A Place to Belong

On Sunday we led worship at the Christian Reformed Church of Mukachevo. Unlike many of the churches in Ukraine, the church attempts to stress its identity as a Christian gathering in the Reformed tradition, as opposed to the many denominations who place a high value on their ethnic identity.

Being a small church that welcomes all (Ukrainian, Russian, Hungarian) they are sometimes viewed with suspicion--seen as a sect--by those who are only familiar with the country's established denominations. But this "come one, come all" approach also results in a nice vibe, as all sorts of people come together to worship Christ. It's a nice mix: young, old, educated, dropouts, theologically trained, new believers. There is even a regular attender who is somewhat of an anomaly in Ukrainian culture: a 30 year old autistic woman who attends with her mother. Her mother says that church is one of the few places her daughter is at peace.

It struck me as I looked around the congregation Sunday that though this is a different culture and a people who speak a language I don't understand, we share a desire to belong. Too often, that belonging is based on race or social status. But in a church like this, the belonging is based on Jesus Christ. It is belonging to a family. And like a family, everyone is accepted regardless of how smart they are or what they've achieved.

It's a congregation of less than 50, so they don't have many musicians. Instead, they usually sing along to pre-recorded tracks. So it was fun to be able to treat them to live music for a Sunday. We sang a combination of translated hymns and modern praise songs, and even learned a Ukrainian worship song and ended with the Caribbean "Halle, Halle, Halle."