As suspected church in Bulgaria is different from church back home. How can it not be! Yet there were similarities that made me smile. They have a similar structure to their services: worship, announcements, prayer, offering, scripture, and a sermon. They play worship music that I like, and some that I even recognize and can sing along to in English. There are people of all ages and all groups who are alive with the Holy Spirit each with their own powerful story to tell [My teammate Andy wrote an excellent blog called Bulgarian Testimonies with some of the testimonies we have heard if you are interested].
In a country where hope is hard to find I can come to church knowing I will find it here. The church is small, only 80-100 people but that church is more alive than some back in North America. This is where some of the differences begin. Maybe the reason for this spirit is that Bulgaria is a poor nation and when you come to the end of your own strength you have to rely on God. Or maybe it is because it is the unpopular choice to go to church (and that is putting it mildly). Back home religious affiliation is not something that gets talked about regularly but if it were to come up most people would be indifferent to your choice. Here it doesn’t get talked about because if you announce your affiliation with the protestant church when the predominate form of Christianity is Eastern Orthodox there is a strong chance that you will be shunned or thought of as crazy. While 80-100 people is a small church by home standards I can’t help but me in awe of these people as they dance, raise their arms, and openly weep knowing what they sacrifice and risk to follow Jesus.
The last thing I notice about church here is the freedom experienced within it. The people there have been so welcoming to us and eager to share their church with us. They dance, get on their knees, cry, wave flags, and blow horns and whistles while worshiping God with every fiber of their being, you can’t help but feel the authenticity of it. Through this I find found myself very free to worship in my own way. So while I can’t understand anything being said I feel completely at home and in a way it was almost as hard to say goodbye to the church here this past Sunday as it was for me to leave Westwood a month ago.
Thank you Bulgaria for teaching my heart what my brain already knew; that church is the people and the feeling of Spirit, not the building or the language or the location.
