Mary Karg - Church Visit #3

Church visited: Lawndale Community Church

Church address: Lawndale, Chicago

Date visited: 4/6/14

Category: Different racial/ethnic demographic

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

Lawndale Community Church is actually located in a similar location demographically to my home church, which is also located in a low-income neighborhood of Chicago. However, the makeup of the actual church body is very different. Whereas at Beloved, most members are Asian or White undergrad or graduate students or young professionals from high socioeconomic backgrounds, the majority of members at Lawndale are Black community members from all different age groups, most of whom appear to be of a significantly low socioeconomic status. The laid-back atmosphere was the same, and the fact that there was no church building but rather everyone met in an unconventional-looking building. I felt at home there, but at the same time I was one of the only white people at the church (besides the other Wheaton students present.) 

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

I told my fiance when we walked out of the service that I had never felt so comfortable during my first visit to any church than I had at Lawndale. I can’t even adequately describe what it is - a genuine, laid-back yet caring attitude towards visitors - which permeated my (brief) interactions with greeters and members. I really liked how visitors weren’t a huge focus of the members of the church, and yet I felt welcomed all the same. I also liked how there were many different age groups represented at Lawndale. When the children were asked to go to their program, it looked like a mass exodus. There were so many kids! But at the same time, there were many older members as well. I felt this created a nice balance of perspectives. 

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

It was hard for me to relate to many of the struggles experienced by the members of Lawndale, because I grew up and currently live in a very different socioeconomic and racial context. The Sunday service that I went to was one where members were invited up to one of two microphones to share a prayer request or praise with the church. Emily Kertzman, a former Wheaton student, explained to us that this was a once-a-month tradition. When I heard some of the prayer requests that people had, I was in awe. You would never hear someone be so candid in a church in the suburbs! Everything from drug-addicted children to praise for being able to be a good father and role model was brought to the mic. I was disoriented in the sense that I could not relate, but I was fascinated by how God provided and showed up in contexts that were so different from my own. 

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 heard an emphasis on suffering loud and clear during the service. Granted, the sermon was focused on suffering in some capacity, because it was centered around Jesus on the cross and feeling forsaken by God. However, what was new to me was how many of the members of the church, who the pastor often called out by name, were experiencing trials of a greater magnitude than I normally heard in prayer requests at my own church. Loss of family members, car accidents, drugs, illness, addiction, and wayward children were all mentioned. Like I said above, I was struck by how different parts of God’s love and character were displayed through his care for his people in such a different setting from my own. There is intense suffering in this world, but as the pastor said, once we get to heaven we will be so full of joy that we will forget the suffering experienced here on earth, and it won’t even be worth mentioning. 

Manny Baker - Church Visit #3

Church Visited: 

Church Address: Iowa City, IA

Date Visited: 

Category: Greater than 10 miles from Wheaton, lower socio-economic status

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

Wow. This church was so interesting. It was so different from any church I had ever been to. It was a predominately poor black congregation. The pastor was a woman (this first church with a woman pastor I'd ever attended). She also sang lead in the very small choir and was very exclamatory in everything she said. The service was very, very long. I am sure we were in the church for at least three hours. The music took about an hour on its own. I have been to black churches. I went to one in high school. This was a totally different experience. The music was a quintet of voices, a guitar, and drums. The songs were really just a line or two reiterated many times. Attending this church was so enlightening.

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

I loved the fact that everyone in the room was okay with staying as long as it took for them to worship. Nothing was scheduled. Had people not had prior engagements with family or friends, I am sure they would have gone on all day long. I really appreciated the genuine, heartfelt emotion that the people expressed. 

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

I found that the intensity of the congregation's emotions toward us visitors very disorienting. I am used to being able to slip out if necessary or observe quietly. This did not happen. The congregation were very happy to see new people, especially black people (sort of). Maybe minorities is a better words. As a much more privileged Black-Filipina, it was disorienting to be around black people who had so much less than me. The people I came with felt the same. It was very challenging to get through the entire service without feeling slightly uncomfortable and emotional.

