Made to Worship

Praise God along with us for the International Evangelical Church! As part of our orientation to the branch, we were scheduled to visit many different churches the first several weekends. When we first went to the International Evangelical Church (IEC) we were skeptical: leaving with two critiques. First, IEC is a large church, possibly considered a megachurch. We REALLY loved our “microchurch” in Dallas where personal relationships where far more important than numbers, buildings and programs. After this experience, it’s hard for us to see ourselves ever gravitating toward a megachurch. Second, we walked away from IEC saying “this is too American!” Sure there are many white faces in the congregation, mixed with a good number of Africans, but the whole service seemed to be cut out of an American church bulletin. We didn’t feel the celebration of the cultural diversity which was represented in the room (apart from the two Ethiopians who participated in the “worship team”).

However, while these two critiques are still open for discussion (the second has gotten some better in subsequent weeks), there is one very important reason why we want to call IEC our Addis Ababa home church, namely – we genuinely worship God every time we attend! The worship songs that they lead the congregation in are VERY well chosen and VERY well introduced (both are important to us!). Not only are they some of our favorites (How Great Thou Art, In Christ Alone, We Will Dance), but the lyrics powerfully challenge us in the congregation to focus our attention on God (not ourselves). Thus far, the sermons have been top notch quality – drawing truths from the Biblical text and applying them powerfully to our everyday lives here in Ethiopia. Last week was the first Sunday of the month and therefore “Communion Sunday” (like I said, it’s VERY American). Although the man who led the communion portion was not so eloquent in speech, he had a ton of really good content as he led our minds and hearts to the Lord’s table in a way we’ve never seen (starting and ending in Jer 31).

Like I said, we never would have seen ourselves as part of a church like IEC, but the single fact that our hearts uniquely connect with our God in worship when we attend this church draws us back for more. Although we still miss the microchurch feel and maybe want to see more international elements, we have realized that church is not about individual preference, it’s about worshipping God in community with a portion of the universal body of Christ. So as long as IEC is a place where