Church Girl
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary,church girl means ‘a woman who is a member of a church’. This definition is for the intellectuals who care enough to google such a word. Streets define her as a woman who likes church pieces, infact, she carries church on her head. Urban dictionary has the most disturbingly disgusting definition of this word that I don’t even want anyone to ever see. I’m not even going to get into what a very popular pop musician’s version of church girl is.
So if everyone has personally conflicting definitions of what it means to be a church girl, who then is she, which one of these definitions are correct or closely fits? I’d say streets definition is more closely fitting sha. She does carry church on her head. But personally, i’d add an addendum.
I have a personal principle of approaching things from the perspective of it being an experience. Let me give an example. Say I wanted to read a book, it’s not something I’d do passively. I create the experience, create the mood so to speak. I’ll have snacks handy, ensure my phone is charged if it is an e-book. If it’s a physical book, I move to the couch in the living room where the lighting is fantastic. I prop pillows up on the couch, I keep water handy. All of these activity is me setting myself up for a book reading experience, it is me creating my environment so that there are no interruptions and all of me is immersed in what I am reading.
This is also how I approach church. For me, going to church is an experience and I do not treat it lightly. I carefully pick my outfit as though I was going for an important meeting. Not too much skin, but not too stuffy either. My church wardrobe is majorly Ankara but on the days when I have exhausted my Ankara options, I turn to corporate-chic. Next, I pack my bag with grave attention to detail. Bible, check. Jotter, check. Pen, check. Handkerchief (I always have one in my bag, church or not), check. Bottled water and handful of sweets (to chase away bad breath since minimal talking is going on), check.
So my outfit is picked and my bag is packed, next is my spirit. I believe that we are spiritual beings and so everything in life is a spiritual experience. Church is the biggest spiritual experience of all so I like to stir up my spirit prior to the event. I listen to worship songs, while I work randomly during the week. I listen to my favorite faith based podcast by Pastor Mildred Okonkwo- Bible before breakfast, as I take my daily walks. I pray day and night like it’s medication, and relegate Saturday prayers to be church specific. As I do all of these, I realize that I am creating a mental expectancy, a yearning for the Sunday experience. My church, CCI, has a spirit of excellence so as I am prepping for them, they too are preparing to give me a seamless experience. Every time I’m in church, I say to myself ‘Sundays at CCI is an experience’. Because I have set my heart and created the right environment, I am typically always set up to enjoy Sundays.
I’ll have to pause here to admit that I didn’t always have this feeling of satisfaction whenever I came to church. Infact, I’ll be the first to admit that my previous church used to make me feel like I should have just streamed the service from my kitchen, earphones plugged in as I made breakfast. CCI changed this for me, but I digress. My point is, because I have found a church that aligns with my personal desire for sound doctrine, soulful worship and a familial audience, I have begun to enjoy church. I have become a church girl. I live alone in a city four hours away from my parents, yet I wake up by six am to prepare for church every Sunday and am in a service unit. Sundays have become part of the life experiences that I enjoy, lumped with other enjoyable activities like curling up on a couch as I read a cheesy romance book or having a deeply interesting conversation with a brilliant mind. It has become one of my favorite things.
So back to the beginning, who is a church girl? I’d say, a church girl is:
A Christian, who is introspective and self aware enough to know what her spiritual needs are, who goes ahead to find the right church to meet said needs and creates the right environment in her heart and spirit to enjoy communion with Abba, even on Sundays, especially on Sundays, because she understands with the gathering of saints symbolizes in the christian faith.
It’s not about going to church per se, even though that is also important. It’s about all the other parts. It’s about her heart, her disposition to church and the gospel being preached to her. It’s about her relationship with God and how she seeks every pocket of interaction with him. It’s about how she sees church as a spiritual experience, not just a routine activity she does every Sunday. Even if you are unable to attend church for whatever personal reason, how do you approach fellowship with God? Is it from a place of yearning and expectancy? Is it from a place of fellowship? Do you see time spent in devotion as getting to know God? Is it an experience for you? I read my Bible like a spiritual ‘get to know you’ pamphlet because it is. The Bible is an instructional manual for believers. How do you know who you worship if you haven’t spent time getting to know him? Would you skip the talking stage in courtship and commit to dating a stranger? I know Christianity isn’t exactly like this, you can commit to it with your little knowledge of God but you need to read the bible to build upon this relationship.
If you are a believer, I urge you to become a church girl today (the term ‘church girl’ isn’t necessarily gender specific, it is used herein as a term to connote a behavior. You can be a church boy or whatever you want to call your experience). Being a church girl is an experience, a call to deliberately curate your spiritual life as you would any other thing you hold dear to you. Approach church & fellowship with God with precision, expectancy & wonder. Try it and you’ll see how everything faith based becomes intimately enjoyable.
Love & light. xoxo
