Hannah Hacker - Church visit #1

Blog title: Hannah Hacker - Church visit #1

Church name: Wheaton Chinese Alliance Church

Church address: 1784 S Blanchard St, Wheaton, IL 60189

Date attended: September 13^th, 2015

Church category: Different Ethnic/Racial Demographic

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

         The worship service style and structure was surprisingly similar to services at my nondenominational home church but fairly different from the Anglican church I attend in Wheaton. The time of praise included a mixture of contemporary songs and hymns and the worship leaders played a variety of instruments, including guitar, saxophone, piano, and drums. There was a time of prayer, an offertory, announcements, and a sermon. However, the service began liturgically with a recitation of the Nicene Creed. Although the congregation was slightly more reserved in their praise (no clapping or raising of hands), the way the prayer was led seemed to give it greater intensity or urgency than what I am familiar with. Since Church of the Resurrection has communion every Sunday, I was a little surprised that there was no communion at this church's service.

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

         I found the amount of participation in the worship service by members of the congregation to be most appealing. Because of the relatively small size of the church body, a large percent of the people seemed to be involved in the service, whether by handing out bulletins, reaching out to newcomers, reading scripture, or leading congregational prayer or praise. Instead of just listening to scripture being read, everyone read the scripture out loud together. All of this created a sense of unity throughout the whole service. Even the domed design of the building contributed to this feeling of unity by creating a small space for worship with no distant corners. The time of announcements focused on encouraging church members to volunteer at World Relief and an elder urged the congregation to participate in casual small group discussions of the sermon following the service. This suggested that the church body was not just united during Sunday morning service, but through the shared commitment to a lifestyle of following Christ.

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

         On the whole I felt very comfortable during the worship service because of its similarity to my usual worship context. However, a few things were a bit disorienting. The interaction between people seated in the congregation and the person giving the announcements was unexpected. After the announcement about service opportunities was made, one person from the congregation just shouted out another volunteer opportunity. During the transition time after the service the lobby was very chaotic due to the combination of people speaking in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese and the amount of people pushing their way through a very small space. Many people wanted to speak with the preacher and some people greeted us very graciously. Interestingly, to encourage people to enter the worship halls for the Mandarin and Cantonese services, a few women walked around ringing bells. This unique method very effectively communicated the message in a crowd and crossed potential language barriers without forcefully disrupting meaningful conversations.

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

         First of all, the sermon was on creation care, a topic that I have never heard preached on in any church. But even more powerful than the explanation of the scriptural and theological foundations for creation care was the simple fact that the church considered the topic worth preaching on, rather than offering an extra seminar for those interested. The act of delivering a sermon on creation care was consistent with the message that stewarding creation is an essential part of the Church’s role and our identity as worshipers of Christ. The preacher called the congregation to not just hurt less, but to bless more. This church’s emphasis on aligning life with scripture was evident every aspect of the service, from the encouragement of ministry involvement, to the sermon topic, to the post-service small group discussions. Attending this church service helped me to see what the body of Christ can look like when living in fellowship and serving others.