Kolongo Church (Under the Tree,) Ghana 
My Church, Concord UMCToday I attended a meeting at my church. One of the things we talked about was how we do church & how should we be doing church Our speaker was very serious when she said there was a group of 20 somethings in her church that were very pregnant and were trying to impress on the decision making body of the church that they needed lounge chairs in the back of the sanctuary for the pregnant women and even little refrigerator/freezers between them equipped with ice cream.
I had a really hard time with this. I guess I'm becoming more and more Ghanain. My favorite church is the Kolongo church in the upper west region of Ghana. It meets under a tree in the midst of a cornfield, but during the dry season there is no cornfield. There are no creature comforts - no bathrooms, no cold water, no padded pews or air conditioning, no hymnals and no Bible in their own heart language. Mothers come to worship, pregnant or not, some nursing babies during the service. People bring benches, stools or whatever they have at home on which to sit. They don't argue that there is no building to worship in during the rainy season. They come to worship, not to be entertained. It's about God, not about me.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for going to where the people are and meeting them on their ground. We need to put aside our comfort zone to reach out to others at the point of their need. But, I have to admit, I had a rough time with this one!
