Sunday, July 14, 2013

First Church Service in Germany

So, today was the first time we managed to go to church since we moved. Due to various problems with alarms, migraines, etc. we hadn't managed to go yet. I had found a few English speaking churches in Aachen, which we decided would be best until our German gets stronger. The one we chose to go to today was a Korean church. It wasn't a disaster nor was it a rousing success, so we'll probably look elsewhere in the future.

The website said the service started at 10:30. We got there about 10:20 and were welcomed in while some musicians were rehearsing. One of them told us that usually the service starts at 10:30 or 10:40, but since today they were celebrating their 33rd anniversary that it would start at 11:00 and be a joint service with the Korean-language church. So... we had to wait around awkwardly for a while, but several people introduced themselves and were really nice.

The service itself was a mix of Korean and English. Most of the songs were praise-type songs (I think Hunter recognized some of them) and they would sing a verse in Korean and then a verse in English. There was also one hymn, the one that's to the tune of the German national anthem, that was all in Korean. They said the Apostle's Creed and Lord's Prayer in Korean, but it was projected on a screen in English and German. The sermon was in Korean, but was simultaneously translated into English.

Overall, it wasn't a terrible experience. The sermon at least talked about Jesus, which is more than I can say for some churches I've visited. I'm not sure how it would be different on a day that wasn't a combined service, but I think we would prefer a church that's entirely in English for the future. We have a few other prospects. There are some Anglican churches not too far away; the closest is in the Netherlands and then there is one in Cologne so we will look into those for the future. Even though it wasn't a perfect experience, I'm glad we got up and went. We can of course listen to sermons online in English, but it's not really the same thing as participating in corporate worship, so I'm hoping we can find a regular place to attend.

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