Church name: College Church
Church address: 332 East Seminary Avenue, Wheaton, IL 60187
Date attended: March 2, 2014
Church Category: more liturgical
Church Category: more liturgical
Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?
The service at College Church is more liturgical than the church I usually attend, Onnuri Church. It is a much larger church and has more services on Sunday mornings, and there are so many people that there is a balcony for additional seating. College Church has multiple buildings and appears to be a fairly wealthy church. The service includes worship that is more traditional from my regular church, with a full worship band. The church bulletin explains the order of service and has the Bible passages for reference. The message was longer than I am used to and also more in-depth. The pastor speaks quickly and it can be hard to follow at times, but I felt like I was being challenged more than I usually am at church. The message was about forty-five minutes long, which is about twice as long as my pastor's sermons. People at the church were mostly older than myself, but there were plenty of Wheaton College students as well. Similar to my church, people dressed up for the service.
The service at College Church is more liturgical than the church I usually attend, Onnuri Church. It is a much larger church and has more services on Sunday mornings, and there are so many people that there is a balcony for additional seating. College Church has multiple buildings and appears to be a fairly wealthy church. The service includes worship that is more traditional from my regular church, with a full worship band. The church bulletin explains the order of service and has the Bible passages for reference. The message was longer than I am used to and also more in-depth. The pastor speaks quickly and it can be hard to follow at times, but I felt like I was being challenged more than I usually am at church. The message was about forty-five minutes long, which is about twice as long as my pastor's sermons. People at the church were mostly older than myself, but there were plenty of Wheaton College students as well. Similar to my church, people dressed up for the service.
What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
The most interesting thing about the service at College Church was, I thought, the message. The pastor took the congregation through a very in-depth look at the scriptures and provided "application points" for our everyday lives. I felt that Biblical teaching was really emphasized at this church, rather than creating a community (while smaller communities exist within the church, as a whole it is too large for everyone to know each other). I appreciated the thought and preparation that the pastor put into preparing his sermon. If people come to College Church to hear quality teaching, they are definitely being "fed" through the messages.
What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
I felt disoriented at the size of the church. My church is only about fifteen people most Sundays, and College Church has hundreds of people just at one of the services. I also felt challenges that most of them appeared to be wealthy. There are a lot of people in poverty in Wheaton, but they certainly are not going to College Church, and why is that? I think the atmosphere there would be intimidating for someone who was not in the same socioeconomic category as most of the members at College Church, and there is a lack of networking there for people outside of the typical "type" of the church. The members are also mostly white and lacking in ethnic diversity. This is fine, because white people have a certain style of worship that they tend to gravitate towards, but again, it would not seem welcoming or appealing to a lot of the people I know.
I felt disoriented at the size of the church. My church is only about fifteen people most Sundays, and College Church has hundreds of people just at one of the services. I also felt challenges that most of them appeared to be wealthy. There are a lot of people in poverty in Wheaton, but they certainly are not going to College Church, and why is that? I think the atmosphere there would be intimidating for someone who was not in the same socioeconomic category as most of the members at College Church, and there is a lack of networking there for people outside of the typical "type" of the church. The members are also mostly white and lacking in ethnic diversity. This is fine, because white people have a certain style of worship that they tend to gravitate towards, but again, it would not seem welcoming or appealing to a lot of the people I know.
What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?
This worship service showed me the value of "high(er) church," because my church is pretty casual and we do not practice liturgy or any particular "practices" except having communion on the first Sunday of the month. At College Church, I realized that the members are expressing their worship of God and His holiness through their observance of the liturgical style. The more formal way of worshipping and "doing church" lends an air of specialness about the Sunday service that might be lacking at my church, where before the worship service there are always kids running around, youth banging away on the drums and keyboard, and middle schoolers playing video games on their phones and goofing around. I love the casual space that my church has created, but I enjoyed being able to worship God in a way that seemed more reverent, in a way, because of the greater effort it took to get myself into a "worshipful state of mind." God's holiness over everything was made clearer to me through this experience.
This worship service showed me the value of "high(er) church," because my church is pretty casual and we do not practice liturgy or any particular "practices" except having communion on the first Sunday of the month. At College Church, I realized that the members are expressing their worship of God and His holiness through their observance of the liturgical style. The more formal way of worshipping and "doing church" lends an air of specialness about the Sunday service that might be lacking at my church, where before the worship service there are always kids running around, youth banging away on the drums and keyboard, and middle schoolers playing video games on their phones and goofing around. I love the casual space that my church has created, but I enjoyed being able to worship God in a way that seemed more reverent, in a way, because of the greater effort it took to get myself into a "worshipful state of mind." God's holiness over everything was made clearer to me through this experience.
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