Julia Wittrock - Church Visit #3

Julia Wittrock - Church Visit #3

Church name: The Grace and Peace Community

Church address: 2100 N. Kildare Ave, Chicago, IL 60639

Date attended: 3/30/2014

Church category: Socioeconomic difference

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

This service was in the basement of a church-looking building in a residential neighborhood and was attended by multiple different races of people.  The service began with a reading from Matthew 25 about how God provides for the needs of the birds of the air and will provide for us as well.   I thought this was really important given the poorer demographic of the people, but it is also something that I also need to remember even though I am in a somewhat different socioeconomic class. The reader then encouraged us to take time to say out loud the things for which we were thankful to God.   Speaking out loud at the same time is something I am not used to doing in church.  We then sang three worship songs and heard a message about discipleship from the youth pastor.  Then the main pastor made announcements, collected the offering, and dismissed us.  People stayed around to talk with one another.

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

At the end of the service, the pastor made announcements about what was going on in the church.  One thing she highlighted was a march that was happening to protest the current prison system and the inequalities about what races are imprisoned at the highest rates.  Prison reform, particularly prisoner rehabilitation reform, is something I feel very strongly about and would like to see happen.  The pastor went through an infographic of statistics explaining the disparity between races being imprisoned.  Then she said something that really stuck with me: “If we don’t do anything about to change this system, we are telling our children that this is okay.  We are telling them that this is how it should be. That clearly because of their race they are more likely to commit crimes or be violent.  If we don’t do something to change this system, we admit that we believe this is how it naturally should be.”  This was really good for me to hear because I strongly believe that no one because of the color of their skin is more likely to commit a crime – it all has to do with the structures that have been built up around them.  I was thankful to be at a church that pointed out issues like these as issues with which Christians should be concerned.

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

I have been thinking a lot recently about the appropriate length for a worship service.  This service wasn’t incredibly long – it lasted for about an hour and 40 minutes – but it was still longer than church services I am used to.  How long is the appropriate amount of time for a church service?  To some extent, it seems like there is always more you could learn, more worship songs to sing, and more people to meet and interact with.  How do you know when to stop?  I guess one thing that could be beneficial to think about is that we don’t just worship on Sunday mornings – our whole lives should be worship.  Yet, it is necessary to intentionally set aside time to worship.  Just how much?

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 saw people who were more likely to thank God for who He is and not necessarily what He does.  I first realized this through the worship music.  The first two songs that were played were simple songs with gospel-like lyrics.  They focused on God as the Almighty, the Savior, who is good, holy, etc.  I was not familiar with these songs.  Then, the worship leader said that he was going to play a song that may be new to most people.  It was a song that I actually knew very well.  The chorus reads, “Spirit of the living God, come fall afresh on me, come wake me from my sleep.  Blow through the caverns of my soul pour in me to overflow.”  I came to realize that the difference between the old songs this church was used to and the new songs I know is the focus:  the old songs focus on who God is; the new songs focus on how God interacts with me.  I think contemporary evangelicals are too enthralled by this personal interaction that we forget to thank God simply for who He is and not just for what he does for us.