Church Address:
4300 Yackley Ave, Lisle, IL 60532
Date Attended: March 30, 11:15 service
Church Category: Different racial demographic
Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar or different from your regular context?
The overall order of the service was very similar to my home church. The service began with a few songs and announcements, followed by the offering and the sermon. There were a few keys things that made this service very different than what I am used to. Firstly, the entire congregation was African-American, as this was an African church. I found that to be very interesting, as the church I attend has a congregation that consists almost exclusively of Caucasians. There was a lot of energy that remained throughout the entire service. The organ player sat behind the organ and played throughout all of the service even while the pastor was preaching. As the pastor's voice grew louder, so did the playing of the organ. I found that to be very enticing: that is, the organ created a greater emotional response alongside the words of the pastor. The congregation itself was a lot smaller than my own. It seemed like everybody was very close to one another, which created a strong sense of community within the church.
What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
One of the aspects of the service I found to be particularly interesting, was the way they treated visitors during the service. Following the announcements, the pastor asked all of the guests (which happened to be my group) to stand and introduce ourselves. After our introduction, we sat down and the rest of the congregation stood up and “serenaded” us with a song. After their singing, many of the members came up to us and personally welcomed us to the church with a handshake and a hug. I really liked this, because it showed that the congregation actually cared for each one of the guests. Once again, I think this is a good reflection on the community found within this church. Following the service, the entire congregation went on a “prayer walk” where they circled the church outside, praying and singing to God. I was not sure of the exact reason for this, as the pastor said this doesn’t happen very often. But he did recount previous prayer walks that resulted in donations to the church both monetarily and physically (the donation of a parking lot from the city). Possibly they were looking to expand the church property.
What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
The biggest challenge I faced was the continual amount of high energy throughout the service. It was impossible to fall asleep with the energetic worshiping and preaching, which I thought to be good. However, because the pastor got very emotional during his sermon, I could not always understand what he was saying. The organ playing during the sermon did not help with this, as it continued to grow louder along with the pastor. Sometimes, to me, it just sounded like he was yelling, but I am not sure what he was saying. This was different for me, as my own church is fairly “subtle” in comparison. Once again, it was interesting being the only Caucasians in the service. However, despite this, I felt more welcome at this service than a service at my own church, where I know many of the attenders.
What aspects of scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?
My
favorite part of this church was the sense of community and love I felt while
being there. An important aspect of the Christian faith is the community and
body of Christians one is immersed into. This church I found to be an accurate
representation of what the body of Christ should look like in context of
worship. Though the church people knew one another well, they did not make us
visitors feel like outsiders: rather they embraced us, and were seriously interested
in who we were and where we came from. From being at Wheaton, I am used to
interacting with worship in a very intellectual manner: that is, doing a lot of
thinking about theology as opposed to practicing it. The emotional aspect of
this service really challenged me to live outside of the mere intellect, and
actually live out my faith experientially in a community of believers. The
Christian faith cannot be solely in the intellect or solely in the emotional
response; it is a fine balance of the two. Attending this service really made
me consider this fact and I am starting to find ways to be more “experiential”
with my personal faith journey.
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