Church Name: Second Baptist Church of Wheaton
Church Address: 1520 Avery Ave. Wheaton. IL 60187
Date Attended: February 9th, 2014
Church Category: Different ethnic or racial demographic
Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar or different from your regular context?
My roommate, Lisa, and I attended Second Baptist together. It was radically different from the services that I am used to at Church of the Resurrection. Lisa and I arrived late while a pastor was praying for quite awhile. We were some of the only white people at the church. The vast majority of the congregation, and all of the pastors and ushers were black. An usher in a formal outfit let us go in after the prayer as they were beginning worship. Worship was let by the Voices of SB, a group of about six or seven people. Worship was long with high-energy gospel songs being the main focus. The pastor both sang and preached as well as talked to the congregation about giving an absent member some special help that he would talk about with those interested after the service. Many of the people of the church seemed to be quite involved and to know the other people there quite well. The church was quite different from Church of the Res, where the service is liturgical and the congregants are primarily white. Pretty much everything that happened was different, especially the spirit of the people and the focus of the sermon. I came out of it saying that it was one of the most vibrant church experiences I'd ever had.
What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
One thing that was incredibly appealing to me was the way the Second Baptist recognized guests. There was a time set aside in the service to acknowledge guests. The congregation was sitting, and the pastor asked if all guests would please stand. There were a few of us, maybe six. They asked each of us to say our names and why we had come to Second Baptist that day. Then, after we were welcomed and introduced ourselves, there was a long time of fellowship and greeting (like 15 minutes long) during which the pastor urged the normal congregants to greet guests especially. I felt like I was at the end of a wedding receiving line or something. Everyone wanted to shake mine and Lisa'a hands or give us a hug and welcome us to Second Baptist. We met probably half the church. Somebody came over and gave us each a little gift bag with things like a pen, tissues, information cards, and a pack of Smarties inside. I've never seen a church give such intentional care to guests.
I also found the music to be very appealing. It was fun and easy to follow and I was truly able to worship God through it. It especially filled my spirit to look around the room at people singing with all they had. Lots of jumping and dancing and repetition of lines of the songs.
I also loved that we all read the passage of scripture for the day (about ten verses from Joshua) aloud together as a body. There wasn't a single reader. That really hit my heart in a fantastic way.
What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
While I loved the worship, I think it did get to be somewhat disorienting for me, especially toward the end. The worship was long and I think I got kind of tired after a while. It got harder for me to stay engaged. But watching the other people still lifted me up. It was okay to not be fully engaged because I was encouraged by the worship of the other people. Some people in the congregation were getting quite emotional. I am certainly not used to this type of response in myself, so it was a little jarring to see uninhibited weeping and shouting. Something that was fairly wonderful and charming though, was this one woman at the church. She was dressed in a full nurse's outfit, and it was her ministry to the church to walk around during the service to talk to people and hand our tissues when they got upset. She was quiet as she walked, just looking out for the people around her. Still, when the worship got very impassioned, I felt a little bit uncomfortable and unable to engage. At one point, at the end of the pastor's sermon, he kept preaching, but he became very passionate and the organ was playing under his talking. It was almost like he was rapping or saying his words in rhythm, and the people were responding very vocally. I couldn't quite understand what he was saying, nor did I feel moved to respond, so I chose to just take in the moment and see what would happen. It is amazing how the Holy Spirit can move people within culture. I was noticing how the way that my life and response to the holy spirit has been conditioned to be something quite different from the people there, and both are valid.
What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?
One theme that kept popping up was overcoming barriers, walls, or adversary. I hate to generalize or assume anything about people, but I do think that many of the congregants of the church do not have quite as much money as the typical congregant at Church of the Res, and its seemed apparent to me that many of the people's lives at this church were full of hardship and work. The people of the church were truly trusting Jesus to take their problems into his hands. There was one song, I'm forgetting the exact words, but the refrain was something like "Jesus will fix it up" or "Jesus will make it okay". Something like that. I saw a true need and dependence on God, and also true thankfulness, repeated often. In almost every prayer that was said, the person praying would thank God for waking up in the morning, clothes to wear, food to eat, cars, kids, everything, and the congregation would respond emphatically. The sermon was about Joshua at Jerhico, and Pastor Kevin, pre-rapping, stressed 6:2. "See, I have given Jehrico into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor." God had ALREADY given Jehrico to Joshua, but he still had to follow God's instructions and suffer hardship before he could see it fall. Pastor Kevin repeated over and over,t hat the victory was already ours, but to claim it would not be easy. We have seen that it would not be easy. It was said over and over that hardship comes with the territory, and these people had plenty of hardship. Every time the pastor would mention hardship, there would be a great personal response from the congregation. But the battle had already been won. It just needed to be worked into completion through faithfulness. Because I was in that room with those people, the message hit my heart in a way that it might not have otherwise. These are not the things that are stressed in a typical service at Church of the Res.
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