Church With No Songs

The Sunday came; I was not engaged for any ministry related matters. I decided to visit a church that I had ministered in a few years ago when I was a student. It was a lovely congregation of people coming from different nations, but mostly the English speaking Koreans or the Korean Americans. They had a pastor from an English speaking country.
This morning I arrived there early because they had moved the time half an hour late. The deacon that I knew was still there, fixing the place for worship. But when I saw a bewildered look into his face after shaking my hand, I did not know what to make of it. But he politely informed me that the church is no longer the way it used to be and not many people come. In Korea, most English or international congregations are either branches or the department of strong and powerful Korean churches. This particular church was no exception.
As I was sitting there for nearly 40 minutes, four mid thirties ladies came in and then three more men. The deacon had fixed the microphone and the chairs, in the bulletin, the name of the preacher and the presider was printed. Well over 15 minutes of the starting, no one showed up. Then a little girl of about 10 years old came in. She sat on the front row and called someone from her mobile phone. As she finished the call, in came the English department pastor, not the person from an English speaking nation but a Korean educated in UK with zero level of English communication. He fixed a small microphone for the little (apparently she could be his daughter, but we never had a chance to meet them) girl sitting in the front row. Neither was there any opening prayer, nor was there any one to play music, and believe me, this was the first time in my entire life that I attended a church service without singing a one line of hymn or a chorus, I mean not one song or a prayer (except benediction). The pastor went to the pulpit and motioned towards the deacon who was way back controlling the sound system. The pastor muttered a few words in Koreans and the deacon replied likewise. The first word in English from the pastor’s mouth was 1 Corinthians 1:1-3. After that he began to preach in Korean…and a sweet sound of English translation came from the PA system (I was the only foreigner there today), and it took me for a while to figure it out as what is happening and finally I saw the little girl in the front row reading the notes for her apparent father. He was reading in Korean from the pulpit and she was reading it in English from the chairs. He took about 20 minutes and sat next to the girl translating for him. I was so impressed with the little girl as how beautifully she read and had decided to meet her at the end and tell her how blessed I was to hear her read the sermon. The content of the sermon was…Corinthian church was full of division and immorality but still Paul called it “the church of God”. “The church of God” was the title of his sermon. While the preacher sat down, the deacon went forward and took the offering without any song. After the offering, he asked the pastor to pray and close with benediction. In Korea once the benediction is pronounced, you just don’t shoot yourself from the seat; you sit with eyes still closed and wait for the pastor to come to the exit so that he or she can meet the members as they go out. So, as we said “amen”, with eyes closed for few seconds and I looked around to see if the pastor was there. They were nowhere to be seen, the pastor and the little girl well. This church had the practice of having some snacks after the service, and nine of us who were still in the room, we gathered around the snacks table…and I could not help but told the deacon that this was the most bizarre church service that I have ever attended. With apology, he told me that the church is going through division and there is no communication between the pastor and himself. He said, “we are playing wait and see, hide and seek game”. As I moved out of that room, my heart became so heavy, knowing that I have witnessed the most destructive weapon of the devil in the church being fully used. Division has totally paralyzed and now possibly the English church will cease to exists and what kind of ministry will the pastor that can come, preach, and go without meeting his congregants can have in life. How could he come and preach? I just cannot fathom. How could he?