Lea Gibson - Church Visit #2

Church: Our Lady of Sorrows, Lakota New Hope Ministries
Date attended: 3/9/14
Church category: Socioeconomic difference, at least 10 miles away from Wheaton

A little bit of background on my experience: I had the unique experience of spending my spring break on an Indian reservation, visiting my brother who is teaching high school math on the reservation through Teach For America. We went to two different churches Sunday morning: the local Catholic church, and then the Nazarene church. Whenever the regular pastor is gone from the Nazarene church, my brother fills in, which he did the Sunday I was there.
My brother lives in Kyle, SD, a small town of 900 on the Pine Ridge reservation, home of the Lakota tribe, and not too far from Wheaton's station in the Black Hills. This reservation has one of the lowest incomes per capita in the country.

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar or different from your regular context? 
The biggest difference for me was the size of the congregation. At the Catholic church, there were probably about 30 people at the service, while I'm more used to congregations closer to 100. The building was also much smaller than I've ever attended church in. The ethnic make up of the congregation was about half white, half native american. I had never attended a Catholic church before, so I didn't quite know what to expect, but it felt much more like an extremely liturgical Protestant service rather than a Catholic service. It felt similar to Church of the Resurrection, which I attended for my first church visit, but slightly less structured. This was probably due to the small congregation and the laid back nature of the Lakota culture. Yet, it was still much more structured than what I am used to.
At the Nazarene church, there only 5 people attended, including my brother who led and preached. This was very different than I was used to. This service, due to the small congregation, was very laid back. The sermon became more of question and answer session between my brother and one of the members who is a relatively new Christian. Otherwise, though the service was laid back, it felt pretty similar to services I have attended before. It consisted of scripture reading, worship, a sermon, and closed with more songs.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service? 
This Sunday was the first Sunday of Lent, so both churches talked about Lent in their services. The Catholic church naturally focused on it more than the Nazarene church, and it was interesting to hear the priest talk about the purpose of Lent. All the readings, including the scripture came from a book which had specific prayers and readings for the church calendar. I found this interesting, and kind of liked the idea of that structure and consistency.

What did you find the most disorienting or challenging about the service?
At the Catholic service, I was very thrown off by the amount of liturgy and the use of crossing. They read from a liturgy book, which I didn't realize at first, so I was very confused about where they were reading from. Similar to when I attended Church of the Resurrection, people would cross themselves at certain times throughout the service, and I was never sure of when they were going to.
At the Nazarene service, the small size of the congregation was very uncomfortable for me. I think that if I was more used it, I could enjoy the smaller congregation, but it was very disorienting for me. The laid back environment also was disorienting to me as I like more structure and consistency.

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 small size of both congregations, but especially at the Nazarene church, reminded me of the passage in Matthew where Jesus says "Where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them". If I were a pastor, I think the small size of a church would discourage me. But it is so true that a church of 5 is still a church and should still meet together. Matthew 6 also came to mind as I attended these churches. The people in these churches evidently completely rely on God for their sustenance and don't worry about trivial things.