Emma McRoberts church visit 3

Blog title: Emma McRoberts church visit 3

Church name: AME of Dupage

Church address: 4300 Yackley Ave, Lisle, IL 60532

Date attended: 04/06/14

Church category: Different racial background

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

Wow. This was such an amazing experience! The church, in and of itself, was very similar in looks to my church in Indiana. The pastors and church clergy, however, were dressed in ornate robes and hats. It was very distinguishable who was the clergy. When we walked into the building we were shaken by the hand and greeted with warm smiles and “hellos”. The worship was incredibly different than anything I had experienced, except in the movies. It had a gospel choir and the crowd was incredibly involved with the worship. The congregation not only sang along but also would add their own “Amens!” and “Hallelujah!”s. After worship, visitors were told to stand up. This was a little frightening to me who already gets slightly uncomfortable at my home church’s “greet the person next to you” tradition. Visitors were asked to introduce themselves and state where they were from and why they were here. After we introduced ourselves, the congregation faced the visitors and sang them a welcome song. This was a completely new experience for me.

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

I have never before felt more welcome by a church; this is incredibly unique because I was a visitor who looked different than everyone else. When I sat down and took my seat, the woman sitting next to me told me that I had a nice jacket on. At one point during the sermon we were told to tell the person next to us “Hallelujah!” and we did. After the service we were told to hug the people around us goodbye...It was a church where the members and visitors alike feel loved. This was by far the best part of this church.

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

Overall, it was an excellent service and excellent worship songs. What I found difficult to reconcile is how the call and response nature of the service, to me, seemed rather distracting. I struggled with truly understanding the pastor as he walked and clapped his hands and yelled. It almost seemed to make the beautiful message he was preaching be diminished. It’s greatest strength seemed to be its greatest weakness in terms of the welcoming environment. I really liked how I felt welcomed but I also think it seemed a little forced; it was also a lot of attention to put on someone who wants to observe and be under the radar.

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 sermon was relatively simple and revolved around the verse about the vines and the branches. The pastor did an excellent job of relating this to a story of his daughter. He talked about how his daughter came back from class one day with a styrofoam cup of dirt. He said she would water it everyday and nothing grew and that he started to doubt if there was a seed in the cup. However, a few weeks later the cup sprouted a flower. He said that God sees what we are capable of even when we are only a cup of dirt. Like I said, a pretty simple message, right? But to hear it and to see the response as women stood up and shouted “Yes, Lord!” and as the worship band would play the piano to accent “we are a cup of DIRT!”, the message truly came alive in a beautiful way that it would not have in my home church, even if it was distracting at times.