Julia Wittrock - Church Visit #2

Julia Wittrock - Church Visit #2

Church name: Christian Fellowship for All Nations (CFAN)

Church address: 4750 N. Sheridan Road, Suite 300 Chicago, IL 60640

Date attended: 2/23/2014

Church category: Racial diversity

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

While CFAN is a church that claims to provide, “fellowship for all nations,” a strong percentage (around 99%) of the people in attendance at this service were from specifically sub-Saharan African nations.  The service began with a long period (about 30 minutes) of worship, where a choir of all women and a band of all men backed up one lead singer.  Worship was followed by a time of testimony – many people came to the front of the room and shared their experiences of how God had been good to them.   This was very different from church services I have been to in the past.  Another unfamiliar element was what they called a “name change ceremony” – a few church members came to the front of the room to be prayed over and receive a new name.  They brought their new names on slips of paper, but they never read these names.  This was based off the idea that God often changed people’s names in the Bible – Saul to Paul and Jacob to Israel were given as examples.  There was then more worship and announcements.  The service was over two hours long, which is much longer than services to which I am accustomed.

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

I found the name changing ceremony fascinating.  I do believe that the idea of going by a new name does have biblical support, but I have never seen it actually happen like it did in this service.  I have heard of this in the Catholic tradition through the idea of taking up “saint names,” but never in a more informal context like this.  The idea seems to get at a good principle, but it does seem a bit strange for us to pick our own names instead of being told what the new name would be.  I also really appreciated the testimony portion of the service – I think it is very valuable to talk about how God is working in our lives.  People seemed more willing than traditional evangelicals to attribute things that happen in the world to God and not to natural causes or individual accomplishments.  Also, even kids were involved in this portion of the service, and it was really cool to see them praising the Lord for things, like turning 9 years old.

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

While I liked the testimony portion of the service, I was challenged by how at times it seemed to express a sort of theology in which our relationship with God is an exchange: God gives us blessings, and we give God praise.  It seemed like lots of God’s goodness was wrapped up in what he has done for us (economic trinity) and not simply in who He is (immanent trinity).  Some people even thanked God for things He has not yet done, saying that if we show God that we trust Him by thanking in advance, then He will do what we asked for.  This just seems a bit dangerous because it puts us as the judge of what is good and bad in the world.  What things that happened in the past were good and thus I should praise God for?  What should happen in the future?  Sometimes the ways in which God is working are so complicated that it is hard to know what is good and what is not.  Things that originally seem bad may turn out to be blessings and vice versa.  I think we can learn something valuable from the boldness with which CFAN members proclaimed God’s work in their lives, but it was a bit disoriented at first.

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

Even though I was only at a Sunday service, this service seemed to illuminate the concept of God being a God of more than just Sunday.  This happened in a number of ways.  First, people in the service seemed to be constantly praying.  I could tell this because the leader prayed on and off as transition between parts of the service and because those in the congregation were offering prayers under their breath.  From their testimonies, I could tell that they were constantly in prayer during the week as well.  Also, the repetition of phrases such as, “hallelujah” and “praise the Lord!” throughout the service reminded me that just about every sentence can bring us to praise God.  They saw God working in their dreams, in their sickness and health, and in their finances.  It is powerful to remember that the God I worship is active and involved.