Kurt Andres - Church visit #1

Church name: Church of the Beloved

Church address: 1443 W Roosevelt Rd. Chicago, IL 60607

Date attended: February 2^nd, 2014

Church category: Different Racial Demographic/ Further than 10miles from Wheaton

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

I attended Church of the Beloved in downtown Chicago after hearing from numerous Wheaton friends that it was a “cultural experience.” I was also informed it was “not your typical service.” Not to say I was disappointed, but it wasn’t all that. The service was your typical, modern contemporary worship service with standing and singing at the beginning and end. The songs were the usual contemporary songs, complete with drums and guitars. Interestingly, in the 11am service, I was legitimately one of the few white Americans. Though the service was in English, they had Mandarin headsets and the majority of the church body was Asian-American including pastor David Choi. This was very different than my current nearly 100% white church service composed of families. In addition, this was not a family service, the congregation was composed of young individuals and I never saw a family. The dynamic was young, hip, and definitely that of an urban startup focusing primarily on the Asian population of inner Chicago.

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

I definitely found the composition of the church body the most interesting part of the service. Everyone seemed to have a different story, and people didn’t seem as grouped off as in my church. At my usual service, I walk in and everyone is standing in their pre-defined groups with their well off typical American families. Here it was all individuals mingling, and sitting in pairs with the different friends they met before the service. I thought this was very appealing and much less intimidating as an outsider because it didn’t feel as clicky -> though it was still clicky. I also really appreciated the fact I walked into a random church and ended up meeting tons of new people not on my own accord but rather on theirs. Everyone I met had a different reason they were there and interestingly wanted to tell me more about the service. This is appealing when you can walk into a service and not feel like an outsider.

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

Let’s be real, nothing about Church of The Beloved was “disorienting” or “challenging.” It was a typical, modern contemporary church service. I found it hard to actually connect with some of the Asian groupies to be honest who seemed to only be interested in chatting with their other hipster Asian friends. I also felt like I was slightly an intruder trying to be something I was not coming into an urban Asian church in the city when I’m not exactly that type of person. But it was by no means challenging, or disorienting. Now to talk about disorienting, finding this church was disorienting. I used their street address and was led all over Chicago. Ended up asking a person of every ethnicity I can think about for directions (honestly- I asked a black taxi driver, Mexican hotel worker, and an Asian front desk worker), and ultimately stumbled upon this buried church service inside of the cultural center by accident. That was disorienting. And I found it hard to feel connected when the whole church service I went to was aimed at the regular attenders encouraging them to tithe and transition from letting Church of The Beloved be a startup to making it a true church body. The message just didn’t apply very well to me and made me feel like an outsider rather than spiritually fed.

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

The biggest doctrinal and spiritual insight I gained from this experience was the realization of how segregated the church really is. It made me feel like the church I usually attend probably was offending minorities and probably felt super inclusive and only aimed at middle class white families, much like when I went to this church and felt like only hip, young, urban Asians belonged. It’s too bad churches seem so segregated. I also resonated with part of David Choi’s point that church’s are a community but ultimately they need to transition to more than that a become a place with invest time, money and resources and come to gather with the body—basically church isn’t just a fun, hip, hangout we go to feel good at. This is a great point that I want to be cautious of in the future and evaluate the reasons why I go to church more critically.