Julianna Mueller - Church Visit #3
Church name: Asamblea Apostolica of
West Chicago
Church address: 464 Ann St.
Date attended: April 6, 2014
Church category: Lower socioeconomic status
1. Describe the
worship service you attended. How
was it similar or different from your regular context?
I
attended a service at Asamblea Apostolica, a Hispanic church in a low-income
neighborhood of West Chicago. There
were several notable differences between Asamblea Apostolica and my regular
church context besides the differences in language, ethnicity, and
socioeconomic status. First, my
regular church context differs from Asamblea Apostolica in both physical size
and number of congregants. The
church building where the service was held was a small, one-room space. There were approximately no more than
25 people, including the pastor and musicians, at the service. In my regular church context, the
service is held in a large gym that is part of the larger church building. Furthermore, Sunday services usually
have approximately 100 people.
Second,
the way in which the offering was collected at Asamblea Apostolica was
different than my home church. At
Asamblea Apostolica, people walked up to the front of the sanctuary and placed
their offering in a basket held by an elementary school age boy. At my home church, collection plates are
passed down the rows and then collected by an usher. Third, what is done before the service officially begins at
Asamblea Apostolica was different than what is done at my home church. At Asamblea Apostolica, the pastor gave
a kind of mini sermon to the few people who were already seated for about ten
minutes, until the rest of the congregation arrived. During this time, the pastor would ask questions and the
congregants would respond with an answer or another question. At my home church, the worship band
plays until the service officially starts.
Lastly,
I found it interesting that almost every woman at Asamblea Apostolica wore a
veil on her head. The older women
wore black veils, while the younger women generally wore veils that were white
or another color. After doing a
little research, I found that the practice of women wearing veils in church is
a Catholic tradition that was required until Vatican II. Since most Hispanic immigrants to the
United States are from Mexico, where 85% of the population is Catholic, I would
guess that the veils are a tradition that Hispanic women have maintained after
converting to Protestantism.
2. What did you
find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
It
was interesting to me how I felt more welcomed and known at Asamblea Apostolica
than I have ever felt at my home church.
My family and I have only been at my home church for about a year, and
when we first started attending services, no one really noticed. This was partly because the
congregation is so large, and partly because we have not really made that much
of an effort to get more involved.
At Asamblea Apostolica, the pastor talked with my dad and I for several
minutes before and after the service, and he asked the congregation to welcome
us in his opening remarks. In
addition, during the greeting, several people came from across the room to
introduce themselves to us. When I
mentioned that I am studying to be a teacher, two women who are teachers in the
area came to talk with me, and one gave me her phone number in case I had any
questions for her in the future. I
think that I met and had conversations with more people at Asamblea Apostolica
than I have had at my home church.
My visit to Asamblea Apostolica has made think about my level of
involvement in my home church and the level that I want to have.
3. What did you
find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
The
sermon, in which the pastor emphasized the importance of married couples not
getting divorced, was both disorienting and challenging. He stated that Satan wants to destroy
marriages. Also, he said that
divorce results in one-parent homes, and high percentages of youth involved in
drugs and gangs come from one-parent homes. In addition, he stated that men need to commit themselves to
be examples of faith for their families, and that they should not make excuses
for not attending church. I was
surprised by the direct manner that the pastor used to address this issue,
which must be a problem in the community if he dedicated a sermon to it. I think his sermon would be seen as too
personal and hard-line in my home church, and the mention of Satan would catch
some people off guard. I think
that the message of the sermon was good, but I think that he should have
included a couple caveats. First,
I think he should have explained what the Bible says about divorce, such as
that it can be appropriate when one person is unfaithful. Also, although it is not in the Bible,
I think he should have said that in cases of abuse, a divorce or separation might
be appropriate.
4. 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
pastor based his sermon on Mark 15:21, which states, “A certain man from
Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in
from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.” He explained that the mention of
Simon’s family in this passage serves to show how the faith of one family
member affects the faith of the rest of the family. He used this interpretation to talk about how husbands need
to be examples of faith for their families because their families will follow
what they do. I had previously
never really thought about the implications of this passage, but rather just
glazed over it as another part of the description of the events leading up to
Jesus’ crucifixion. Although I think
the pastor’s interpretation of this passage is a bit of a stretch, it did
encourage me to pay more attention to seemingly unimportant details that I take
for granted when reading Scripture.
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