At church Sunday, people kept asking me about my trip to Ukraine. Each time I found myself wishing I had a snappy two sentence answer that would summarize the experience in a way that captured their imaginations. (Maybe I also felt the need to justify a two week absence!) Usually I would simply say, "It was a great trip, and I'm still unpacking it." So let me continue to unpack it.
First of all, let me say that I don't believe in two week experts. I can't speak definitively about Ukrainian culture or Christianity; I can only speak out of my experience.
One reason I've found my time in Ukraine difficult to unpack is because it is a culture somewhat similar to my own. When I traveled to Uganda, the cultural differences were significant. So when people asked me, "What did you learn from them?" it was easier to answer than when someone asked me that a few days ago. I could point out the East African exuberance in worship, for example, as something I could learn from. But the Ukrainian worship climate made it feel a lot like leading a worship conference in a small town in the US: not a lot of understanding about worship, a traditional church base from which the younger folks are exploring/rebelling, and mass media worship industry filling the gap left by a lack of solid worship resources.
Even though our cultures are similar, I was struck once again by the things we take for granted in the US. For example, Dave and I accompanied George to the men's prayer breakfast at the church. I asked the half dozen men what kinds of things they struggled with and praying for, expecting the standard US answers of family, sex, and work. But one of the things they found extremely difficult was not taking or giving bribes. It seems that bribes lubricate most business dealings in Ukraine, and not taking part in that system puts them at a huge disadvantage. They had to count the cost of their faith, quite literally.
Another big issue we encountered was the Ukrainian church's relationship to the West. I was not surprised to find out that Western hymns and praise songs were a bulk of the Evangelical repertoire in Ukraine. What was surprising was how narrowly focused on Gospel hymns (Fanny Crosby, et al) their hymn repertoire was, and that their praise repertoire was more oriented toward Hillsong than Nashville. Some of that is changing with the recent release of a small collection of Ukrainian worship songs, but it's still a significant factor.
Another part of the Ukrainian relationship to the West is its dependence on Western money. The reality is that a new church won't get built unless it's funded from the outside. It was interesting to me that the Ukrainians are very aware of the way this financial support affects their worship. In a session discussing the Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture, money kept coming up as a force that applies constant pressure on their decision making. I'm still chewing on this: how does money influence our theology of worship?
Finally, the trip to Ukraine drove home once again the need for good worship training. Dave and I led sessions on the basics of worship--things we've heard and taught hundreds of times--but you could see lights going on around the room as people heard these ideas for the first time. Worship as formation, worshipers as participants rather than audience, using the Psalms in worship--all of these were being heard with fresh ears. The closing worship service, though modest by Calvin Worship Symposium standards, was clearly a door opening to a whole new world for those who took part.
There is clearly a need. Maybe the need can be addressed by a book on the basics of worship. Maybe Dave and Greg will take their show on the road. Maybe these mini-symposiums will be supplemented by a seminary style curriculum on worship. As we close this particular chapter, it will be interesting to see where God moves next.
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