Four Sundays in Malawi, Four Unique Churches: Part One

When I visited Malawi in January of 2020, I was only able to visit one church, the one on the school campus. This time I wanted to make it a priority to visit different churches so each of the four Sundays I was there, my friend Bern and I visited a different church.

Let me say some things in general about churches in Malawi. First of all as a visitor, the churches always treated me very well. They gave me a seat in the front row and introduced me to the congregation to bring greetings. As a pastor they also seemed to find something for me to do in the service, not necessarily telling me before hand. Since I don’t consider myself an important person by any means, it always seemed totally unnecessary to be treated in this way. I just wanted to sit in the back and observe the life of the church, but they wouldn’t let me do that.

Malawian services are quite emotional and joyful. Dancing is very much a part of what they do when they sing as well as clapping. No one just stands still and sings. At the very least they would be swaying back and forth and more likely moving around the church.

During the service there is a master of ceremony who announces what is taking place. This is not the pastor, but a lay person who carries out that responsibility. When it comes time to pray, everyone prays out loud, and not in a quiet voice. Some are praying quite loudly. Eventually they quiet down, and a designated person closes the prayer time.

Offerings are very public. When it comes time for the offering, the master of ceremony places a basket or baskets at the front of the sanctuary, and people come forward and put their offering in the basket. I was unprepared for this at the first two churches we attended so Bern had to slip me some money to put in the offering basket. It would have been obvious if I had not participated.

One other thing of note is that the benediction is not the end of the service. After the benediction is pronounced, everyone sits back down. It’s time for the announcements. I learned that in the first church we attended. I was announced to give the benediction and was surprised when everyone sat down afterwards.

With those general comments about church services, let me tell you about the first service I attended the day after I arrived. The church was in Lilongwe. One of the great things about this church was that the pastor and his assistant had both been students of mine when I came in 2020. It was really fun to see them and to see how they were doing in their church.

One of the unusual things about this church is that they did the service in both Chichewa, the common language of Malawi, and in English, the official language. Initially I thought they were doing that because I was there, but the pastor told me later that this is what they do every Sunday. The assistant did most of the translating. A very bright and gifted young man who is currently in college, he did a great job translating with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. He would translate both ways depending on what language the speaker was using. The guest preacher actually preached in English.

Another general aspect of churches is that at the beginning of the service they have special music. This might come in many forms. Usually there is a women’s choir, and they will do more than one song. They also don’t stand still but have some kind of a two step movement as they are singing changing the dancing movements for each song. On this Sunday they also had the children participating by quoting scripture as well as singing.

One of my favorite moments in the service was when the women’s group was singing. There was a young woman in the group. During the song her toddler waddled up to the front of the church. She picked him up, put him on her back and tied him in place all while singing and continuing to keep in time with the group’s movements. I have to say she impressed me.

After the special music came some enthusiastic congregational singing followed by the offering. In this church they had different baskets to give to different aspects of the ministry.

After the service I found out the congregation was sticking around to do some work. When the church was built, it was in a fairly open area. Now houses are crowding in around it and starting to infringe upon their property. The members were going to start building a boundary wall to protect their land from encroachment.

The following Sunday we attended the service on the school campus, the one I had attended in 2020. Right away I noticed they had changed the decor at the front of the church. It looked much better and more modern with a dark blue background.

I didn’t know it ahead of time, but our Bible School students were in charge of this service. It was interesting to see how they did in this setting. A number of the students participated in the special music portion of the service which was opened up to anyone who wanted to volunteer.

The biggest challenge was with translation. In this case they translated the service into English, and I think it was for my sake. The young man who was translating has a pretty good grasp of English, but he needed to work on his translation skills. At times he appeared lost and uncertain as to what to say. During the sermon in particular, if he seemed too lost, the student preacher would just continue on. I can’t say that I left with a very good sense of what the sermon was about that Sunday.

Our students didn’t do everything in the service. The members of the congregation participated as well, especially the women’s group. A youth group also sang.

Of course there was some congregational singing which was very spirited and led into the offering. The following three minute video show this part of the service. The video ends rather abruptly because I had to go up and put in the offering which Bern gave me.

Another memorable moment came after the offering when one of the women started raising funds for the youth group. Apparently they were going to a conference or meeting somewhere and needed money for transportation costs. The problem was she did this in a very scolding manner. She pointed a finger at me seeming to say I needed to be generous. I don’t know exactly what she said. Again Bern had to slip me some money to put in the basket, but he was not very happy with her approach. They asked me to pray over this special offering after they collected it.

After the service they wanted to take a picture of the whole church congregation with me. I was seated in a chair with some of the other leaders including the pastor on my left while everyone gathered around. I’m not sure what happened to all the women. After that photo we took a picture with just the Bible School students. That photo I appreciated more.

One of things I realized from my experiences in these churches is that Malawians have a different understanding of worship than Americans do. For many Americans, worship is a quiet, respectful experience of honoring God. Malawians see worship more as a celebration, and they reflect that in the joy they express in their services. One perception is not better than the other; it’s just two different approaches. I think people need to experiences both expressions of worship.

I attended two more churches in Malawi, and next week I will share about those. One was a nearly three hour service. The other made me feel I was back in the United States. See you next week.

NOTE: In case you happened to miss the blog post last week, I apologize. My website was completely down, and I had no access to anything. The host company finally fixed it Sunday. Thankfully everything seems back to normal now. This is the post that was supposed to go out last week.