Church name: Church of the Beloved
Church address: 1443 W Roosevelt Road, Chicago, IL 60607
Date attended: January 15, 2014
Church Category: different ethnicity
Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?
The service at Beloved was not hugely different from my regular worship service at Onnuri Church. It meets in a building shared by other churches and has a small space to work with, like my church. The worship used similar types of songs but had a full band as opposed to my church, at which the worship team is comprised of one guy with his guitar. This church took a collection, which my church does not. (There is a place to give in the back of the room but it is not mentioned as part of the service, probably because everyone in the English service is in college or high school or middle school and do not have money.) The message was a lot longer than I am used to because my pastor usually only preaches for fifteen or twenty minutes. Pastor Dave preached for closer to an hour. Similar to my church, worshippers fellowship before the service starts and again afterwards. Because it was the second anniversary of the church, there was a lot of food and a big cake after the service.
The service at Beloved was not hugely different from my regular worship service at Onnuri Church. It meets in a building shared by other churches and has a small space to work with, like my church. The worship used similar types of songs but had a full band as opposed to my church, at which the worship team is comprised of one guy with his guitar. This church took a collection, which my church does not. (There is a place to give in the back of the room but it is not mentioned as part of the service, probably because everyone in the English service is in college or high school or middle school and do not have money.) The message was a lot longer than I am used to because my pastor usually only preaches for fifteen or twenty minutes. Pastor Dave preached for closer to an hour. Similar to my church, worshippers fellowship before the service starts and again afterwards. Because it was the second anniversary of the church, there was a lot of food and a big cake after the service.
What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
I thought the most interesting thing about Beloved is that it is very international and has come up as a church plant that started with no members and no money. It now has hundreds of members representing about fifteen different countries. My church only has Korean members so it was different for me to be in a place where being Korean was not assumed. I appreciated the thought that Pastor Dave put into his sermon about fear, and his personal stories about his father's life and death. I also noticed that the church is very relationship-oriented, and most of the members talked about their small groups. It was clear that they care a lot about knowing the people that they worship with.
What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
I found it somewhat disorienting that all the church members seemed to be young (under thirty-five) and probably from a higher socioeconomic status. The church has a stated commitment to the city but they may find it difficult to connect with underprivileged communities because most of the members are white or Asian American and more wealthy (with a lot of them being connected to Wheaton College). I was worried that the church is just another service taking place in the city, but is not really doing anything about social justice.
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 worship service illuminated for me the idea of the multicultural church, something I do not experience at my regular church. I realized that the people who attend Beloved are committed to the idea of a diverse church, and I am not even sure I am behind this idea 100% because it seems like every multicultural church ends up worshipping in a "white evangelical style." I would guess that most of the worshippers at Beloved are second- or third-generation and the worship service would be disorienting for a Korean immigrant. However, the worship service showed me that people of diverse backgrounds (at least racially) can come together to form a united church. Beloved is probably more sensitive to the needs of different ethnic groups than my church is, because my church is primarily concerned with Korean immigrant families.
The worship service illuminated for me the idea of the multicultural church, something I do not experience at my regular church. I realized that the people who attend Beloved are committed to the idea of a diverse church, and I am not even sure I am behind this idea 100% because it seems like every multicultural church ends up worshipping in a "white evangelical style." I would guess that most of the worshippers at Beloved are second- or third-generation and the worship service would be disorienting for a Korean immigrant. However, the worship service showed me that people of diverse backgrounds (at least racially) can come together to form a united church. Beloved is probably more sensitive to the needs of different ethnic groups than my church is, because my church is primarily concerned with Korean immigrant families.
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