4. 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 do not know if this was particularly illuminating for me because I had heard this message many times before. God will fix your problems immediately if you pray for it and continue to worship him. This congregation was made up of people who were going through rough times. This is a very common message for churches such as this one. However, it did make me think more about those who have less than me and how that affects their relationship with God. 

Lea Gibson - Church visit #3

Church name: Nueva Esperanza
Church address: 1825 College Avenue Wheaton, IL
Date attended: April 6
Church category: Different racial/ethnic demographic

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context? The first thing I noticed about the service was actually before the service started. The service is scheduled to start at 11:15, but when I arrived at 11:20, people were still hanging out and talking with each other in the lobby outside of the sanctuary. Since I have attended numerous Hispanic churches before and am fairly familiar with the culture, I was not surprised by this, but it is different than my church back home which always starts on time. The next big difference was that the whole service was in Spanish. The service started with several worship songs led by a large worship team consisting of 3 or four singers, two guitar players, a keyboard player, and a drum player, which is a much larger team  than I am used to. After worship, a scripture reading and an opening prayer, we had communion. This was very different for me as every church service I've gone to has served communion at the end, after the sermon. Otherwise, the service was very similar in that it opened with worship, had scripture reading and prayer followed by a sermon.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service? 
Although this isn't directly about the service, the thing I found most appealing was the warmth and the hospitality of the people. As I walked in, everyone greeted me and gave me a hug. The Hispanic culture is one of hospitality, and I love that they transfer that to church. Whenever I have attended Nueva Esperanza, I have felt extremely welcomed and at home. I also love the energy of the service. During worship, people are clapping and moving around, something that never happens at my Christian Reformed church back home. During the sermon, people will say "amen" or other vocalizations to show support for what the pastor said. When he says something they strongly agree with, they'll clap and cheer. Though it took me awhile to get used to this, and still don't feel comfortable doing it myself, I've grown to appreciate it.

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service? 
The most obvious challenge is that the whole service was in Spanish. As a an education major with a Spanish concentration I was able to understand most of what was said, but it was very mentally exhausting and a little disorienting to keep up with what was happening. The pastor speak very fast and animatedly, which made him difficult to understand. Even when I did understand what he was saying, he would say it so fast I had a hard time processing what he said. It was also difficult as the service was over two hours long, and the sermon over an hour long. It's difficult for me to pay close attention that long in English, and even harder in Spanish, so I missed a lot of the end of his sermon. I grew up in a church where the service was always just over an hour and the sermons were never longer than 30 minutes, so it was stretch for me to be in a service and sermon as long as they were.

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?
As I mentioned before, two of the aspects I appreciated the most about Nueva Esperanza were the hospitality and the energy. I feel like often times churches with majority white members can lose the sense of hospitality and forget how important it is to make others feel welcomed. One of my biggest frustrations while church hopping my freshmen year is that no one made an effort to welcome me or even notice that I was a visitor. Right away from when you walk in the door, the members Nueva Esperanza makes you feel welcome and at home. Even though I was one of the only white people at the service, I felt at home. I also believe that Nueva Esperanza had passion and energy for God and worshipping him that my home church does not. It can be easy for church to become monotonous or routine when you attend every week for your entire life, but the members of Nueva Esperanza didn't seem to lose the excitement of the gospel.

Jack Lyons - Church Visit #3

Church name: Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church

Church address: 4543 S. Princeton Ave. Chicago, IL 60609

Date attended: March 30th, 2014

Church Category: different racial demographic

Describe.

