Differences in Church

I've written about the differences we've observed in a number of areas, but I hadn't dealt with church yet. Part of my hesitation is that sometimes it provokes a number of emotions in me to think about the differences. I do really miss our sending church and worshiping in English. On the other hand, I've wanted to see what other churches are like before I lump them all together into the experience at our church.

*People normally walk in, greet those they walk past with a hand-shake and greeting (dobré rano, dobrý den, or ahoj) and sit down. They may greet those who are already sitting down around them as well.

*Overall I think people are very quiet before church. They normally don't walk around talking to each other. This has definitely been something for us to get used to.

*Everyone normally sits in the same place. This can happen in the States too. We usually sit in front because it helps us pay attention better. (Isn't that always the case?)

*Typically churches have no nurseries, so babies and toddlers are in the service. In many small churches, children are in the service as well, but in ours the kids leave after the worship and corporate prayer times are finished.

*There is no Sunday School. Church services last longer than those in the States. I do miss the great teaching and discussions we enjoyed in S.S.

*Our church normally has a vase of fresh flowers in the front. At Christmas time there is an Advent Wreath with an additional candle lit each Sunday.

*Our church begins with announcements, some songs, then a short devotional given by a deacon, a time of corporate prayer, some more singing and the offering, then the sermon. We sing one final song at the end and there is sometimes another time of corporate prayer and/or a blessing/prayer given by the pastor. Corporate prayer time is very typical in churches here.

*We frequently have different speakers in the church. The pastor only preaches, on average, two times each month in his own church. The other weeks are covered by other Slovak pastors, guest speakers, or missionaries. This is fairly typical for Slovak pastors and definitely not something we're used to. It certainly avoids the problem of boredom!

*We sing both worship songs and choruses in our church. Sometimes, especially in the summer, we only sing hymns, which come out of a hymnbook that includes both Slovak and Czech. We really don't understand Czech very well, but we are usually able to figure out how to sing it at least. There are several letters that are different and have different pronunciations.

*Normally churches are not air-conditioned, though we have seen one exception to this. The funny thing is, that auditorium is downstairs and is in the northern part of SK so they probably hardly ever need to use it! During the summer, it can get quite hot - even to the point of making me feel slightly nauseous. We've learned to sit near the windows if possible.

*Attendance is very low in the summer. Slovaks do take vacations, but we're not really sure why there is such a decrease in numbers each week. For Christmas and Easter the building is packed - even if extra chairs are added.

*Churches have extra services for Christmas. I think this might be a hold-over from Catholicism, because there are many masses during this time as well. Our church meets the afternoon of Christmas Eve (4:00), Christmas morning (10:00) and again Christmas afternoon (4:00). Sometimes churches also meet at 10:00 on the 26th, but this past year ours didn't (is it wrong to admit I was relieved?). As you can tell, this schedule makes it very difficult for us to follow our normal traditions. As a result, we had our big meal on Christmas Eve, which meant I cooked all day (alone), we ate our meal (alone), and then we went to church. We opened our presents after the evening service on Christmas Eve because we didn't have time Christmas morning. I made a  traditional Slovak soup for us to eat after the afternoon Christmas service as an attempt at a new tradition. The soup didn't turn out quite how I had hoped, so I'll have to come up with an idea for this year! Hopefully this is something that we can develop more this year - how to celebrate both the American and Slovak sides of this holiday.

*Churches have extra services for New Years. They meet at 7:00 on New Year's Eve and 10:00 on New Year's Day.

*Churches send greetings to each other. If someone is visiting and they attend another church, it is expected that they will stand up and tell the church that they church sent greetings. In return, the church will send greetings with them to take back to their church. Sometimes people will share greetings from individuals they have seen or spent time with as well.

*Some Baptist (and other denominations as well with the exception of Catholic) churches have buildings that look like churches, but a lot don't. Ours doesn't necessarily "look" like a church. Some rent space in a village or town building, another we have visited is in the basement of a private dwelling, and yet another is in a row of what we would probably call town homes. They are actually just homes that are all strung together in one row with typically only colors to let you know where the division is.