professor appreciates.

“Obviously, some of these are dynamics we had not seen before. But churches are trying to be sector-friendly. People want something that touches them at their point of need,” she says, “and they are taking their congregations as a unit.”

Prof Getui saw the sign of people losing the sacredness of the church when we started using and embracing other spaces as churches as opposed to the traditional temple of worship — when the domes, pews, altars, and Gothic architecture lost their power to awe.

Today, a stroll downtown puts you in sight of half-a-dozen shop-front churches squeezed between a salon and a Kenchic outlet. Not to mention the warehouses that have been turned into churches.
Prof Getui recalls visiting a church only to find worshippers waiting for the cleaners to sweep away trash from the previous night’s party.

“The many churches that have sprouted in town sharing space with other businesses have diluted the sacredness with which the church was regarded and caused many to let down their guard.

“How, for example, would you explain a man coming to town and in the name of being a pastor and divine liturgy, calling single women to a stadium for a ‘partner blessing?’” she asks.

Women trooped to the stadium in the full glare of cameras.

“The question to ask ourselves is: Are we legitimising these churches that are cropping up everywhere and their habits?” says Prof Getui.

These types of churches are filled with thousands of young evangelicals who do not look, live, or dress like your typical rural Christian.

Prof Getui admits that during her time, the chapel was the chapel and it was respected as that, people dressed and walked in its honour once they were in its presence.

But having fun in the context of the church is not so taboo, says Jesse Ndwiga Kanyua Mugambi, a professor of philosophy and religious studies at the University of Nairobi.

According to him, there should be no separation between work and worship or work and recreation. His thinking? Life will be full of meaning if religion is integrated in everything we do. Therefore, recreational activities are also part of religion, if they are given the importance they deserve, he says.

Prof Mugambi is not a lone ranger.

“God gave us so much in this world to take pleasure and find joy in, why do we pretend to ignore that in church as if we are ashamed of God’s gifts? Let’s have fun in church, or at least stop hiding and start embracing and celebrating the holiness of how God created us to experience and enjoy pleasure. We all admit that such things are from God, why do we act otherwise when we gather as the body of Christ?” says Priscilla.