The worship service was a lot of music and singing. There's really not a whole lot more to say about it. We started off singing, there was a moment where they had a group of people come out and do a dance to a pre-recorded song, which was nice. Then we sang more. Eventually the preacher got up and delivered a message. He was great. The friend I was with told me that he is a Grammy winner and a Moody grad (which is an alarming combination) and it made for a wonderful message, infused with sound scriptural doctrine with everyday applications, singing, and my favorite, pop culture references. As different as it was from my home church, Pastor Charles Jenkins actually reminded me in some way of the pastor of my church back home. Obviously a big difference was that I was the only white person at Fellowship that I could see, and it was significantly bigger than my home church, and in an urban setting. 

Most appealing.

The most appealing part of the service was definitely Pastor Charles Jenkins. He has a remarkable gift of being able to speak in a way that reaches many different types of people--old, young, black, white, rich, poor. If this church wasn't as far away as it is, I would go there on a regular basis just to hear him. He had so much energy and was visibly passionate about the message he was giving. What I appreciated was that it wasn't dumbed down. He didn't avoid getting deep and talking about serious theological things, but he did avoid all of the superfluous language that is so often used to make the speaker seemed more enlightened or the subject material more important. He was able to use the valuable things he had learned from Moody and I'm assuming seminary and communicate them in a safe way. He really connected with me and I think with many of the people there. Also helps that he had an amazing singing voice that we occasionally got to hear.

Most challenging.

The most challenging part of the service was the amount of body movement that was present in the congregation. It's not that I was uncomfortable that they were doing it but rather I was uncomfortable because I felt that since everyone else was worshiping with their entire body that I was supposed to too. I am not used to this kind of thing so again, it wasn't that I was for some reason opposed to it, I just don't normally do it and therefore feel pretty awkward when I try to. I think this is something that I could probably use a little more of in my life--using my body in worship other than just my voice. I think this goes beyond just raising a hand or clapping, because those kind of things annoy me a lot but nothing about the way the people at this church were worshiping was annoying to me.

Illuminated.

I think what was illuminated here for me was the freedom we have in Christ. There is such a variety of expression in terms of how we chose to worship God. The people at Fellowship were really into dancing and singing and shouting and clapping. The people at St. John's are really into liturgy. I think both are fine and both are necessary. It's amazing to me that we are all praising the same God in such vastly different ways, and he loves it no matter what. And I also don't think that we have to chose one of these styles of worship and stick to it forever. Yes obviously you eventually have to chose a church community to be apart of and contribute to, but it seems pretty important to me to occasionally get out of your bubble and remember all the diversity and freedom of the body of Christ.

Jessica Duttweiler - Church Visit # 3

Jessica Duttweiler - Church Visit #3

Jessica Duttweiler - Church Visit #3

Love Community Church

130 Shawnee Dr,
Carol Stream, IL 60188

Lower Socioeconomic Demographic

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

The most significant difference between my usual context and Love Community Church was the location and size of the church. The church was actually located next to a recording studio in a very small room about the size of our Christian Thought classroom. There were also not a lot of people there as this is a fairly new church start up and they are struggling to get regular attendance from people outside of the family that started the church. They didn't have a lot of technology present besides microphones and amps for the worship band they had chairs set up instead of typical church pews. It was also predominantly African-American as the family that started it is an African-American family and most of their friends that attend the church are as well. The church service was also in the evening on Sunday instead of Sunday morning, which was actually very nice as it allowed me to sleep in on Sunday morning. :)

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

The most appealing thing about the worship service was the way that visitors were treated. As soon as I walked in the door I was greeted, hugged, and pummeled by question after question about who I was, where I was from, why I was visiting, etc. It was a little overwhelming at first but once I got used to it I truly enjoyed the love and care that I was receiving. I also loved the worship that took place. It was so genuine and beautiful that even though I didn't know most of the songs, I was able to really worship and bask in God's glory and wonder. The band and the singers were also very talented so that helped me to enjoy the worship much more. Another thing I enjoyed was the family's belief and trust in God that their church will grow. They don't seem to be worried about the low finances of the church or the low attendance; they have full faith that God will provide for them and keep the church going for as long as he needs them to run it.

