Ryan Chae - Church Visit #3

Church name: Dewey Community Church

Church address: 16 3^rd Street, Dewey, IL 61840

Date attended: 10/18/15

Church category: Lower socioeconomic demographic

1. The service began with a prelude and some announcements followed by a time of worship and scripture reading. The offering and sermon were after this. In terms of the order and style of service, it was very similar to my church worship service in Wheaton. The difference in the service was that the congregation was made up of mostly farmers and other working class occupations in comparison with the largely upper class congregation of my church back in Wheaton. The sermon was on Hebrews 10:19-25 and encouraging the congregation to push on towards further maturity in Christ. The sermon was just as in depth as the sermons normally given to the higher socioeconomic congregation, which I think was mostly due to the strong tradition of Christian faith in Central Illinois. The church congregation ranges from about 100-150 people each Sunday.

2. What I found interesting about the worship service was the simplicity of the sanctuary and the kindness of the people. There were no flashing lights or projected backdrops to the worship music, and the sanctuary had a very comforting feeling about it. The church building is quite aged but the congregation has maintained it and even added a new addition through the labor of its own members and intensive fundraising throughout the community (They didn’t take out any loans on the new building). Secondly, the people in the congregation were very friendly and came up to me after the service to welcome me and introduce themselves. Dewey Church is in rural Central Illinois, approximately 20 minutes outside of Champaign-Urbana. The farming community has a culture of friendliness regardless of your acquaintance to another. This combined with a Christian community makes for a very loving and warm reception for visitors to their church.

3. One of the most challenging parts of the service was getting used to the worship style of the congregation. I have a friend from Sandwich, Illinois that describes a similar experience at church where the congregation is pretty much frozen in place during worship. While some would complain that many Wheaton students and churches are like this as well, this church congregation would simply sing in place with little emotion or expression. However, they were belting out the lyrics and for a small church congregation, they were singing very well. I know that it can be easy to judge others’ worship styles through the lens of your own worship style and I definitely found myself combating that while I visited the church. However, I could tell that while they did not worship through expression, they were certainly worshiping and it was enlightening to see how another culture engaged themselves in worship to the same God that I worship.

4. This worship service illuminated for me the power of the church. One of the points of the sermon was that interaction with fellow Christians will move us toward greater maturity in Christ. Throughout the service, this church served as a reminder for me what the church was capable of when it acts together. The church was very involved in the community. It is the only church in the town of roughly 300 people and as such offers many opportunities for the community to come together both in fun and spiritually. The church built their new addition not only to expand the building of a growing church, but also to be a gathering place for the community. Like many churches, they were hosting a Halloween party but unlike many other churches, one has to remember that there are barely any treat or treating options available for kids in rural Illinois. Besides raising all $600,000 for their new addition without loans, they were also involved in supporting missionaries and supporting local charities.