Christina Rohrer - Church Visit #1

Christina Rohrer - Church Visit #1

Church name: Wheaton Chinese Alliance

Church address: 1748 South Blanchard Street

Date attended: January 26, 2014

Church category: Christian and Missionary Alliance

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?

I went with my roommate to her church, Wheaton Chinese Alliance, and was interested to see how it would compare to the bilingual Japanese church that I grew up in. My roommate informed me that her church normally holds three different services, one in English, one in Mandarin, and one in Cantonese, but I got to attend the combined service. Going there reminded me of my home church back in Japan in that I was one of the few Caucasians among a congregation that was mostly Asian, however it was different because, unlike in my home church, I did not understand anything that people around me were saying. We got to the church early and found our seats, but even when it came time for the service to start, people were still milling around and socializing. My roommate told me that the Chinese culture is more laid back with time and tends to be late, and that it was a normal occurrence for church to not start on time. This was very different from First Baptist, the church that I normally attend, because their whole service is extremely on time. My church in Japan also tends to be more punctual than Chinese Alliance was and I found that interesting. When the worship started, we sang a lot of older songs and hymns, and my roommate told me that they tend to sing those kinds of songs when they have the combined services because they have them translated into all three language. The sermon reminded me of my church at home because the preacher spoke in English and he had a Chinese man up there interpreting what he said, sentence-by-sentence, into Mandarin. My church in Japan also has someone interpret the sermon, but I am used to understanding both languages, so this was a new experience for me.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?

The thing that I found most interesting about this worship service was the manner in which the songs were sung. At my home church, we sing the songs all together in English and then in Japanese. This church, however, had a different approach. The words for the songs were projected on the screen in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin, and there were three worship leaders in the front. When we started singing, it was not all together, but every person sang in the language that they were most comfortable with. That meant that we were all singing the same tune, but different words All around me I could hear voices in three different languages praising God. Though there was disunity because the words did not flow together, the voices still all came together in a beautiful melody of praise to God, and I could not help but thinking that it was pleasing to Him. When we sang songs that I knew, I felt free to sing them in Japanese. I often have the urge to sing songs in Japanese when I worship at First Baptist, but I often hold back because I do not want to stand out, But here, everyone was singing different languages, so I fit right in and it was a lot of fun.

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?

One thing that I found a little disorienting about the service as the fact that everything had to be said in three languages and so I only understood about a third of what was being said. Though I knew that they were just repeating what had already been said in English, it was disorienting for me to feel like I did not know what was going on just because I do not know Chinese. There was once during the praise time when apparently only the men were supposed to be singing, but I was totally oblivious and continued on singing. It did not hit me till later that none of the other ladies were singing and I was a little embarrassed. I have not been in many church contexts where I do not understand the language, and I think that it bothered me more than I had expected it to. During the sermon, there were times when my roommate laughed because the translator was not able to translate the English jokes very well into Chinese, but I did not understand so I could not laugh with her.

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?

I think that this experience helped to give me just a glimpse of how awesome God is that in His wisdom and power, he can attend to all people at the same time. It really struck me as amazing that all of our different voices in different languages are heard and understood by God. He in His awesome power sees each individual's heart and reaches out to them where they are at, and I really was encouraged by that thought as I worshiped with the Chinese congregation. The speaker also gave a very good message on forgiveness and how we need to give God the things that we are holding onto in our hearts, let Him be the judge of people, and forgive them. I feel that this experience helped to grow in my love for God and in my understanding of his word.