McMillan, Matthew – Church visit #2

Church name: younger generation of Iglesia de la Ressureción: met at the Christian Assembly of Suburban Chicago

Church address: 23W420 St. Charles Rd; Carol Stream, IL 60188

Date attended: 23 March 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:

This service was of the younger generation of a Hispanic community that worships together in Carol Stream. The older generation is primarily composed of immigrants to the US, and they hold their services in Spanish. The younger generation constitutes a technically separate church that holds services in (primarily) English, and the two “sister” churches meet once monthly in a bilingual service. The younger generation has been raised in the US, and prefers to hold services in the language they typically speak at school etc., while the older generation is less at home in English. The church was planted by the (Anglican) Church of the Resurrection of Wheaton. The younger generation service was very small, about 20 people, and composed primarily of students under college age, so it felt to me more like a very small youth group in comparison to my (quite large) home church. The style inherited some elements from the Anglican tradition of which the church was a part, but also some uniquely Hispanic features. These are discussed more below.

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

One very interesting feature of this worship service was that because it was such a small group of people, and in accord with Hispanic culture more generally, it included a period in the middle of the service where we would “pass the peace.” This meant that each person would walk around the room and say “the peace of Christ be with you” (or just “peace”), and be returned with “and also with you” (or also just “peace”) until everyone had done this exchange with every other person in the room. It was very clear that the community was very tightly knit, and each person knew every other. They often knew what other members’ struggles etc. were about, and could ask them during this time how they were doing on a more personal level than would ever be possible at my home church. There was also plenty of conversation after the service that provided another context for this same sort of interaction. Another thing that I found appealing was the amount of Scripture reading included in the service. My home church usually has someone read the portion of Scripture to be covered in the sermon, but this service included longer passages from the Old and New Testaments (which were probably chosen in alignment with the broader Anglican liturgy).

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

There were a couple of concerns I had, some of which will hopefully vanish as the church grows. The first is that because it was a younger generation offshoot of a larger Hispanic community, the church did not include older community members. I think that ideally every church should have services in which all members of the community can participate; although I recognize the limitations of language involved here. Another thing that stood out to me (although this is not necessarily a very problematic thing) was the marked contrast between the style of the readings and recitation which appeared to come from the broader Anglican liturgy, and the style of the worship songs. The former were very high in literary register, with formal, “king James” language, while the songs were very casual and informal. Some songs alternated between English and Spanish, and I noticed that the Spanish versions used the informal “you” to address God (although it is supposedly the case that “thou” of the older English was also once informal).

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 main thing is the degree to which the members knew each other in that community. I think that church gatherings need to center around two central themes. One is worship (corporate worship, where the focus is on our response of fear and awe before God), and the other is the fellowship of believers. I found that at this church, while it was more difficult for me to worship in that environment, the community of believers was much closer and more real than what I typically find at my home church. The sermon was on the nature of our relationship with God, and how we need to be real and open with him. It was interesting to see how the community emphasis inherent to the Hispanic culture served as an example for how we can relate to God; God should be our closest friend. At my home church, the cultural emphasis is far more individualistic, in which we might use our relationship with God as an example for how we should be able to relate to fellow believers through Christ (which is the opposite of the approach that made sense at this church).