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

The most disorienting thing about the service was the lack of structure. When I attended St. Michael Catholic Church there was a little too much structure, in this church there wasn't enough. There was an evident lack of organization and there was no respect for time at all. Although I understand why it was this way, it was a little challenging for me to stay focused and keep up since I wasn't even sure if the Pastor knew what was going on all the time. The preaching was very powerful but sometimes the Pastor would go on these long tangents that had nothing to do with the topic of his sermon based on the emotion of the congregation, and then when he would try to transition back to his notes it was very disjointed. Everything he said was great, it was just extremely disorganized and hard to follow at times.

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 aspects of theology that were greatly illuminated for me at this church were encompassed in the title of the church: love and community. Even though this church is extremely small, you can feel the love that is shared between all of the members, as well as the love that is shared with all visitors and guests to the church. It is evident that they strive to create a true community within the church, where people can come and feel supported by a loving and honest church family. This was extremely refreshing to see since the modern day church seems to be splitting and fighting more and more instead of growing closer together and being there for each other. Overall, even though it is clear that this church struggles financially, they have no shortage of hugs and love for those that attend their services, whether they are regular members or one-timers.

James Tarka - Church Visit #3

Church name: Church of the Resurrection

Church address: 935 W. Union Ave. Wheaton, IL 60187

Date attended: 4/6/2014

Church category: Significantly more liturgical

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

As with almost every type of church that I have visited, the worship service began with a session of worship songs. There was a choir, several lead vocals, and guitars that played in a music style that characterizes most of what I have experienced in white, suburban churches. Contrary to what I have become accustomed to, the sermon occurred near the beginning of the service as opposed to near its conclusion. The sermon focused much more on theological insight than personal application, contrasting my previous two church visits. Near the sermon, there was a specific time for personal confession, which is absent in my own church context. The time of communion extended nearly twenty minutes and included time for personal reflection or prayer with church elders if desired. The church membership did not appear particularly diverse, and for the most part I felt that I was worshipping among racial and socioeconomic peers.
 

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

Communion at this church is completely different from any experience that I have had at other churches. Here, the community aspect of communion is truly emphasized. Throughout this time, I witnessed numerous conversations between church members and elders as they prayed and sometimes cried over each other. In my own church, I feel that communion can often just be reduced to something that we are supposed to do in order to fit into communion with somebody other. While communion with fellow believers is important, it is perhaps equally important to recall the social context of the first breaking of bread and remember the significance of discussions that can be had at this time. I love the intentionality of communion at this church and think it presents a fine example for what one aspect of Christian community ought to look like.

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

If you were to happen to miss a week of worship at this church, you could have a friend mail you the bulletin. You would then have maybe all but ten of the words that were said throughout the service. Coming from a very non-liturgical background, I can understand the cynical view that a liturgical church service can look more like a scripted play with actors than a legitimate form of glorifying God. I don’t want to suggest that this is actually my view of liturgical practices, and I recognize that there are probably significant benefits to using them. Personally, however, it just seemed that I was proclaiming the sentiments of someone else, if even I agreed with the basic ideas or purposes behind each section of the wording. I hope that my future encounters with those more familiar with liturgical practices can gracefully explain to me what they find personally (or perhaps corporately) appealing about liturgical approaches to glorifying God.

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 liturgical aspects of the service and the manner in which communion was taken (see above) really emphasized the communal aspects of Scripture in a way that I wish my own church context would adopt (although I haven’t decided on the liturgical aspect yet). Although life with other Christians can sometimes be more difficult than life with non-Christians, a hermeneutic that reads the Bible in absence of community is impossible to locate. This church showed me that there is a difference between breaking bread at the same time and breaking bread together, praying genuinely with and over each other. There was a definite sense in which no one was left out. Yet at the same time, there was also a place for personal reflection and repentance in the context of that community. It is amazing to see how God has worked in allowing his creation to work together in glorifying Him.