General News
23 February, 2025
Pastor's Ponderings
Last week I went to a most interesting church service in Kintore, Northern Territory.
Kintore is an Aboriginal community in the Western Desert, about 500km west of Alice Springs.
It was an evening service, with some singers beginning the singing at about 7.30pm and the
service itself beginning at about 8.30pm, after the heat of the day had lapsed.
Loudspeakers ensured the entire community could hear.
The service was not inside the church itself; rather it was outside, with everyone seated across a semicircle of seats under the stars and the organist and Elder up the front.
It consisted mostly of singing, and it seemed that anyone who wanted to contribute was
welcome to do so.
Person after person, sometimes individually, sometimes in small groups, would take turns at the microphone to sing their praises.
While they were doing so, children were playing in the middle of the semicircle and nobody seemed to care.
At one point a pup came up to me, which I strongly suspect was a pure dingo.
It jumped up and put its front legs on my knee, wanting its chin scratched.
Once it had received a good scratch, it seemed contented and went on its way.
At an appropriate point in time, the visiting Lutheran pastor, a missionary by the name of Paul who was visiting from the Finke River Mission in Alice Springs, went to the front of the assembly, read the Bible reading and preached the sermon.
This was then followed by more singing.
The entire service lasted around 2.5 hours, after which everyone walked home under the stars.
Perhaps the most notable feature of the entire service was that it was conducted using the Pintupi-Luritja Aboriginal language.
Not a single word of English was spoken the entire time.
Even the visiting pastor was clearly fluent in this language.
One of the most important features of the Gospel message, yet one that is rarely mentioned, is its ability to cross cultures.
Since the time of Christ 2000 years ago, the Gospel has been preached and received around the globe from the most civilised of nations through to the most remote of tribes.
The apostle Paul said in his letter to the church at Galatia, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Neither our nationality nor our culture can detract from the gospel message of forgiveness of sins to all who accept Jesus.
This message transcends culture, and as such is able to be understood and received by all cultures.
In the Book of Revelation, where the apostle John experienced heaven, he said, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'"
Nationality and culture have never been a barrier to receiving Christ as Lord and savior, and in the end we can look forward to seeing our brothers and sisters in Christ from all ages, tribes, nations, languages and cultures who will be with us in Heaven.