Christine Chen - Church visit #3

Church name: First Hmong Alliance Church

Church address: 361 Marion Ave. Aurora, IL 60505

Date attended: April 6^th, 2014

Church category: lower socioeconomic status/different ethnic demographic

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

Even though this church is officially affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, the building of the church itself appears as though it used to belong to an Episcopal church due to its traditional style of architecture. Before the service began, there was an organ playing hymns. The beginning of the service was marked by church announcements (most of which was spoken in Hmong) instead of beginning with singing like in my regular context. The worship music is contemporary Christian, not unlike my own church, and included two songs in English and two songs in Hmong (I managed to pick out “Jesus” and “Hallelujah” from the Hmong lyrics). The children of the church then presented a brief song sung in English. There was a brief time of collecting offerings, and then the sermon began. The sermon was spoken in a mixture of Hmong and English, something I was definitely not used to. The topic of the sermon was on Jesus’ role as the cornerstone of the church and in our personal lives, and the speaker emphasized the fact that as a cornerstone, Jesus causes those who do not believe to stumble. The entire service was over as soon as the sermon ended. There was no closing songs, prayers, or benedictions like my home church. There was also no time of greeting in the middle of the service.

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

The church itself is interesting because it is composed of (what I assume to be) mostly ethnic Hmong people, but the church is located in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood just off of downtown Aurora. Even though the majority of the congregation seems to be bilingual, they sing louder when singing in Hmong than singing in English, which tells that that they are still very rooted in their Hmong identity and culture. The congregation is also extremely friendly; many of them came up and introduced themselves prior to the service. Overall, this church is not too different from the typical evangelical church despite its ethnic makeup. They are just as passionate about worshiping, Scripture reading, and discipleship as any other evangelical congregation.

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

This is by far the most disorienting church visit I’ve ever had aside from my first ever church visit shortly after coming to America, mostly due to language issues. I couldn’t tell when to pray unless my Hmong friend tells me or when the prayer ended until I hear “amen.” There was also a visible lack of structure and orderliness in the service, which made it difficult to predict what’s going to happen next. This problem is further complicated by the fact that there is no printed church program being handed out, unlike all the churches I have visited. There were no translation services available for non-Hmong speakers, with only my Hmong friend occasionally whispers a brief translation of the sermon. Although the speaker (not sure if he is the senior pastor) spoke in both Hmong and English, his transitions between the two languages are very fluid, so I didn’t realize he had switched languages until after he speaks a whole sentence. Even when he spoke in English, I don’t know if he is just repeating the same thing he said in Hmong or is the translation different, so I could potentially be missing out on half of the sermon. It was difficult not to completely tune out unless I focus on listening to the sermon very, very intently. In addition, the church also has no website, making it more difficult to find information on the church.

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

This experience made me realize how much I had taken for granted the ability to understand the language of the worship service. Even though I share the same Asian features as the congregation, my Chinese background is significantly different from that of the Hmong’s. I’m finally able to get a glimpse of what it must have felt like be a non-Chinese visitor to my Chinese church (although I no longer go to a Chinese church). Even though I don’t speak Hmong, I was deeply appreciative of how they can worship in their own language. For the first time in a long time, I had to pray to ask God to grant me understanding of the sermon, not just to understand the words in a language I know, but to know and grasp the meaning behind what is being preached. I was reminded of the Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down and, at least temporarily, reversed the effects of the Tower of Babel. I also realized the importance of the Revelations passage where people of every nation and tribe came together to praise God. Language, culture, and socioeconomic status are such big stumbling blocks to church unity, but God’s promise of the remove of those barriers give me hope and encouragement.