10 Things to Expect at a Church Service in Guinea-Bissau
10 Things to Expect at a Church Service in Guinea-Bissau
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Church in Guinea-Bissau can be quite an experience! By the time the service ends, you may have heard drums pounding, watched people dancing in the aisles, caught up on all the village news, and discovered that church runs on a very different kind of schedule.
Welcome to Sunday morning at a Christian church in Guinea-Bissau!
- Church will ‘start’ at 10:00, no matter where you are in the country
In Guinea-Bissau, most Christian churches don't have websites, phone numbers to call, or publicly accessible information about service times and other details. So the majority of these churches, no matter where you go in Guinea-Bissau, have a scheduled start time of 10 AM. This allows everyone to know what time to come to church, even if they are just in town visiting friends or for work, or if someone who isn't a Christian decides they want to attend church.
Of course, having a scheduled start time of 10 AM doesn't necessarily mean the service will begin right at 10 AM! If you arrive before 10 AM or a few minutes early, you can expect to be one of the first people there for the main service.
2. Children will be in service, not in Sunday school
2. Children will be in service, not in Sunday school
Most of the churches you will arrive at are standalone, one-room buildings. The sanctuary is normally the entire building, without multiple rooms or separate rooms for children. This means that everyone goes into the same service!
The church will often have Sunday school for children before the 10 AM church service. Sunday school often consists of one teenager telling the children a Bible story, followed by singing some children's songs. Sometimes the children will divide into smaller groups, but you won't typically find coloring pages, printed materials, or other Sunday school resources.
3. Visitors will be asked to stand up and introduce themselves to the congregation
3. Visitors will be asked to stand up and introduce themselves to the congregation
When it's time to go into the church, you will have two greeters at the door welcoming you in and showing you to your seat. Visitors are welcome to sit anywhere. Something unique you should expect is that during announcements, visitors will often be asked to stand up and introduce themselves to the congregation. Having guests is considered a big blessing in Guinea-Bissau, so this is one way the church honors and welcomes its visitors.
4. Dresscode is business casual, despite the heat
4. Dresscode is business casual, despite the heat
Most people will dress business casual or casual. For men, you should wear pants, as Guineans see shorts as too casual. Similarly, with flip-flops, you can wear sandals, but flip-flops are considered too casual and are used around the house more. However, sweatpants at church are completely acceptable!
For women, pants, dresses, and skirts are all acceptable. The longer your skirt and the longer your sleeves are, the fancier the outfit is seen. Many women wear a scarf around their hair, but that is a fashionable, optional accessory. These are more general cultural expectations in Guinea-Bissau rather than specific church dress codes.
Bear in mind that the majority of churches will have windows open for airflow, and that is as much climate control as the church will get. Though you might be lucky and attend a church that has some fans.
So as much as Guineans dress for fashion, I tend to lean towards dressing for the weather, which often means a dress just past my knees and something that just covers my shoulders. Great accessories for church would be to have a hand fan in one hand and your water bottle in the other!
5. You’ll probably hear a tribal language (one way or another)!
5. You’ll probably hear a tribal language (one way or another)!
Most evangelical and Protestant church services are held in Guinea-Bissau Creole (Kriol). However, if you attend a village church where most of the congregation belongs to the same ethnic group, the service might be conducted in their local language. There are also some churches, particularly in the capital city of Bissau, that hold services in Portuguese.
Even if a service is being held in Creole or Portuguese, you’ll probably still hear worship songs in a language!
6. There will be lots of drums and dancing
6. There will be lots of drums and dancing
The church service will start first with a few points of prayer, which differ week by week. After that, worship starts and lasts anywhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour. During this time, it is mixed. You can sit in your chair, you can stand, you can clap your hands, or you can stay still, however the music moves you.
Once the drums start pounding and the church gets into the traditional praise and worship songs, you will see people break out into song and dance. There is no right or wrong way to dance in church. You will see some people, especially the women, go up to the front and dance, while others come out into the aisles and dance. You can feel the joyfulness spread throughout the church building.
The instruments used during worship often depend on the church's financial situation. Some churches have traditional drums, guitars, and maybe even a drum set, often because someone donated the instruments or the church had the funds to purchase them. However, if you attend a small village church, they might have only one traditional drum, or no instruments at all. In those cases, the congregation will clap their hands and sing together. I have even been to a church service where a 50L plastic jug used for transporting water was used as a drum (and sounded amazing)!
7. Tithe might be something other than money
7. Tithe might be something other than money
Towards the end of worship, there will normally be a time for offerings. The two greeters will either pass around an offering plate or stand at the front of the church while people walk up to give their offering.
Sometimes, people will bring some of the produce they have farmed to give as an offering. Bananas, coconuts, and mangos all have their place in the offering plate.
8. People will interrupt announcements if they have a question
8. People will interrupt announcements if they have a question
Once everyone has exhausted themselves from dancing, you will see worship start to dial back and give time for announcements. As I mentioned, most churches don't have social media pages or websites, and literacy isn't universal, especially among older adults, so an announcement board only works so far.
Announcements are a time to share all the details, from weekly activities to invitations from other churches for activities, funeral and wedding announcements, and any other information that needs to be passed along.
Don't you worry, though, if you have a question about anything, you can stand up and ask it in the middle of church! Yes, really! The importance of ensuring information is passed clearly is highly regarded in Guinea-Bissau.
After about 30 minutes of announcements, maybe 15 minutes if there isn't a lot happening in the village, you move on to the sermon. Announcements can sometimes be shorter, but around Christmas, Easter, or Vacation Bible School, when churches have more activities happening, they tend to be longer.
9. The sermon will probably take an hour
9. The sermon will probably take an hour
Yes, you are right, you could be about 1 hour to 1 and a half hours into your church service, and the sermon is just starting!
In my experience, Guineans see the number of words used to describe something as important, so there isn't really anything known as a short story. The preacher will typically have about 30 minutes to 1 hour of preaching time. Much of which is based on one chapter or verse of the Bible that is read at the start, and then the preacher takes the time to explain the context, the meaning, and sometimes how it applies to today's time.
10. Church can end anywhere between 11:30 and 1:30
10. Church can end anywhere between 11:30 and 1:30
To close the sermon, the preacher will pray, and then the lead pastor will come up and make a few comments on the sermon and explain any additional information or announcements that need to be shared. The worship team will then come back up and play a song or two. Then the greeters will usher everyone out.
Most people will stand outside under the shade of the trees, talking for a bit before they start to go home. It is also a great time for the different church departments to hold quick meetings after church to explain changes to weekly plans.
So all in all, you can plan to arrive at church around 10 AM, with the time to end uncertain. Most commonly, church will finish around 12:30 PM to 1 PM, but some weeks it could end as early as 11:30 AM or go until 1:30 PM.
So come with a water bottle and hand fan. Because in Guinea-Bissau, we aren't controlled by the clock but by the Holy Spirit!
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