Mary Karg - Church visit #2

Church name: Second Baptist Church

Church address: 1520 Avery Avenue Wheaton, IL 60187

Date attended: 03/02/14

Church category: Different racial/ethnic demographic

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

The service itself was long - from 10:15 to 12:30pm. The majority of the service was praise and worship, which was different from my usual context. The sermon at Second Baptist was roughly 35 minutes long, and we probably sang for an hour or more all together. At my regular church, we sing a few songs at the beginning and end of the “main event” which is the sermon. At Second Baptist, even the sermon was preached in a way that encouraged audience participation, and towards the end it seemed almost like the pastor was singing his sermon, with the organ occasionally chiming in. The most notable difference between this church and my usual church, besides the heavy focus on worship, was the attention they gave to me and Ginny as visitors. We were asked to stand and introduce ourselves at the beginning of the service, and they remembered our names throughout. 

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

I loved the worship/singing style at Second Baptist. There was no screen where we could find the lyrics to songs. Instead, the worship leader directed us by singing and having us repeat him, or just sing one word (i.e. hallelujah) over and over. Everyone swayed and clapped throughout worship, and the members of the choir behind the worship leader were very engaged and joyful. I felt that the entire service exuded joy, and it felt great to be in a setting where we were so welcomed and encouraged to participate. Also, at one point near the middle of the service, one of the leaders asked everyone to greet Ginny and I as we stood. Almost the entire church came and shook our hands and greeted us, and they seemed genuinely excited to have us at their church. One man even offered to give us rides if we wanted to come back, and a lady behind us whispered instructions to us during the altar call. 

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

The hardest part for me was the sermon. I really enjoyed the content of the sermon, on Joshua praying for the sun to stand still, but the delivery made it difficult for me to process what the pastor was saying. He essentially yelled the sermon to us, pausing only a few times to speak in a normal tone, and then he was back to yelling again. Towards the end of the service he changed into a singing tone, and the organ occasionally chimed in very rhythmically. I had to focus very hard to internalize Pastor Williams’ message. This is because I have never attended a church at which the sermon was delivered in any way other than a calm, conversational tone. It is a contextual difference unique to the Black community which I did not grow up around, but I was surprised at how much it threw me off! 

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 noticed an interesting focus to the worship and sermon at Second Baptist Church. Several times during various parts of the service, whomever was leading would praise God for being sovereign over illness, or greater than diabetes/cancer, or mightier than any physical trials. People at Second Baptist actively asked God to take away physical ailments, and truly believed He would. They trusted Him with big jobs, bigger than at my normal church. This week, the church is beginning a 40 day fast, and during the fast, the pastor encouraged everyone to pray for “sun-stopping” requests. He tied the fast back to Joshua asking the Lord to stop the sun, and said that we should ask for the impossible as well. It helped me to realize that the Lord wants to come through for us, if we would just have faith to ask and not be afraid of His answer not matching our own.