Mark Hansford - Church Visit #3

Church name: Church of the Beloved

Church address: 1443 W Roosevelt Rd Chicago, IL 60607

Date attended: 02.08.14

Church category: Evangelical Non-denominational 

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

Church of the Beloved, or as my friend group sometimes refers to it, David Choi's church, is a multi-ethnic inner-city church. It is located in downtown Chicago and shares a building with two other churches. The building is not originally a church, but Church of the Beloved is making use of what God has blessed them with. It was a very emotional service that consisted of worship (with a band), David Choi preaching, and fellowship afterwards. So in a basic sense, it is not too different from the Episcopalian church I attend in Glen Ellyn suburbia, but really the two church services are hardly even comparable. I have never been to a church that so fully ministers to all the nations and seeks to unite everyone in brotherhood. Church of the Beloved focuses on sharing the gospel with everyone within their community and building up disciples within their church. They are a light to their neighborhood and it is evident how much they care and love for those around them.

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

The most appealing part of the service for me was David Choi's energy. He knows that God has called him to this church and to this mission and he is passionately following God's calling on his life. A significant portion of the sermon (and I imagine most sermons) was spent on preaching the gospel and the power of the gospel. David Choi is taking the gospel into the depths of the city, to one of the places where the gospel is needed most and preaching it with authority. The power of the gospel and the Holy Spirit is creating disciples and sending those disciples out into the surrounding neighborhood and the rest of the city to care for it and love it and in a way that I have never seen done before with such love and intensity that feels refreshingly Christian. 

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

Despite everything great I have to say about this church, I was really hurt during the service/afterwards. I was even considering returning to Church of the Beloved and making it my home church, but I do not think I will be returning. Once during the service and once after the service, I heard whispered from somewhere behind me two different groups of wheaton students saying the same thing, "The reason I came here was to get away from other Wheaton students. I hate how more of us our coming now. I wish they weren't here". That really hurt. The word felt physically abrasive and seemed so contrarian to every other part of the church's message and their commitment to their community. It has been half a semester now and I still have not fully worked through it. It has definitely made me more conscious of visitors to my own church and I pray for David Choi's church that a spirit of elitism and resentment will not take root there.

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 Church of the Beloved knows exactly who their neighbor is and exactly who they are called to minister to. I know that I have already stated it, but the work that they are doing in their community and their city is inspiring to me and life changing to those whom they minister to. We have all heard the sermons (of which there are many) on the good Samaritan, but I have never seen the story more lived out and practiced than at Church of the Beloved.  I do not think it is going to happen now, but post Wheaton, I would love to get really involved in a church community like that and spend the majority of my non work time engaged in that community. I think Church of the Beloved is more church community than it is church. Maybe that is not a distinction I should make or even a Biblical distinction, but given my experiences, a very real distinction across America today.