Lou Smith-- Church Visit #2

Blog title: Lou Smith-- Church Visit #2 

Church name: Wheaton Second Baptist 

Church address: 1520 Avery Ave. Wheaton, Il 60187 

Date attended: 3/23/14 

Church category: Different Ethnic/Racial Demographic 

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

 Wheaton Second Baptist is predominantly African American. The worship was a lot fun. There was a lot of dancing and shouting. The songs were very long and repetitive, but I liked it. It actually gave me a chance to think and absorb what I was actually singing. The service was longer than what I'm used to-- I I had to leave for my regular small group after two hours, and they still weren't done worshipping. It was also different from what I'm used to because we were greeted by the whole congregation with hugs and handshakes after we introduced ourselves. I've never felt so welcome in a church before. It was similar to what I'm used to in that there was the typical singing, announcements, sermon, singing sequence. Another thing that was different was the incorporation of youth in the worship service.

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

I loved the incorporation of youth into the service. They helped lead worship and make announcements. I love how integrated they were into the whole worship experience. I also loved how inviting the people were at the church. The moment I walked through the door, all I could think was, "I'm white. I'm white. I'm white." You don't think about race so much until you're the minority. I was very self-concious and felt very awkward at first, but after we introduced ourselves, we were hugged and welcomed very genuinely. I was also struck by how much of a community the group was. Attendance to non-Sunday events was strongly stressed and talked about by members of the church throughout the service. It really felt like people knew each other and knew each others' struggles and hardships. It felt very tight-knit even though it was a church of 80 or more people. 

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

The most disorienting aspect of the service was how loud the pastor was talking when he gave the sermon. It was really intense. He yelled the whole way through. It was kind of exhausting by the end because the yelling actually stressed me out a lot. There was a lot of call and response, so I felt very involved in the sermon, but again, very exhausted by the end. Maybe that's something you get used to over time if you go to a church with that style for a while? I didn't mind the dancing and shouting, but I was very confused about when people are expected to say "amen" or "well, well." I would need to spend more time there to understand the social function of those interjections. What do they mean/ signify because they were used during stories that didn't seem important (e.g. during narrative of McDonalds drive-through). 

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 really appreciated the emphasis on acknowledging the Holy Spirit in worship. The message was on choices and how we are moral agents (strangely correlated with class discussions). I appreciated the acknowledgement of financial problems and brokenness within the community and the open praying for those things. There was a lot more of a focus of God as our sustainer which I appreciated. I have never heard of financial or social hardship acknowledged in a sermon, and I've definitely not heard pastors talk about God's role in strengthening us to overcome hardships. It wasn't a health and wealth talk, but more of an acknowledgement of real problems we face everyday. I think this has not been talked about in my regular church context because of the different socioeconomic status of my church as well as the overwhelming emphasis on personal piety/morality that it so prominent in the white evangelical culture today (i.e. purity culture) which can be so blinding for our church when it comes to social justice. The White American Evangelical church is so embedded in the economic and political structures that perpetuate social and economic disparities that it has become very blind to those structures (ok... sorry... this blog was meant to about Wheaton Second Baptist...).