Over the past two months while being in Guatemala I have had the pleasure of going to the various local churches in the area. They differ a lot from one another and go from very small churches with only a ceiling to an American style mega church.
The first week in Guatemala I went to a more modern church that is more typical of something one would find in the United States. It had a lot of the amenities we know and enjoy from our churches in the United States: PowerPoint slides for lyrics, drummer, guitarist, coffee. This church actually remarkably reminded me of one of my own churches in the United States as both of these churches were located in a repurposed warehouse. During this church visit I had the honor of going with the Hineni group which is a group of Guatemala’s finest prayer warriors. Afterwards, I got to enjoy McDonald’s with this group as McDonald’s outside of the United States is a more classy affair in which it almost achieves restaurant status with many locations being 2-stories with open indoor courtyards.
During my team’s time in the city of Poptun, we frequented a nearby church that was of a very different experience. This church was made up of a roof, some lawn-chairs, and a very-loud sound system. This church has the designation of being the most passionate Guatemalan church I have attended. Even though the pastor had a microphone he by no means needed a microphone. This church welcomed me and my team with celebrity status as nearly every person came up to us to shake our hands. Unfortunately, with the passionate preaching in Spanish and a lack of PowerPoints it was tough to gain much from this church experience aside from the taste of a different culture.
The final church I have attended during my time here at it’s heart was the most American-like as they even have their own sermon in English during the early morning that caters to all the English speaker that find themselves in the city of Antigua.
