DANCE

One of the most valuable aspects of travel is the opportunity to get a perspective from outside your own cultural bubble. 

From day to day, you tend to assume there is only one right way to do something. 

And you have already found it. 

So when you see how other people do commonplace activities in ways far different from what you are accustomed to ...

It can be humbling. And eye-opening.

Going to church this morning in Gbetsile, Ghana was like that for me.

American Christians could learn a few things from the Ghanaian church: 

• Worship can - and probably should - last longer than 60 minutes. Our service this morning ran 2 hours 45 minutes. And even though I didn't understand most of what was being said, it didn't drag. Now, maybe I didn't need 3 hours, but I did find having more than an hour very useful for some reflection. 

• The time of offering can be a celebration. Most of the people in church this morning earn a fraction of what American Christians live on. And yet, each person gladly carried a tithe to the front of the church and relished dropping it into the box. These were joyful givers.

• There should be dancing. When I first walked in this morning, I was wondering why all the chairs were in the back two-thirds of the sanctuary. I thought, "Well, I guess since nobody ever sits in the front few rows, it makes sense to not bother putting them out." But no! That front third was reserved as the dance floor! And what a celebration broke out about midway through the service. 

Do we in the U.S. really need to be so staid, formal, and formulaic in our approach to God each Sunday morning? Isn't our rather fastidious approach bound to limit the Spirit's movement? 

Is it possible to break free? 

Can we dance?