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.