Church Visit #2

Church name: Church of the Beloved 

Church address: 1443 W Roosevelt Rd. Chicago, IL 60607

Date attended: 04/05/14

Church category: Ethnic

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

In many ways, this service felt very familiar. It began with about 20 minutes of worship,  singing a mixture of contemporary worship music and hymns accompanied by singers, a guitar, and drums. Professor Jerry Root from Wheaton actually delivered the sermon rather than Pastor David Choi, and there were many Wheaton students present. One of the most noticeable differences was the setting in which the service took place. When I walked through the doors (5 minutes late after taking the wrong bus) I was actually surprised that I had entered the worship space. I realized that I am used to churches with lobbies and many other rooms besides the sanctuary. However, Church of the Beloved was simply a small room with one room off from it for children's ministry and another office. Furthermore, there was a large proportion of the church that were Asian or another ethnicity besides Caucasian. It seemed that the only white people attending the church were students from Wheaton. I'm not sure that I noticed the "ethnicity" of the church in a particularly noticeable way, but in his introduction of Dr. Root, Pastor Choi made several jokes directed specifically at the Asian people in his congregation. They were specifically about his relationship with his parents. 

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

At a few different points, Pastor Choi called out different members of the congregation on the spot to pray for different things. There was a sense that the people in the congregation really knew one another, and it felt like we were all participating together in the service rather than simply receiving something. 

As we sat in the service I started to smell food. My stomach rumbled slightly as the smell grew stronger. After the service was over, I turned around and saw a table full of food. I was a little confused, but the people I was with assured me we were supposed to eat the food. Someone in the congregation had spent all day making pulled pork for us to eat. Even as I stood eating and talking with different people, I felt absolutely confused as to why a church would feed it's congregation, albeit a small one, dinner. I felt an overwhelming sense of hospitality.

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

Because Jerry Root was preaching rather than Pastor Choi or a regular member of the church, I'm not sure I completely grasped the way in which a typical church service at Church of the Beloved operates. In many ways, the strong ties to Wheaton felt very strange to me and I wasn't sure how to understand them. 

Also, since coming to Wheaton, I think I have adapted to going to church where people don't speak to me. That seems strange to write, but I think it is true. When I go to church, I'm not interacted with unless I already know the person or I approached them first. It was disorienting to have people I didn't know come up and talk to me after church. It was so foreign, I almost felt uncomfortable. I think part of this has been attending larger churches whereas Church of the Beloved is much smaller. It was obvious to them that I was not someone who regularly attended the church, and so they approached me and talked to me whereas in a larger church you wouldn't necessarily know if someone was new. 

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?

I think that the hospitality I received at this church was something I needed to be reminded of the importance of. They did not have to feed us dinner, but they did. They did not have to come up to me and ask my name and interact with me, but they did. In this way, I also noticed the way that I can many times go to church asking how I can receive from God or what the service has to offer me. It is so easy to assume someone else will welcome the guests and feed and care for the members of the congregation. However, we all have responsibility to care for the body of Christ and reach out to others, even when it is awkward or inconvenient or costly.