Jeanne Niu - Church Visit #1

Church name: Wheaton Bible Spanish Service
Church address: 27W500 North Avenue, West Chicago, Illinois 60185
Date attended: February 16, 2014
Church category: Different ethnic or racial demographic

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

I attended the Wheaton Bible Spanish Speaking service this past Sunday. This is an entire worship service in Spanish, with mostly Hispanic members attending. At Wheaton I regularly attend Blanchard Alliance Church, a multi-ethnic congregation with services in English. I noticed that the Spanish speaking service was similar to my regular church experience in its style of the service. There was contemporary worship music with a contemporary style worship band on stage, Scripture reading as a congregation, a sermon, and children who worshiped with the congregation for the beginning and then attended a separate Sunday school class. It was different from my regular church service in that most attendees were of the same ethnic background. Even in my multi-ethnic church, I haven’t seen many Hispanic attendees, so going to a fully Spanish speaking service was a great opportunity for me to see the way Hispanics worship.

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

One thing I found most interesting about the worship service was that at the end of the sermon, the worship band came out and (from what I could figure out just by observing) the pastor called people up to the front for confession and prayer while the band played music in the background. I was surprised to find this happening, as I haven’t seen it happen in a long time. It hit me there that non-American culture churches generally have very emotional services. I’ve seen this happen in the context of Asian-American worship services as well. Non-American culture services tend to relate each service back to extended prayer and confession of sins and asking for renewal while the keyboard plays melodies for a long time. I noticed that American-culture services may touch on this every once in a while, whereas other ethnic culture churches emphasize this almost weekly. The Spanish speaking service was emotional in that people were going up to kneel and pray as a whole congregation. This is very different from American-culture services, where people are usually invited to come up after the service individually if they have prayer requests, and one person will pray for them. I thought it was really interesting that this service emphasized communal confessions and prayer. 

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

Even though the style of the service felt very similar to mine and generally comfortable for me, it was difficult because I hardly know any Spanish. Even singing familiar worship songs in Spanish was difficult because I kept having to remind myself of the English words to the song so I actually knew what I was singing. Two of my friends were able to translate things here and there for me, which helped. I also thought that as a non-Hispanic, it might be hard to attend a Spanish speaking service regularly because I felt like I couldn’t relate to their struggles or lives as well as they could to each other, as most of them were of one ethnicity. I think it would be difficult to engage in that community as a member of a different ethnicity.

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 was singing worship songs with the rest of the congregation, I found that singing in a different language, although difficult, was a wonderful opportunity to experience the gospel in a new way. The service really allowed me to remember that Christ’s kingdom spans many different generations, cultures, and nations. It reminded me that His kingdom is for all people, even though we tend to forget this and think that His whole kingdom looks similar to our own Christian community. It was good for me to step outside of my normal church experience because I gained a picture of the vastness of Christ’s kingdom. Participating in singing in a different language really helped me to understand this. As I sang words in Spanish, I thought about the many other people across this country or world who meet together to sing in Spanish, and was reminded of all the people the Lord has created and sought after.