Robby Sawyer - Church Visit #3

New Life Bilingual Church

468 Ann St., West Chicago, IL 60185

March 30, 2014

Lower Socioeconomic Demographic (~10 miles)

Non-Denominational Bilingual (Spanish and English) Speaking Service

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

            As a Mennonite, I have grown up in small congregations. However, this congregation was significantly smaller and more intimate than anything I have been to yet. It was legitimately a missionary family who started the church and ran every aspect of the church themselves. The son, Dan, was the pastor. His wife was the translator. Dan’s parents were the musicians, and his young children were the media technicians. The rest of the congregation was predominantly lower income Spanish speaking families and friends living in the community surrounding the church. The service was in the basement of an old recreation center and was very tightly packed. They did not have a lot of funding so as a result they were not able to print bulletins for the service. What was more bizarre was they had a “breakfast room” where Pastor Dan bought second hand jungle gym inflatable’s from craigslist in the shapes of waffles, eggs, bacon, and sausage links for the children to play on. It was beyond weird, but strangely unique and special to all who were members. This church provided a very different experience than my normal church going ventures.

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

            I loved that the service was both in English and in Spanish. This made the service very long due to each phrase having to be repeated in Spanish or English. It was intriguing to have fundamental truths of Christianity communicated, simply, for the purposes of linguistic understanding. However, to me, the sermon had a similar effect to the times in my life when I used Ignatius of Loyola’s Lectio Divina for devotions. I was able to significantly slow down and corporately participate and meditate on the words communicated. Another thing that caught my attention was the fact that the grandparents who could only speak Spanish could worship together with their grandchildren who wanted to speak English. It was incredibly endearing to see that this church was trying to deconstruct the language barrier so that all could realize the common denominator of Christ in each other.

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

            I have to admit, the fact that I am a fast moving person makes me less patient with slow moving things like this sermon. Like most Wheaton students, I like to be challenged and continue progressing forward. However, being in this lower socioeconomic setting has humbled me greatly. The fact that they can find great pleasure and joy in the most simple and seemingly insignificant things was truly inspiring and something I can learn from. That being said, it was very challenging to stay patient throughout the service and remain attentive to the Spanish being spoken. Secondly, the intimacy of the church really caught me off guard. Once we arrived, everyone came to us with greetings ensure that we felt welcome. Even those who did not know much English desired to meet me and speak whatever English they knew to me just to establish a connection. I felt so welcome and very humbled to be in their presence. This visit will be one I remember for a long time as something I can learn from. It was a blessing.

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 briefly stated earlier, the simplicity of the message given was different than I have ever witnessed before. It was not complex and theologically challenging, but rather plain and straightforward. It simply communicated how special children are to God and how we are to treat our children with love and compassion. I wonder what going there for years would be like because it would be interesting to see the ways in which the congregation is being theologically challenged. However, the pure message given in Matthew 18 was straight from the Bible and was not interpreted further. This illuminated the beauty to be found in taking the verses at face value. Being present at the service also illuminated the truth of how Christ can operate across language, economic, and cultural barriers. Even though I was not able to relate culturally, or economically, I found it amazing how we could simply rejoice in the fact that we were all together worshiping God.