TRULY VERNACULAR WORSHIP FOR THE SAKE OF THE GOSPEL

Abstract

How Christians in Papua New Guinea make decisions about how to worship? How we decide which language to use? How we decide which songs to sing, which instruments to play? How we decide the shape of our haus lotu? How we decide when to stand up and sit down, and whether to kneel? How we decide where to place an altar or table, and what colour cloth, if any, should cover it? How we decide how often to celebrate communion? How we decide how long a sermon should be, and where it should be preached from? How we decide whether to lift our hands or fold them when we pray? How we decide what days to have worship, and what time of day to gather? How we create a liturgy, or pick a liturgy to follow? Not all corporate worship is liturgical. But all of it is patterned. The specific patterns we use are the products of more or less thoughtful, more or less conscious, decision-making by Christians obeying God's call to worship. One rule of thumb for the planning of worship is to what we always did before. At its best, this principle ensures the transmission of the treasures of the past to the people of today. At its worst, it is a see, monkey do attitude that perpetuates meaningless worship habits. Another rule of thumb sometimes used in worship planning is, Let's try something different! The desire to new things may empower renewal of worship, but it may also distract us from what matters and thus fragment our community. We not want to be blown here and there by every wind of teaching (Ephesians 4:14). We want our worship to be good, beautiful, meaningful, and sincere. We want to be true to Scripture and faithful to our Lord. How can we this best? The choices we make are telling. They say a lot about who we are. Do we want people to know what denomination we are? We will show them by our architecture, our songs, our liturgies, even by the day on which we worship. Do we want to identify with Christians of bygone days, or those of other continents? We will use symbols they have used and pattern our gestures after theirs. Do we want to look like Papua New Guineans when we worship? Then we will have to incorporate elements of local culture into our services. I am sorry to say from my experience within the Lutheran church in Papua New Guinea (PNG) that worship is not in good shape, generally. There are of course difficulties that arise from the mixing of many languages and cultures. But other problems come from clinging to partial and inadequate solutions to the cultural difficulties. I hope that this article, by pointing to the need for inculturation of worship in the particular situation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Papua New Guinea, will encourage other churches elsewhere to take more seriously the task of making Christian worship truly at home in their localities. For it is my contention that the inculturation of our worship practices is demanded by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Inculturation as an Evangelical Imperative For four years I was involved in the Worship and Culture Project of the Lutheran World Federation.(1) During our studies, we saw how Christian worship has been actualized in different cultures. We also learned that in every place, for assorted reasons, much more needs to be done. Yet the churches have been typically indifferent or resistant to the change that seems to be needed. Some of the resistance comes from misunderstandings about why inculturation is necessary. There are those who feel that the introduction of local custom inevitably taints the gospel message with heathen overtones - and they fear this for good reason. Some suspect that sheer cultural romanticism is the chief motivating factor behind inculturation - and in some cases perhaps it is. Some people are so historically bound when they think about what is good in worship that they cannot sympathize with anything new. …